Electromotive Diesel, London, Ontario to close

dowlingm

The home of the 201 class is no more - after a one month lockout and a demand for 50 percent pay cuts, Caterpillar/Progress Rail have announced the closure and 450 jobs gone.
http://www.lfpress.com/news/london/emd/2012/02/03/19333691.html
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2012/02/03/electro-motive-plant-london-close.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/19/caterpillar-inc-london-ontario-lockout_n_1214305.html

Never mind though, it's good times to be a Caterpillar shareholder, with profits up 44pc last year.

Meanwhile in Indiana:
http://www.thestarpress.com/article/20120203/BUSINESS/202030305/Progress-Rail-job-fair-drawing-attention

Pay rates cited in the announcement include $18.50 an hour for maintenance technicians, $14.50 an hour for welders and painters, $13.50 an hour for quality inspectors and $12 an hour for assemblers and materials handlers.

The Irish minimum wage of 8.65 euro is 11.37 USD at the moment.

Jehuty42

dowlingm wrote: »

Meanwhile in Indiana:
http://www.thestarpress.com/article/20120203/BUSINESS/202030305/Progress-Rail-job-fair-drawing-attention
The Irish minimum wage of 8.65 euro is 11.37 USD at the moment.

So are those good or bad wages for those positions?

dowlingm

When you're unemployed in a State (Indiana) which just passed a right-to-work law (can't be obliged to join a union or have union dues paid on your behalf) I guess it might look good. If you were getting paid $30/hour with a decent pension as a skilled trade with a mortgage and kids less so. It's sad to see the US, seen as a bastion of family units bolstered by decent pay for decent work from the 1950s, being turned into a sight from the early days of the Industrial Revolution where it's work for half nothing or starve.