Joliet 8-1-12

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INSIDE

NEWS Doors co-founder Manzarek talks with Voyager Media

SPORTS IWO comes down to playoff

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www.jolietbugle.com

Our Village, Our News

AUGUST 1, 2012

Vol. 4 No. 48

Record profits raise scorn of CAT strikers Caterpillar Inc. announces record profits, labor talks still ongoing By Jonathan Samples Staff Reporter

Despite all-time high sales and revenues for the second quarter of 2012, Joliet-based Caterpillar Inc. is still not budging in contract negotiations with the International Association of Machinists Local 851. Caterpillar announced Wednesday that the company’s sales and revenues grew 22 percent from second-quarter 2011, which adds up to $17.37 million. In the same amount of time, profits grew from $1.02 billion in the second quarter of 2011 to $1.7 billion in the second quarter of 2012, an increase of 67 percent. “I am very pleased with Caterpillar’s record-breaking performance in the second quarter,” Caterpillar Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Doug Oberhelman said in a company press release. “Our employees, dealers and suppliers across the globe are doing a superb job of executing our strategy.” However, some of those very same employees are outraged with Caterpillar

Jonathan Samples/Bugle Staff

Bruce Boaz (right) has worked at Caterpillar for 39 years and currently serves as a strike captain for IAM local 851.

and its handling of labor negotiations. Workers at Caterpillar’s Joliet plant have been on the picket line for three months, and many say that the machine manufacturer is sending contradictory messages. “We have two employees’ meetings a year, and at those meetings the big dogs just sit there and tell us how great of a job we’re doing,” said IAM strike captain Bruce Boaz. “But now they don’t care about us, they don’t, or else they’d be giving us what we deserve.” Boaz, 57, said the union is ready to

return to work, but not without a fair contract. “Like I said, we need a fair shake,” Boaz said.“It’s good that things are going good and that they’re making money, but why are they not sharing it with the people that got them there. We’re the ones that build the product.” Caterpillar Spokesman Jim Dugan dismissed any connection between quarterly profits and labor negotiations, saying that the company cannot make competitive decisions based on quarterly earnings.

Jonathan Samples/Bugle Staff

A sign in front of Caterpillar’s Joliet plant expresses the union’s frustration in the face of the company’s record profits.

“It’s not how did we do this quarter or how did we do this year,” Dugan said. “It’s a much longer time horizon. We don’t look at things through the lens of an individual quarter and say, ‘Well, that changes our long-term view of what every facility needs to do to remain competitive.’” Dugan cited 2009 compensation cuts by Caterpillar senior executives as See SECOND QUARTER, page 2


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