London store pulls the company’s wares from its shelves after a controversial plant closure
A store in London, ON, has stopped selling Caterpillar boots after the firm behind the footwear announced the closure last week of a local manufacturing plant. The U.S.-based Caterpillar had asked workers to give up benefits and take a 50 per cent wage cut at the Electro-Motive plant, which had made diesel locomotives. Employees at the firm were locked out on Jan. 1. And on Friday, the company announced the whole thing would shut down, a move a union leader called “unethical, immoral, disrespectful” and the Star’s David Olive likened to “industrial rape.” Work done at the plant may now move to Indiana, where anti-union legislation recently passed. London’s local Mark’s Work Warehouse outlet, meanwhile, pulled Caterpillar boots from its shelves over the weekend in solidarity. It’s not entirely clear whether the boycott continues.