Caterpillar shuts plant in Aurora, Illinois, that employs 800

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Reuters

Fri Mar 31, 2017 | 9:03pm EDT


By Gayathree Ganesan and Akankshita Mukhopadhyay


Caterpillar Inc (CAT.N) said on Friday it will shut its Aurora, Illinois, plant, costing about 800 employees their jobs as the world's largest construction and mining equipment maker shifts production to other U.S. facilities.

Caterpillar was among companies that met with President Donald Trump in February to talk about job creation, at a time when about 2,300 U.S. workers at five major manufacturing companies stand to lose their jobs within the next two years as a result of offshoring.

The company said it will transition its large wheel loaders and compactors to its plant in Decatur, Illinois, and medium wheel loaders to North Little Rock, Arkansas.

"Out of about 800 production positions, about 500 positions would likely be added to Decatur and about 150 positions would be added in North Little Rock," Caterpillar spokeswoman Lisa Miller told Reuters.

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-caterpillar-restructuring-idUSKBN17332M

[pkdu]

1. Winning!

NOT.

[pbmus]

2. Where is the jobs president....??

[URL=.html][IMG][/IMG][/URL]

[Judi Lynn]

9. Love that image you posted so much! Woof! n/t

[iluvtennis]

14. +++

[Rincewind]

17. You need to understand trump

logic, loss of 800 jobs, Obama's fault. 500 new jobs in Decatur, and 150 in North Little Rock, trump's great job creating skills.

[EL34x4]

20. Busy moving jobs away from the states that didn't vote for him

to the states that did.

[keithbvadu2]

3. So that leaves 150 jobs for Trump to save... He will, right?

So that leaves 150 jobs for Trump to save... He will, right?

[IdiotsforPalin]

4. If he does, it will cost us millions in tax breaks

[SCVDem]

5. I can't handle all this winning

Make the bad man go away!

[Wellstone ruled]

6. Wow,

Illinois and Indiana really were hit today with job cuts. Remember when Cat moved the Compactor work form Brooklyn Park Minnesota to Aurora. We lost over 500 hundred jobs and smacked our Tax Base one heck of a whack. Plus,these were Union Jobs that never replaced. The City of Brooklyn Park ended up with the building in lie of taxes due. So much for 10 year tax breaks.

[Cryptoad]

7. Can they mine Coal?

[The_Casual_Observer]

8. That's a big hit to that town. They were very proud of that plant.

The local airport had a big display of Catapillar products.

[matt819]

11. There's the crux of the problem

Towns and employees being proud of their factory or their company or their team.

In contrast, the factory or the company of the team doesn't really give a fuck about them. Maybe once. But not in 21st century America.

I get it. They have to be profitable. But towns and employees must remain alert to becoming dupes. Or props. Or photo ops. Because when pushing meets up with shoving, the company is looking at its bottom line.

[Bradical79]

15. Yeah, seriously

It's all numbers on a spreadsheet. It's minimizing and maximizing functions to get the best profit margins.

[metalbot]

19. I think this is at times an unfair characterization

It sure feels like companies are big and uncaring when plants are shut down and jobs are lost, but I've worked in enough large companies that are doing restructuring to tell you that this is almost always an agonizing decision to make. Many companies hold on to unprofitable units for much longer than their balance sheet tells them, and they do this out of concern for their employees.

I'm not suggesting that companies have some deep heart of gold here, but the broad characterization that companies "don't give a fuck" about them is unfair. I've seen senior executives on the verge of tears as they make decisions that are impacting thousands of employees. A big part of this is a sense of guilt - that if only they'd done a better job, made better choices, that they wouldn't be announcing layoffs. Corporations aren't human, but they are run by humans, and for the most part, they aren't sociopaths.

I don't disagree with your bottom paragraph - it WILL ultimately come down to the bottom line, and towns need to be very cautious about offering tax incentives in exchange for jobs that could be ephemeral.

[dalton99a]

10. Peoria might also suffer since they're moving their headquarters to Chicago

[lunasun]

12. I know someone who got notice of this from the union a few months ago. He had been looking

for a new job ahead of layoff ,knowing it was going to come .
Has he found a new job yet? No

[murielm99]

13. North Little Rock?

So they can employ non-union workers?

When will the South get smart and unionize?

[Achilleaze]

16. Comrade Casino & republican cronies take full credit for the FAIL

[lunasun]

18. Hey don't doubt it . they were good paying union jobs . They may find that satisfying

along with their base.

[Blue Idaho]

21. Meanwhile...

The dumpster fire that is Trump's Presidency rages on out of control...