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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Not exactly good news for St. Thomas

Despite claims from company president Julie Tanguay last week in the Times-Journal, the merger of L.E. Walker Transport with MacKinnon Transport of Guelph, Ont., is not good news for the city. In fact it means the loss of some jobs and the shutting down of the St. Thomas terminal, likely by the end of the year. Here is the updated story with MacKinnon president Evan MacKinnon from the T-J.

St. Thomas-based Walker Group, which includes well-known L.E Walker Transport Ltd., will close despite reports last week that the facility would remain in town after the 60-year-old company was acquired by MacKinnon Transport of Guelph, Ont.
But until the company sells the facility in St. Thomas, local drivers will be able to use the drop yard at the South Edgeware Road site, says the company’s president.
Friday, the Guelph Mercury reported that MacKinnon’s acquisition of Walker Group — which includes L.E. Walker and Mid America Freight Systems — means the St. Thomas site would close, bringing 120 jobs to Guelph.
President and CEO Evan MacKinnon confirmed that statement.
“The company will be relocated to our facility in Guelph and the terminal will be closed.”
In an interview last week, Julie Tanguay, Walker Group president and soon-to-be executive vice-president of sales for MacKinnon said there wouldn’t be any job losses.
“Right now it’s going to be business as usual (at the St. Thomas facility). We’ll continue operating out of this facility servicing our customers.”
MacKinnon said it’s true that it will be business as usual for now — he expects the company to be relocated before the end of 2009, meaning local office facilities will be shuttered.
Of the 140 or so employees at Walker, all 100 drivers have already been offered jobs while they’re hoping to hire 20 mechanics, dispatchers and other staff at the company’s headquarters in Guelph.
“We’re remaining optimistic that we can fill those roles with people from St. Thomas.”
As for drivers, MacKinnon noted they’ll be establishing a drop yard in the London area, but since the St. Thomas facility is a fair distance away from Highway 401, it may not be used for this role. When MacKinnon officially assumes ownership of the South Edgeware Road site, the plan is to sell it.
“It will be available until we are able to sell it. So if it takes nine months or a year to sell it, because of the current real estate economy, we’re not going to own it and rent one in London at the same time,” he said. “If it happens that we end up retaining that facility for some period of time, we would certainly utilize it….There are a lot of local drivers that work in the London area.”
When all is said and done, MacKinnon Transport will employ 420 people and operate 340 trucks.

MacKinnon Transport acquisition of Walker Transport means jobs lost in St. Thomas

The intention is to close the Walker Group’s trucking terminal in St. Thomas and relocate those operations to MacKinnon Transport, which is headquartered on Laird Road in Guelph.

MacKinnon said Guelph operations, which will continue as MacKinnon Transport, can accommodate most Walker staff, with the anticipated loss of about 20 employees in St. Thomas.

But that means 120 more jobs in Guelph, he stressed.

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Road merges for family-owned Elgin trucking firm

GUELPH, Ont. — Two of Canada’s most prominent family-owned for-hire carriers have merged.

Evan MacKinnon, president and CEO of MacKinnon Transport in Guelph, Ont. announced that his company has acquired St. Thomas, Ont.-based LE Walker Transport and its subsidiary MidAmerican Freight Systems.

Both southern Ontario carriers are major players in the cross-border dry van and flatbed markets. Walker also has a growing number of tankers and container chassis and its inroads in the intermodal sector will likely complement MacKinnon’s own intermodal transport business as well.

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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 set to slash staff, production in Canada

Posted by Ian:
We’ve been down this road in St. Thomas with Sterling Trucks, and now Chatham is about to find out there is no turning back when head office wants to shift production to Mexico. Today appears to be the beginning of the end for Navistar in that city as the once bustling plant becomes little more than a kit shop.

TORONTO, June 29 (Reuters) – Navistar International Corp (NAV.N) is set to significantly reduce its presence in Canada as it shifts much of its heavy-duty truck production to more cost-competitive locations in the southwestern United States and Mexico.

The company, which has been producing vehicles in Chatham, Ontario, since 1923, is set to cut its staff there by about 90 percent, the Canadian Auto Workers union said on Monday.

“We’re amazed that this company continues to do this,” said Sonny Galea, who represents office workers and technicians for the CAW at the International Truck and Engine Corp plant.
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14 Things You Probably Never Considered About Making Trucks More Efficient

After three days’ discussion by trucking suppliers, OEMs, drivers, and industry experts, the technological potential for drastic trucking efficiency gains—as well as the complexity of the barriers preventing their adoption—has never been clearer.
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