MONTREAL– Liberal Leader Bob Rae made the following statement today on the ongoing labour dispute at Electro-Motive Canada, and reports of record sales and profit at Caterpillar Inc.:
“Today in the United States, Caterpillar Inc. trumpeted record sales for 2011 totalling over $60 billion, an increase of 41% from the year before. The company’s own press release points to profits of nearly $5 billion in 2011, an increase of 83% from 2010. Its revised projections for 2012 are equally positive, up $14 billion to $72 billion.
Given this robust performance, which the company itself attributes to “outstanding execution and stronger global demand,” it is unconscionable that their subsidiary, Electro-Motive Canada, is asking Canadian workers to take a massive 50% cut in pay.
We do not resent the company’s success or the company’s profits. But it is impossible to understand why this prosperity cannot be shared with its employees, and with the community and governments that have sustained and helped the company. Stephen Harper should be clear that the tax write-offs and concessions it made to Caterpillar Inc. were made on the assumption of shared prosperity, not cut and run.
Mr. Harper must call Caterpillar Inc.’s CEO and insist on corporate citizenship and responsibility. His government gave concessions to the company. It’s time he stood up for Canadian working families.”
