"Buy American"...We all have heard it here in the US. There is quite a patriotic symbol behind the phrase. Buying American means keeping jobs in America, and supposedly getting a better made product.
Caterpillar operations in Canada are receiving the negative reprecussions of this phrase. A Lockout took place when company owners introduced a new contract which would essentially cut wages and half, severely decrease benifits, and terminate the existing pension plan. The Union workers were extremely upset about this, as anyone could imagine. Electro-Motive Canada, the company owned by Caterpillar which proposed the new contract, is accused by Union workers of using the contract as means of even further disturbing actions. The Union workers believer that the contract was an attempt to shut down the Canadian factory, forcing all jobs to their parent companies in the midwest United States, because of Government propogand influincing consumers to "Buy American". However, job salaries and wages in the American plants are significantly less than the wages in London, Ontario.
What we can see here is something that is not new to any labor and production project in any area of the world. Companies raising demands and cutting wages is what business has turned to these days. Sending the job to where the pay is cheaper is the way companies are staying afloat in this economy. It is also suprising to see how much control government has say in the matter. It is interesting to me that for once a job issue is coming to the US from another country in demand of lower wagers. In the economy we are in, wages are low and jobs are in demand, so companies can get away with paying Americans cheaper than ever right now. This however, has left Canadian workers in a bad situation. ...
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/03/business/workers-locked-out-at-caterpillar-locomotive-plant-in-canada.html?_r=0
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