Navistar content to keep its Ontario workers idling

Navistar Inc. plans to keep its heavy truck assembly plant in Chatham idle “for now,” but the company’s top official isn’t giving any sign that it will reopen.

Dan Ustian, the company’s chairman and chief executive, told analysts Tuesday that the company has wrestled with the issue for several months but still has made no final decision on whether to close the plant in southwestern Ontario.

The plant has not produced a vehicle in almost six months after 350 employees were laid off and negotiations with the Canadian Auto Workers for a new contract hit an impasse. The shutdown is also adversely affecting numerous suppliers and their workforces.
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Posted by Ian:
On Sept. 4, 2003 International Truck and Engine Corporation announced it would keep its Chatham, Ontario plant open and maintain a production schedule of heavy trucks, as the result of a long-term investment by the company, Government of Canada and the Province of Ontario. Another promise not worth the paper it was written on. Here is the full transcript of that 2003 company release.

All is quiet on the Navistar front

When and if Navistar’s idled Richmond Street truck plant re-opens remain in serious doubt.

No new talks are scheduled despite a willingness by the Canadian Auto Worker’s union and the company to return to the bargaining table.

The plant’s 350 workers have been idled since the June 30th expiration of a three-year contract.

A brief meeting in Windsor two weeks ago between both sides was just that — brief.

“The company is sticking to its original proposal to greatly downsize the Chatham operation,” said national CAW representative Joe McCabe.

McCabe admitted the lengthy closure of one of Chatham-Kent’s largest manufacturing facilities is creating a huge financial burden for its unemployed workers and the community in general.
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NDP Leader Andrea Horwath slams McGuinty’s Navistar inaction

Queen’s Park
date: October 19, 2009 – 4:00pm

NDP Leader Andrea Horwath is slamming the McGuinty government for doing precious little to prevent Navistar from moving truck production from Chatham to Mexico, despite a massive infusion of public dollars.

“More than $60 million of hard-earned taxpayers’ money has been shovelled into the Navistar truck plant in Chatham,” said Horwath during today’s Question Period.

“As a thank you to Ontarians for their generosity, Navistar has shifted production to Mexico, and laid-off all of its 1,200 Chatham workers. When will this government stand up to Navistar and demand it live up to its obligations to Ontario workers and Ontario taxpayers?” she asked.

Horwath added that it appears the McGuinty government has pretty much given up on holding the company to account for its actions.
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‘No role’ for government in Navistar labour dispute

WINDSOR, Ont. — Despite investing millions in Navistar’s Ontario operations, the provincial government won’t intervene in a labour dispute that has seen Navistar International shift production from Chatham to Mexico, Sandra Pupatello, minister of economic development and trade, said Wednesday.

“The Ontario government has no role to play in the discussions between workers and the employer,” Pupatello said after addressing an automotive outlook conference at Caesars Windsor. “What is important is that we’ve created an opportunity for there to be significant investment in the Chatham area and in the University of Windsor. Our investment is geared toward R&D — that is creating the next generation of products coming out of Navistar and in supporting training costs for employees in Chatham.”

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U.S. truck plant idling on Canadian tax dollars

Ontario taxpayers have provided the U.S. owners of a Chatham truck plant with millions of dollars to keep it open, but the government won’t disclose job and production commitments for the operation that has now remained idle for more than three months.

Economic Development and Trade Minister Sandra Pupatello said Tuesday she couldn’t reveal whether International Truck and Engine Corp. had breached its commitments at the Navistar assembly plant in Chatham.

Pupatello said in an interview that terms of the deal remain confidential and the information could affect contract talks between the company and union during the current shutdown.

“It puts us in an awkward position because of the discussions between the company and the labour force,” she added. “Clearly, disclosure could give one (side) an advantage and that’s not our role.”

U.S.-based parent Navistar International stopped truck production at the end of June when management and the Canadian Auto Workers hit an impasse in bargaining.
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Ford/CAW talks at an impasse

Posted by Ian:
Drive along South Edgeware Road to get a first-hand look at the absolute economic devastation in St. Thomas, the result of the loss of up to 4,000 manufacturing and related jobs. Now with the pending closure of the St. Thomas Ford Assembly Plant in 2011, the fallout will be more than the 1,500 or so remaining jobs at the sprawling complex. Start with Lear, and the list of victims grows from there, as noted in this Globe and Mail story from Sept. 24/09 …

Closing the plant would be a serious blow to St. Thomas, which has already sustained the shutdown of a Sterling truck factory by Daimler AG, said Scott Smith, unit chair of CAW local 1520, which represents workers at the Ford plant.

