The union representing workers at the Buhler Versatile plant in Winnipeg questions whether the company can afford to move to North Dakota.
Buhler Versatile Inc. is 1,200 tractor units behind at its Winnipeg plant, said Len Rausch, president of the plant’s Canadian Auto Workers local.
Rausch said the company will fall further behind if it relocates to Fargo because it would take at least 18 months to build a new tractor manufacturing plant there.
“By that time, they are probably going to be way, way behind schedule.”
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Unionized workers went on strike at the Winnipeg plant in November. The workers were still on strike this week, citing seniority and worker benefits as two of the outstanding issues.
Company owner John Buhler has been saying he plans to close the tractor plant in Winnipeg and move the venture to Fargo.
“We’re moving,” he said last week. “That decision was made some time ago.
“If I move to another facility in Winnipeg, I’ll just be picketed there. I have to go somewhere where I have workers.”
Buhler agreed it would probably take months to get a plant ready for production in Fargo. However, he said the area has an ample workforce. His company placed a help wanted ad there and got 642 responses.
Rausch wonders what kind of workers the company can expect to find in Fargo. He said the work experience at the Buhler Versatile plant in Winnipeg ranges from 22 years to more than 40 years.
“There’d probably be a year’s learning curve in that,” Rausch said.
“What happens in the meantime while you have that learning curve?”
The union has suggested the province get involved with helping to buy the tractor plant. Later, a private investor could buy up the province’s share in the business.
So far, the province has not shown support for the idea.
Opposed to unions
John Godard, a professor of industrial relations at the University of Manitoba, said the owner of Buhler is known for “being fairly tough on unions.”
That is one reason Godard is becoming more convinced that the venture will be moved to Fargo.
“The law (in the United States) is quite hostile in many ways to labor unions,” said Godard.
“An employer who wants to block a union, for the most part, generally can.”
The dispute between the Versatile workers and their employer has turned hostile in recent weeks.
Buhler claimed there have been threats against him and vandalism at his plant in Winnipeg.
The CAW union said the company has not bargained in good faith. Unfair labor practice complaints have been filed with the Manitoba Labor Board against Buhler Versatile.
There have also been questions raised about a $32 million federal loan that Buhler assumed when he acquired the plant last summer and whether that would compel him to keep the venture in Winnipeg.
Buhler said any moral considerations that might be attached to having that loan are superseded by his legal obligations.
“I have a legal obligation to pay off that debt.”
