780 Caterpillar Workers Unexpectedly Go on Strike in Illinois

[xchrom]

http://www.inthesetimes.com/working/entry/13161/780_caterpillar_workers_unexpectedly_go_on_strike_in_illinois/

JOLIET, ILL.—“You’re a rotten animal, that’s what you are. You are a piece of a road kill. Stay off my picket line scab!” shouted Caterpillar worker Gareth Beeson, through his “Scablaster 3000” megaphone on Sunday.

Since last Tuesday, May 1, 780 members of Beeson’s union, International Association of Machinists (IAM) Local 851, have been walking the picket line against their employer at Caterpillar's hydraulics plant in northern Illinois. Local 851 went on strike to protest what they see as an extraordinarily concessionary contract.

“Put it this way: Under their proposed contract, I wouldn’t be able to afford to take my kid to the doctor,“ says Beeson. “Basically, this contract wouldn’t make this job worth working anymore. I would still pay union dues under this contract, but I wouldn’t have a good union job anymore. ”

Workers say the six-year contract proposed by Caterpillar would nearly double their healthcare costs. In addition, according to IAM Local 851 President Tim O'Brien, it would effectively freeze their wages for six years. The contract would lower pay for certain groups of workers resulting in pay cuts by as much as $8 an hour, O'Brien says. Under the contract, new hires in the second wage tier of the contract, who currently start out at $13 an hour, would instead have their starting wages determined by the “market based” formula set by Caterpillar. That could potentially allow the company to pay workers even less, O'Brien says.

[leftyohiolib]

1. GOOD STRIKE STRIKE STRIKE!!

[progressoid]

2. “market based” formula...

The Chinese market?

[ashling]

3. Just squish 'em

Oh, sorry

I thought this was about the "War on cad-uhr-pillers "

[lark]

4. Actions of the 1% to empoverish the 99% are on display here.

[laundry_queen]

5. Caterpillar has been working hard on this crap for some time now.

They closed down a shop in Canada because workers wouldn't sign a contract to slash their pay in HALF.

http://ourtimes.ca/Between_Times/article_188.php

[NickB79]

6. Caterpillar hates unions with a passion

Which is ironic, seeing as how much of their equipment is used by unionized labor.