Caterpillar, which was the largest private employer in Illinois during the 1970’s, has been downsizing its Illinois operation over the years.
600-person engineering divisions have disappeared.
Sales are down 40% since 2013.
Now, Caterpillar is announcing a move of its corporate headquarters to Chicago.
Three hundred senior employees.
The reason is O’Hare Airport.
Shuttle jumps from Peoria to St. Louis and Chicago will be a thing of the past.
And, so will Peoria.
At least, that’s my guess.
But, Caterpillar says most operations will stay in Peoria.
So, maybe it’s just a big blow.
CEO Doug Oberhelman, by the way, is from Woodstock. He is retiring in 2017.
Should look at Decatur too.
CAT moved some production from there to Arkansas.
One thing that helped the town was a foreign investor, Fuyao Glass, set up shop in a glass plant there.
But still more jobs going out than in.
Border wall construction may provide for an increase in equipment manufacturing by CAT.
Too much foreign competition for Cat.
I hope they are able to some how survive as
they were one a great American institution known the world over.
CAT did say in 2015 they were moving some jobs to Mexico because they couldn’t reach deals with their unions in Joliet.
If they get nervous about Trump maybe those jobs come back stateside, but they won’t come IL.
More likely Right to Work states.