Caterpillar may leave due to high taxes! (Peoria: how much, closing)

[vaughanwilliams]

Originally Posted by williepotatoes

I wouldn't get too excited here. Cat has recently spent over a billion dollars upgrading the Peoria plants. They also just signed a very favorable new six year labor contract. Cat is not leaving anytime soon.

The real truth is that Cat has been leaving Illinois for the last 20 years. Their workforce here is about half what it was back then. It's about supercheap foreign labor not taxes. They now have more plants and employees abroad than at home. Their foreign sales are soaring and driving all their new investments.

Dirt cheap wages and no health insurance premiums are hard to pass up.

Yeah, I agree. Besides, clever corporations don't pay taxes. This probably has something to do with getting the taxpayers to pay for something Cat doesn't want to, similar to sports franchises threatening to move if they don't get a public funded stadium.

[sunnyandcloudydays]

Sorry ,
CAT is based in Peoria IL- There are a few locations west of chicago about 40 miles in Oswego, Montgomery and Aurora but not a Chicago based company.

Peoria is a city about 120 miles south of Chicago-
I believe also this is the same area the opponent to Quinn - Mr Brady is from as well.

Fair is fair- As it would be sad to see CAT go they are looking for another handout.

The tax is temporary for corporations and temporary for individuals - Yes temporary. There are many safe guards that were written into this legislation.
No matter what you hear on the news outlets.

CAT originally was out of California and is now more of a global company than anything else. But for them to just leave is silly

Dont buy into the newspapers as we all know they have no clue what they are talking about. In actual truth the CEO is meeting with Quinn on the 4th of April..

CAT has a long history in Illinois and they will work out something - this just happend recently with Navistar and guess what they stayed here in the Chicagoland area. If its one thing Illinois is good at its negotiating. and at the end of the day it really is hard to deny what this state has to offer.

[sunnyandcloudydays]

catworker (http://www.suntimes.com/community/persona/index.html?uid=694f986b-b994-488b-bf83-d9a3f3792152&plckUserId=694f986b-b994-488b-bf83-d9a3f3792152 - broken link)

1:26 PM on March 27, 2011
Since one of the provisions in the new 6 year contract just signed between the UAW and CAT in Peoria says that they can not shut down the plants, my guess is they are staying. Considering that the only thing UAW members got was some bribe money, and no raise other than cost of living increases, about 30cents/per hour a year, while they make billions in profits, they are sitting pretty in Illinois. The average worker at Cat in Peoria makes $10-15 dollars less an hour than 20 years ago, and that doesn't take into account the added costs being shouldered by the workers for health care, and the fact that we also do not receive a pension like our predecessors did. Cat isn't going anywhere. If he wants to move the corporate headquarters, however, I'll help him pack for free, heck I'll even throw in a bottle of wine.


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[tonythetuna]

Originally Posted by sunnyandcloudydays

CAT originally was out of California and is now more of a global company than anything else....

CAT has a long history in Illinois and they will work out something

They have been in Illinois since 1909.

Originally Posted by sunnyandcloudydays

There are a few locations west of chicago about 40 miles in Oswego, Montgomery and Aurora but not a Chicago based company.

Chicago liberals are named because they are in charge of both sides of the legislature as well as the governor's mansion.

[tonythetuna]

Originally Posted by prairiestate

Actually, this belongs in the Illinois forum.

I agree.

[RememberMee]

I can't understand idiocy of "conservative" working class types. You think after corporations will cut your wages from $20/hr to $8/hr owning & wage slaving classes will settle into iternal harmony? It will never stop, as long as you are willing to bend over and take it up your arse, they WILL bend you over. Instead of questioning & fighting the sanctity of global labor arbitrage, conservative types think that corporation will appreciate & reward their slave mentality and submissive tail waggling. It's sad seeing how dumb and gutless are the descendants of hundreds killed Chicago workers who have common sense and guts to fight 100+ years ago and whose legacy "Generation Sweat Shop" squanders as we speak.

[linicx]

Moderator: NEW RULES. No Politics, no Snarky Remarks, and no Personal Attacks. This not a DEBATE Forum. It is a DISCUSSION Forum. If you do not know the difference, get a dictionary.

Please stay on Topic: Caterillar and Illinois. Not Cook County, and not pols.

If you do not like the rules, feel free to go elsewhere.
If you cannot contribute constructively do not post.

This thread is moved to Illinois.

Thank you.

[sunnyandcloudydays]

Of course no one likes to hear cook county being called Crook county and no one likes to hear any business leave that has been in a state as long as CAT and one that has a national footprint like Jimmy Johns.

I voted for Quinn because I was not happy with the opponent however I also voted for a republican us congressman the same day.

Am I happy with the way things are going right now - no
What we must remind ourselves is Illinois and Cook county are not all bad. Mod Cut

Glad this was brought in the limelight because no I don't like being in the news as a negative unfriendly business state.

For the most part people in Illinois are good people and Illinois in general has some very respectable companies that call the land of Lincoln home. As I mentioned earlier this is a temporary tax- you may be nodding your head on this but it is temporary.

It is not like CAT made Illinois - Illinois

[linicx]

Peoria is an old town that was established over a 100-years before Benjamin Holt created Holt Manufacting in East Peoria, Illinois in 1909. The trade name Caterpillar Tractor Company emerged two years later. Technically CAT was born in East Peoria and its corporate offices were there before they built their world headquarters in Peoria on NE Adams Street. Contrary to popular opinion Peoria is not nearly depressed as claimed by some. If it was the 3 new grocery stores would not have opened in Peoria in the last six months brining the total to just under twelve that includes one store from North Carolina, and the 100-year old yacht club would have folded like an accordian three years ago.

Caterpillar's 23,000 employees do not all live in the Peoria area. Caterpillar pulled out of the Chicago Board of Trade not so long ago, so the letter to the Gov. is no surpise to me. And yes Caterpillar has been moving plants from Illinois to the right-to work-states where the cost of busimess is much lower for a long time.

Business was different in the early 1980s. The industrial giants like CAT and GM did not report billion dollar profit quarters. Life-long employees did not get huge pensions. What they received at retirement was a small pension and good medical benefits.

NO ONE expected the average doctor's office call to balloon from $30 to $200 in 20-years. After all it took over thirty years to raise $25 dollars. A house call by a doctor in 1950 was five bucks! In 1961 the hospital charge for a live birth and a 3 day stay for mother and child was $500.00 and the average 1-bedroom 1 bath house sold for well under $35K. In 1964 you could buy a dressed out Chevy station wagon for $5K.

[Maintainschaos]

Same old song and dance. Cat has flexed its muscles before to leverage things in its best interest. Truth be told, Cat has left IL and the U.S. many years ago, logistically speaking. Their expansions are now almost exclusively outside of the U.S.

It's a catch-22: cater to big business and it will have you in a stranglehold; don't cater to big business and it will have you in a stranglehold. My guess: Cat will still get its tax breaks it currently gets and it won't go anywhere.