Caterpillar, Rio Tinto declare lock-outs at Canada units in New Year

About 1,200 workers employed by two international firms in Canada face a bleak New Year as their employers – US-based Caterpillar Inc, and Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto – declared lock-outs at their respective units.

Caterpillar's subsidiary, Electro-Motive Canada (EMC), locked out 420 workers at its London, Ontario facility on New Year's Day, even as Rio Tinto Alcan Inc, declared a lock-out at its smelter in Alma, Quebec, affecting 750 workers. The collective agreements between the management and unions at the two firms had expired on 31 December.

The US-headquartered Caterpillar, the world's largest manufacturer of construction and mining equipment - which has in the past acted tough on workers – acquired EMC's parent, Electro-Motive Diesel Inc for $820 million in 2010 from a private equity firm that had initially bought it from General Motors Corp.

In October, Caterpillar opened a locomotive manufacturing unit in Muncie, Indiana in the US, prompting fears among workers at EMC that it would shift its production out of Canada.

Talks between the EMC management and Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) broke on 30 December with the union considering a strike call. The CAW said the company wanted to slash pay by half, besides eliminating the pension plan.

But even before the union could declare a strike, EMC announced a lock-out, attributing it to the uncertainties caused by the changing stance of the CAW.