Comments on: More Caterpillar layoffs at three Illinois plants

By: Deron_05

Deron_05 — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 18:57:45 +0000

Hello -

I work at the Decatur plant. I had not heard about the vandalism to the locker room at Mossville or the damage to the cars in the employee parking lots. But it seems everyone at Decatur had heard about the reported sabotage to the engines plus a lot of tools finding their out of the plant…granted the later sadly happens no matter the economic situations.

I can say that from many people that I talk to at Decatur, though they are upset with Mossville closing and their operations moving to Texas and the cost of jobs, there has been a general rub with those at Mossville since Mossville was considered a scab plant during the last strike. Not saying that thought process is correct but it is in the mind of some.

By: Mary

Mary — Mon, 02 Feb 2009 17:44:36 +0000

Hi,
I am not finding anywhere in news or otherwise about the many many employee cars that were vandalized Jan. 30 at the CAT Aurora plant…. are they trying to cover this up? Late on the 30th, over 15 cars were vandalized, with windows smashed and items stolen from employee cars…disgruntled employee maybe? Question is: where are the security guards that are supposedly watching/protecting the employees? My son works there and had to wait for cops to show up to take many reports… Now who is going to cover his cost of damage to his window, and stolen items? He cannot report it to insurance cuz it was just $500 which is his deductible. Oh yeah… the other nice news was that they let go many employees that very same day so my son is officially laid off in April and his gift that day was a $500 damage bill.

By: Greg

Greg — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 20:39:15 +0000

Unbelievable. People are such idiots these days. 3 different people have confirmed that Mossville people (scheduled for layoffs Feb. 23) were ordered not to report any more (effective immediately) because they were sabotaging engines and vandalized the locker
room.

Here is a report I got from a friend who is a CAT retiree:
I heard from a pal still at mapleton that when the guys at Mossville were told to hit the bricks they tore hell out of the locker room. He also told me that a forman down at Mapleton told his people that they also sabotaged some engines at Mossville. I guess they met the other shifts at the gates and would not let them in and also had the Police at the gate. I am really shocked at this because back in the 80’s when they laid me and others off we took the pink slip, walked around and said our goodbyes to other people, both management and shop floor. The thought of saotage never entered my mind or the minds of other guys getting the axe. I’m not saying we were jubilant about it but damn to commit an act like that could land your ass in jail to say the least that you’d never get back on! I guess this is a different day in age and these people are not the people of our day! P.S. Makes you wonder what would happen if this slides into a full blown depression?