Category Archives: Trucking industry

08.24.09
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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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07.30.09
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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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07.04.09
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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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07.03.09
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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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07.02.09
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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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07.01.09
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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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07.01.09
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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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06.29.09
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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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04.27.09
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725 to be idled at Formet St. Thomas

Magna International Inc. said Monday it will lay off 725 workers at its Formet Industries plant in St. Thomas, Ont.

Canada’s largest auto supplier blamed the layoffs, which it said are temporary, on a customer temporarily shutting down a full sized truck plant.
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