The following is a letter to Prime Minister Harper protesting the current lockout of the workers from the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) Local 27 by Electro-Motive Canada (EMC).

January 10, 2012

The Right Honourable Stephen Harper
Prime Minister of Canada
Langevin Block, 80 Wellington Street
Ottawa, Ontario
K1A 0A2

Dear Prime Minister:

I am writing to you on behalf of the largest municipal union local in Canada, the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 79, to protest the current lockout of the workers from the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) Local 27 by Electro-Motive Canada (EMC). Lockouts are often a deplorable attempt by the employer to create hysteria, through use of intimidation tactics which threaten the workers with loss of their livelihoods.

CUPE Local 79 represents more than 18,000 workers in the City of Toronto, Bridgepoint Hospital and the Toronto Community Housing Corporation, and our members understand all too well the mammoth hardships caused to workers and their families by a labour dispute.

CUPE Local 79 supports the call by the Canadian Auto Workers on your government to disclose the terms and commitments made during the 2010 purchase of Electro-Motive by Caterpillar Inc., under the Investment Canada Act.

In 2010, Progress Rail, a division of Caterpillar Inc, purchased Electro-Motive Diesel, now Electro-Motive Canada (EMC). Progress Rail has removed production equipment from the EMC London, Ontario plant, which is in violation of the Collective Agreement signed between the workers of EMC CAW Local 27 and Progress Rail.

Your government has given Progress Rail corporate tax breaks estimated at $5 million.

Due to the almost unprecedented demands by Progress Rail, who insisted on a 50% reduction in wages, benefits and pensions, despite a posted profit of $1.14 billion – a profit increase of 44%, this labour dispute in London, Ontario has been widely reported in publications such as the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, and other international media outlets!

In addition to the 500 workers in London, Ontario who are currently locked out, thousands of other workers, who supply the company with parts, are left in limbo wondering how long this work stoppage will last, or, if the company might make good on implied threats to close the facility and move all work to a plant in the U.S. Specifically, two thousand other workers in the London area are employed in support and supply operations for the Electro-Motive plant.

CUPE Local 79 is demanding that you investigate the following:

• The conditions of the sale of Electro-Motive to Progress Rail and a Declaration of Intent by Progress Rail regarding Electro-Motive Canada under the Foreign Investment Act.

• The bad faith bargaining of Progress Rail in regard to the contract negotiations between EMC workers and Progress Rail.

CUPE Local 79 is urging you to immediately:

• Request a Constructive Dismissal package be made available to locked-out workers.

• Award Employment Insurance benefits to locked-out workers.

• Award the release/payout of the Supplemental Employment Insurance benefits to EMC employees.

• Discontinue any and all tax breaks and exemptions awarded to Progress Rail under the Foreign Investment Act

Electro-Motive Canada and Progress Rail owe it to the people of London to fulfill their employment and production commitments. You, Mr. Harper, have an obligation to defend not only the interests of the workers currently locked out by Progress Rail, but also those of all the other workers who face such uncertainty because of this labour dispute.

Yours truly

Tim Maguire

President

c.c: Tim Carrie, President CAW Local 27

Ken Lewenza, President CAW