141 replies to this topic

[Shady]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/caterpillar-sets-new-pay-terms-for-london-workers/article2288403/



Even when Caterpillar profits rose 44% by October



In Conservatopia, when a company is hugely profitable... what do we do with workers? Cut their wage!

With a government that sides with corporations in all scenarios. Corporations have been given the green light by the Harper Government ™ to treat workers (The majority of Canadians) like crap. And they are running with it.

Let's get ourselves out of this bad economy by paying everyone less, so we can't generate as much economic activity!

Aside from your post containing no actual information, and only some talking points from the CAW, it fails to answer several important questions.

Is that particular plant profitable or does it lose money?
Are their wages in line with the wages of other Caterpillar employees in other plants doing similar jobs?
Are the rise in sales from October indicative of future growth, or just a rebound from the huge plunge in sales from the previous couple of years?

Anyways, I'm suprised many of you people care this much about Caterpiller. Do you realize what kind of carbon footprint they leave? Do you realize the type of machinery they build? Do you realize who uses their equipment? *whisper* Oil sands.

[waldo]

Anyways, I'm suprised many of you people care this much about Caterpiller. Do you realize what kind of carbon footprint they leave? Do you realize the type of machinery they build? Do you realize who uses their equipment? *whisper* Oil sands.

locomotives in the *whisper* tar sands?

[Topaz]

For all of you anti-union out there, you better get behind them and support them and I'll tell you why. If the workers, union or non-union are sent packing and lose their job because the company want to go to Mexico or other Third World countries then its going to be YOU, who are still working, going to be supporting the country through higher taxes because with a very high unemployment in Canada, the government won't have the revenue to meet its demands. So, how is the cutting corp. taxes helping this country right now, Its not. Business is seating on trillion of dollars and they aren't going to hire while there's fear out there. Today, if you have a job you are very lucky, and I can see the unrest out there and the government is going to pay for it and they should quit hiding behind the "world economy" because they put us in the red BEFORE its started.

[bush_cheney2004]

For all of you anti-union out there, you better get behind them and support them and I'll tell you why. If the workers, union or non-union are sent packing and lose their job because the company want to go to Mexico or other Third World countries then its going to be YOU, who are still working.....

I don't know why there be so much hatin' on Mexico and Mexicans around here....remember, Canada only has 8% of the Norte American population...why should Canada have a larger portion of jobs? Does the liberal minded workers rights mindset stop at the northern border?

[waldo]

Does the liberal minded workers rights mindset stop at the northern border?

of Wisconsin?

[punked]

Welcome to Harperland where the government agrees to let non-Canadian companies buy out successful ones at the cost that they pay nice for a year then shut down the company until workers agree to take huge cuts. That is the country we live in for right now I guess.

[punked]

of Wisconsin?

Ohio?

[bush_cheney2004]

Welcome to Harperland where the government agrees to let non-Canadian companies buy out successful ones at the cost that they pay nice for a year then shut down the company until workers agree to take huge cuts. That is the country we live in for right now I guess.

That would also be Martinland and Chretienland....direct solicitation of foreign investment has been the mainstay of Canadian business and industry strategy for at least a generation. Tell them darn foreigners to just go home and take their money with them!

[Topaz]

Ok, watch the video and then say what you think about the Feds supporting workers. They don't. http://www.lfpress.c...f-19190786.html

[sharkman]

I always thought that the Feds tried to support the economy, which supports jobs, union or not.

[Cameron]

What do all your people propose the government do?

About the corporate taxes. You say companies sit on their revenue when taxes are low. What do you think they will do if you raise them? Probably the same thing they are doing now, constrict their business in Canada and move it.

[MiddleClassCentrist]

I always thought that the Feds tried to support the economy, which supports jobs, union or not.

The economy only exists because of you, I and all of us regular folk. We spend money we earn. If we earn less, we spend less. The economy shrinks. Especially when money saved in Canada, just goes overseas.

Edited by MiddleClassCentrist, 02 January 2012 - 09:13 PM.

[bush_cheney2004]

The economy only exists because of you, I and all of us regular folk. We spend money we earn. If we earn less, we spend less. The economy shrinks. Especially when money saved in Canada, just goes overseas.

Money spent in Canada goes "overseas" as well.

[waldo]

Welcome to Harperland where the government agrees to let non-Canadian companies buy out successful ones at the cost that they pay nice for a year then shut down the company until workers agree to take huge cuts. That is the country we live in for right now I guess.

That would also be Martinland and Chretienland....direct solicitation of foreign investment has been the mainstay of Canadian business and industry strategy for at least a generation. Tell them darn foreigners to just go home and take their money with them!

actually, a little learning curve for me... turns out the 'Investment Canada Act' law was a Mulroney extension of Trudeau's Foreign Investment Review Agency; a law intended to promote foreign investment and, presumably, protect Canadian business by providing a limiting level on foreign ownership. Neither Mulroney, Chretien or Martin ever invoked the law to prevent a foreign investment; rather, as it turns out, apparently, a Harper government has been the only government to ever invoke the law (re: BHP Billiton's bid to acquire Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan). As I suggested earlier, given the resulting Caterpillar strategy to apparently shutter Electro-Motive, Harper Conservatives never should have allowed the takeover... in hindsight, ICA should have been invoked... or at least, Caterpillar should have been held to guarantees to keep the plant/factory viable for its existing work-base... viable to a level to match pre-takeover conditions. And if Caterpillar wasn't accepting to those guarantees/conditions, then so be it... no foreign takeover!

[sharkman]

The economy only exists because of you, I and all of us regular folk. We spend money we earn. If we earn less, we spend less. The economy shrinks. Especially when money saved in Canada, just goes overseas.

Yes, I agree wholeheartedly with that statement. But we don't live in a vacuum. There are also items called taxes and monetary policy whose adjustments can heat up or cool down an economy quite effectively, which would be how jobs are added.