re: Government has to show it cares about workers (Letters, Feb. 9)
The recent pullout by Caterpillar is indeed unfortunate and certainly provides fodder to the whining left and irresponsible unionists. But let’s look a bit deeper.
Caterpillar is and always has been a U.S. company with global operations. It is not a Canadian company with foreign ownership. So quite frankly they can pull up and move whenever they want. More importantly CEO Doug Oberhelman is a confidant of Barak Obama’s and has been instrumental in pushing Obama to sign the Free Trade pacts with Colombia, Panama and South Korea (which he recently did). The signing of these deals allows  Caterpillar to establish markets and manufacturing in those countries with lower labour and operating costs. In order to satisfy American unions bringing the jobs from London back to Illinois is part of that plan. Obama stated recently in the State of the Union address that the time was right to “bring jobs home.” Oberhelman is playing the game by Obama’s rules.
Don’t be surprised if we see more of this as U.S. protectionism increases. It’s politics, baby. So perhaps directing a critical eye south of the boarder may be a bit more relevant than blaming our government!
Don Graves
Hamilton Mountain