Caterpillar announces 300 layoffs at Mossville facility
The manufacturing company plans to reduce operations in Illinois.
The Mossville-based Caterpillar facility in Peoria County announced hundreds of layoffs the week of Aug. 29.
A total of 300 employees received notices they would be no longer employed at Caterpillar, with most of the layoffs becoming effective by Oct. 31, according to the Peoria Journal Star. Most of the workers let go were engineers, as well as support and management personnel.
The employees were notified ahead of time via the Illinois Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, or WARN act letters. The WARN act stipulates that employees are to be notified of mass layoffs within 60 days.
This latest development does not come as a surprise as lawmakers have continued the same failed policies hurting the state’s manufacturers. Despite appeals from then Caterpillar CEO Dan Oberhelman in 2012 for sensible pro-growth reforms, Illinois politicians have opted for more spending and more taxation.
And the jobs lost at the Mossville facility may only be a small fraction of what is to come. CAT is in the midst of a downsizing and consolidation effort at facilities across the nation and overseas, but Illinois’ toxic business environment and high taxes makes it among the lowest of the low hanging fruit. With the highest property taxes in the nation, broken workers’ compensation system and pension crises, Illinois ranks among the least attractive places in the U.S. for business investment and is a ripe target for consolidation and downsizing.
Other Midwestern states have gone down a different path. Michigan, for example, has a made an astonishing comeback since the Great Recession, adding 170,000 new manufacturing jobs since 2009. While Illinois has hemorrhaged manufacturing jobs and seen plants pack up and go to neighboring states, Michigan has prospered by adopting policies conducive to the needs of manufacturers, such as Right to Work and tax cuts.
Pro-growth reform is needed to turn around the downsizing and consolidation trends all too common in the Land of Lincoln, especially among manufacturers. Without serious change, more businesses and manufacturers will leave Illinois.