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Ingersoll Buys CAT Backhoe

Monday, 12 March 2012 07:35

It was a long debate, but Ingersoll city council voted 4-3 to accept a tender bid for a new CAT backhoe loader. Mayor Ted Comiskey broke council's tie vote. There was plenty of union pressue leading up to the vote, after Caterpiller recently closed the EMD plant in London which put 450 people including 16 from Ingersoll out of the job. The CAT backhoe was the lowest bid on Ingersoll's tender and council was compelled to accept the lowest bid, unless they had a "compelling" or "justifyable" reason not to. Most of the cities councilors weighed in on why they were voting the way they were. But despite the split vote, the consensus from council was that no one supported the way CAT went about handling its business in London. Mayor Ted Comiskey said "We are disgusted with any company leaving Canada." OPSEU Local 164 Stewards Walter Hohman gave a presentation prior to council's vote, against accepting the bid. Hohman said what CAT has done has made them unreliable. Hohman told Heart FM " I under estimated that the Ingersoll families were losing about 10 thousand dollars a week out of the economy." He continued to say "It not only effects the families directly but the vendors they once frequented and so on and so on." There was supposed to be an OPSEU rally before town council, but only Hohman was the only person in attendance. He wasn't surprised with the turn out due to the time and date of the meeting, and the weather.

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