7am News, Sports and Obits

Latest WGIL news
Click to play or
Right click and "Save Target As" to download
Click for Galesburg, Illinois Forecast
Home - Cancellations - Community Events - Contact Us - Mornings - News - Obituaries - Pictures - Programs - Special Events Audio - Sports - Weather
More Cuts at Caterpillar
More job cuts are being made at Caterpillar. The Peoria-based heavy equipment maker says more than 2,100 Illinois production workers will lose their jobs in April. More than 1,000 of those are at a plant in Decatur that makes off-highway trucks, motor graders, and wheel tractor scrapers. The others are 500 at a wheel-loader/excavator plant in Aurora and almost 600 at the track-type tractor plant in East Peoria.

Company spokesman Jim Dugan says slowing demand is the reason, adding these layoffs are in addition to world-wide cuts Caterpillar made known earlier this week.

Monday the company announced approximately 20,000 reductions, 15,000 of which had previously been announced or enacted. Dugan says about 8,000 of those 15,000 were contract or agency employees. When asked why Friday's announcement was not part of Monday's news, Dugan said, "What our businesses are doing across Caterpillar is continually looking at the business and the order and the demand they have, and looking to take appropriate steps as we look at that demand moving forward. The announcement today is based on what the business unit in particular -- for Aurora, East Peoria, and Decatur -- sees coming."

(Illinois Radio Network)
01 30 09 by Newsroom
News management powered by Xpression News

Click here for the WGIL News Archive

Click here for national news

The following provision applies to all visitors (which shall include persons and representatives of legal entities, whether such representatives are persons or digital engines of a kind that crawls, indexes, scrapes, copies, stores or transmits digital content). By accessing this Web site or digital service, you specifically acknowledge and agree that: (i) Associated Press text, photo, graphic, audio and/or video material shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium; (ii) No Associated Press materials nor any portion thereof may be stored in a computer except for personal and non-commercial use; (iii) The Associated Press will not be held liable for any delays, inaccuracies, errors or omissions therefrom or in the transmission or delivery of all or any part thereof or for any damages arising from any of the foregoing; (iv) The Associated Press is an intended third party beneficiary of these terms and conditions and it may exercise all rights and remedies available to it; and (v) The Associated Press reserves the right to audit possible unauthorized commercial use of AP materials or any portion thereof at any time.