If the Ford plant closes, suppliers are also likely to close, Mr. Smith noted, pointing to Lear Corp., which is operating in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection and has a plant in St. Thomas that supplies seats to the Ford plant.

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The “silence is deafening’’ between the two sides in the Navistar labour dispute.

Chatham-Kent’s mayor is hopeful officials with CAW Local 127 and Navistar will soon return to the negotiating table.

Randy Hope said yesterday the “silence is deafening’’ between the two sides in the labour dispute.

Hope said he would be willing to convene a meeting between the two sides aimed at bringing about a resolution.

“But I’m not about to get involved in the bargaining process,’’ he said. “That is none of my business.’’

Hope said the Richmond Street truck assembly plant is the last of its kind in Canada.

“We should be doing all we can to ensure that we don’t lose this very important segment of our local business economy,’’ he said. “It’s too important to lose.’’

But Hope said the municipality would like to know what is in store for the future of the plant.
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Stalemate continues at Navistar’s Chatham plant

The lights remain out at Navistar’s Richmond Street truck assembly plant in Chatham.

No new talks are scheduled between CAW Locals 127 and 35 and the Chicago-based company regarding a new collective agreement.

Negotiations broke off at the end of June when the two union locals rejected company plans to downsize the Chatham operation.

“We really haven’t heard anything from the company,’’ Joe McCabe of Chatham, a CAW national representative.

McCabe said CAW president Ken Lewenza has written to the company asking for a resumption of talks.

He said company president Dan Ustian did reply to a letter from the CAW but made it clear the company was only willing to talk about its proposal.
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Navistar under scrutiny

The Ontario government will go after Navistar International Corp. if it has failed to meet obligations it made when the province gave it $30 million in assistance to keep its Chatham truck plant open six years ago, Economic Development Minister Sandra Pupatello says.

“They do have obligations with us and they’re going to have to meet those obligations,” she said. “We’re reaching out to the company now, and we know that’s important.”

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Navistar’s Chatham truck plant closed indefinitely

WINDSOR, Ont. — Navistar International Corp.’s Chatham, Ont., truck plant is shut down indefinitely and contentious talks between the company and union over dramatic staff cuts are on hold for at least two weeks.

The remaining 370 workers at the Chatham plant, which received $63-million in government aid in 2003, were laid off Tuesday and contract talks with the Canadian Auto Workers have broken off. Whether they will return to work after a regular two-week summer shutdown depends on what happens at the bargaining table, Navistar spokesman Roy Wiley said Thursday.
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Navistar Workers Reject Latest Proposal, CAW Urges Navistar to Keep Jobs in Canada

CHATHAM, ON, July 2 /CNW/ – More than 900 Navistar workers rejected the latest proposal from Navistar in the ongoing negotiations between the CAW and the company, at a membership meeting held yesterday in Chatham, Ontario.
“We cannot expect our members to accept a contract that will eliminate their jobs and devastate their already hard hit community,” said CAW President Ken Lewenza. “We need a real commitment from the company on the future of this plant. So far, what we’ve seen from Navistar only include eliminating hundreds of jobs and moving production out of the country to the United States and Mexico.”
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Navistar lays off 1,000 at Chatham plant

Navistar International Corp., which received more than $60-million from the federal and Ontario governments earlier this decade to help keep open its heavy-truck plant in Chatham, Ont., laid off all the employees at the plant yesterday and warned that the operation needs to be “smaller and radically different.”

The warning from plant manager Craig Holmes came after the Canadian Auto Workers union rejected a contract offer calling for a large reduction in the size of the plant’s unionized work force and cuts to wages and benefits.

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Navistar Beaten Out on $1.06 Billion Blast-Proof Truck Contract

June 30 (Bloomberg) — Oshkosh Corp. won a $1.06 billion contract to build all-terrain trucks that would protect troops in Afghanistan from roadside bombs. Shares of the company, which said it may share production, surged in late New York trading.

The contract is for 2,244 vehicles, the U.S. Defense Department said on its Web site today. Oshkosh beat a joint venture between Force Protection Inc. and General Dynamics Corp., as well as entries from BAE Systems Plc, and Navistar International Corp., the largest maker of blast-proof trucks for the U.S. military.
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