Aaron Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 What would you do: You have very little employable skills. You've spent the last 10 years screwing in bolts, with little more than a high-school diploma. You've been making about 70 grand a year doing so. Straight 40 hours a week, no overtime. Two weeks of shutdown in the summer, week off at christmas, plus two weeks of vacation. All paid. Not included are the various 3 day weekends that your collective agreement has turned into four day weekends. Now, after the expiration of your collective agreement, and the sale of your employer - the new owners want to cut your wages by about half, as well as your benefits. The options: accept the lesser offer, continue working. OR Decline the offer, be locked out of work for an undetermined amount of time, and then have the factory moved out of country. What would YOU do? http://www.lfpress.com/news/london/2012/01/09/19222376.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Browning Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 I am not clear on what "locked out" means. For me, being unemployed is not an option. Having my pay cut in half is also not an option however it is better than nothing while I look for employment elsewhere. Is going back to a dealer not an option for you or have you had it with that? Nice to see that youare still alive. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aaron Posted January 10, 2012 Author Share Posted January 10, 2012 Locked out is you go to show up for work and there is a fence around your workplace. This is not my current situation, it's the situation at the factory next to where I work. Progress Rail (subsidiary company of Caterpillar) bought the plant about a year or so ago. Caterpillar has made itself somewhat of a reputation of being a union breaking company. At this point, this situation has had little impact on my job. AT THIS POINT. However - our shop uses their boiler for heat, and also there is a large demonstration planned for the 21st of January - likely going to plug the entire road up near both places, causing a disruption in overtime hours at our place. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Browning Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 Sounds like something you definately need to keep an eye on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrbudge Posted January 10, 2012 Share Posted January 10, 2012 I think that if money is coming out of my pocket it is going in someone elses pocket, so a wage cut is out of the question. Get locked out, and enroll in EI sponsored job re-training. Manufacturing jobs in North America are going away, and will not likely come back. Time to get some marketable skills. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Warman Posted January 21, 2012 Share Posted January 21, 2012 I'm pretty sure that the world knows how I feel about trade onions. I'm a 61 year old grade 8 drop out... and I can assure you that I am not trapped in a dead end situation. Trade unions are a thinly disguised communist endeavour. Your value isn't based on how good you are or how smart you are or talent or any other above average asset... your value is based on how long you've been doing what you do... be it under-achieving, wasting oxygen or just plain pretending you are more than what you are. I see the new owners as "onion busters". Personally, I have no problem with that. Trade onions are fuelling pacific rim sweat shops and we don't want to get back into that thread. At the same time, I see current employees taking exception to the new, downsized compensation package. It ain't gonna be pretty but it might reveal how some of these people think. What would I do? I've seen non-onion workers denied a job because they were non-onion and preferred to remain such. "Pay us money and you can work". Phuque yoo I don't know what I would do in a situation such as that because I wouldn't allow myself to be trapped in that situation. These people have allowed themselves to be members of the proletariat.... "descamisados" if you will.... and must now pay the piper. This really sucks for you if your job moves south.... "I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul" William Ernest Hensley Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DwayneGorniak Posted January 22, 2012 Share Posted January 22, 2012 Relocation would be an option for someone who would want to keep a manufacturing job. They can sell their North American Home and all their contents, get in a canoe and paddle their asses to Japan, China, Taiwan, Pakistan, Haiti, or even Europe where all the manufacturing jobs are moving to. If they don't want to stay in manufacturing and don't want to relocate, they can reeducate themselves by taking advantage of the E.I. retraining system as mrbudge mentioned and get a fucking job!. After all most union workers like to take advantage of the system any chance they can get. Just look at Canada Post! But please, please don't send spoiled union workers to Alberta and bastardize our workforce out here any more than it already is. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Warman Posted January 22, 2012 Share Posted January 22, 2012 I am not clear on what "locked out" means. For me, being unemployed is not an option. Having my pay cut in half is also not an option however it is better than nothing while I look for employment elsewhere. Is going back to a dealer not an option for you or have you had it with that? Nice to see that youare still alive. Oh.. wait.... Aaron... is it the assembly line workers that are getting the chop job.... or every worker? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aaron Posted January 26, 2012 Author Share Posted January 26, 2012 Every body, but skilled trades are within 'average' around here. What guys make where I work now would make most of you throw up. For the amout of actual real work they do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deezul Posted February 3, 2012 Share Posted February 3, 2012 http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1125718--electro-motive-to-close-london-locomotive-plant?bn=1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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