Navistar to Close Embattled Ontario Plant

Just three months after agreeing to a new two-year contract with its employees at its heavy-duty truck plant in Chatham, Ontario, International Truck and Engine Corp. said it will close the facility sometime in the summer of 2003.

The Warrenville, Ill.-based company said that it told employees Thursday that it will close the plant as part of a plant that will better position the Navistar to achieve profitability in its truck business.

"This has been a very difficult decision, but this decision in no way reflects on the performance of our Chatham employees and the quality trucks they build," said Steve Keate, president of the company's truck group. "Obviously, this decision was made only after exploring every available option to achieve the competitive cost structure needed given industry demand."

The company said it will shift production of its International 9000i Series Class 8 trucks from Chatham to Escobedo, Mexico.

The Chatham plant is currently running one shift of about 1,000 employees, with another 1,200 workers having been laid off.

“This is another callous decision made without regard or respect for long service workers, their families and their communities and it is a slap in the face to the sovereignty of Canada," Canadian Auto Workers President Buzz Hargrove said in a statement. "We have another case of Americans making decision in the best interest of Americans and to hell with Canada."

Hargrove, whose union represents workers at the plant, said he would seek to prevent Navistar from selling trucks in Canada unless it reverses its decision.

International, the world’s fourth largest truck maker, said it does not have a specific timetable for closing the plant, but the cash impact of the move has been included in company’s 2003 financing plan through 2005.

(Click here for the full press release from Navistar.)

(Click here for the full statement from the CAW.)