When EMD ceased locomotive production at LaGrange in 1992 the exchange rate was 77 to 87 cents on the dollar, Loony vs. Greenback. Today they are practically at parity. Even with nationalized healthcare it is getting tough to justify leaving production in London. Canada has become a victim of its own success.
Editor Emeritus, This Week at Amtrak
Progress Rail {EMD}, up and running new facilities here in Muncie, In...It is the former ABB heavy power transformer plant. Facilities appropriate for heavy product production. Well suited for railroad engine production.....Massive size plant....rails already right into the plant....90' plus high ceiling and very heavy concrete floors, etc....Very heavy duty overhead cranes in place....Plant surrounded by plenty of land.
Engines are already being produced. Progress Rail took over the plant roughly a year ago.
Quentin
Progress Rail's original locomotive plant/ shop is also in the US, at Albertville, Alabama - see:
http://www.progressrail.com/products-locomotive.asp
And I thought they also had a loco shop in Georgia someplace ?
There's really no great advantage to having a plant in Canada, and I'm sorry to say that as I'm a Canadian and this would be ANOTHER closure in addition to the many we've had over the last 10 years.
But looking at it from CAT's standpoint, the border is problematic for reasons we all understand...we have different currencies...we have different regulations... and only one of our two main railroads even buys from EMD these days. So if I were a CAT exec I would also be questioning the logic of a plant in Canada when a new plant in the US would score big points politically as well.
Typical negotiation tactic.
I am not saying that Cat doesn't necessarily mean what they are saying - but these kinds of threats are routinely thrown into labor agreement negotiations. Only time will tell.
Never too old to have a happy childhood!
Word has it in Canada that EMD’s loco plant in London might close if Caterpillar/Progress and the union don’t reach a deal since it’s reported that Caterpillar wants steep cuts to wages and benefits. I guess if Caterpillar shuts down EMD in Ontario, the new, recently acquired plant in Muncie, IN would be EMD’s primary source for loco production.
http://www.lfpress.com/news/london/2011/12/19/19144316.html
ELECTRO-MOTIVE: Conservative MPs reluctant to intervene in contract talks between company and CAW
By CHIP MARTIN, The London Free Press
Concerned London may lose one of its largest industrial employers, Mayor Joe Fontana enlisted four London MPs to help him write a letter to its parent firm explaining the importance of the plant to the city.
The Electro-Motive Diesel Inc. plant on Oxford St., owned by Caterpillar Inc., employs 700.
Canadian Auto Workers officials worry the plant may be shuttered if the locomotive manufacturer can't reach a contract deal with the union in ongoing talks. The union says the company wants to slash wages and benefits, a move it opposes.
Fontana said the No. 1 priority in the city these days is jobs.
The Electro-Motive jobs, and another 1,300 dependent on them, "are jobs this city cannot afford to lose," he said.
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