Vol. 77/No. 9      March 11, 2013

Anderson’s contribution is from a signing bonus for accepting a concession contract. Below is a note she sent in with her check.

I am very happy to put this bonus payment of $607.02 to good use for the international working class. It is from our last UAW Local 719 union contract that was accepted at Caterpillar-owned Electro-Motive Diesel in Lagrange, Ill., in February 2012.

We voted to accept a union-busting contract after voting to strike twice, and then watching Caterpillar close the Toronto plant in January 2012 after our union brothers and sisters there put up a fight against a 50 percent wage cut. Caterpillar then moved production to a nonunion plant in Muncie, Ind., where the highest paid welder gets $14 an hour. We then watched 800 workers at the Caterpillar plant in Joliet, 30 minutes from our factory, go on a three-month strike, fighting many of the things the company has begun to implement at EMD.

Since February, attacks on our conditions have increased. Cat has hired hundreds of supplemental workers doing the same job as us, but without health care or union representation. They can be fired at will for at least the first two years of employment.

Safety is often preached, but many are afraid to report an injury because of the threat to be fired. The highest paid have had wages cut by $11. Many have been fired based on the new attendance point system where doctor’s notes are not accepted and there is no such thing as a personal day off. Five times a year we are allowed to decline mandatory overtime. In my department we are often ordered to work a 58-hour week. Many work seven days since there is always a potential for layoffs.

If you want to make a blood money contribution, contact Militant distributors listed on page 10.  
 
 
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