June 1, 2017
Caterpillar cuts jobs
Caterpillar recently announced it will close facilities in Aurora, Ill., and Gosselies, Belgium; the move will see some 2,800 employees lose their jobs.
The decision is the latest in a line of Caterpillar facility closings and consolidations that began in the final quarter of 2015 as part of a cost reduction plan designed to save the company $1.5 billion annually through 2018. One year later, the company announced market conditions had forced it to be “more aggressive” than it had anticipated in making the cuts.
Though the company’s initial estimate on global workforce cuts was 10,000, as of October Caterpillar had cut 14,100. The company says it has consolidated or closed about 30 facilities, an elimination of around 11 per cent of its global manufacturing square footage.