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Electro-Motive workers OK shutdown deal

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(Video updated) Workers at the shuttered Electro-Motive plant in London have ratified an agreement with the company’s owners.

Union members voted 95 percent in favour of the agreement that includes three weeks of severance pay for each year of service. Workers will also receive a ratification bonus of $1500.

Severance packages for non-union workers have not been finalized.

The subsidiary company of Caterpillar locked workers out New Year’s Day, after workers voted down a contract that would cut their wages and benefits in half. The company later announced it was closing the plant.

Despite today’s ratification, Canadian Auto Workers union president Ken Lewenza continues to blast the decision to shut down the plant.

“The reality is high productivity, highly skilled, high quality workforce, and the facts of the matter is our employer bought it to take our intellectual property and exploit labour from one end of the country to the other into another state. “

CAW Local 27 says it will continue to push federal, provincial and municipal governments to ensure jobs created in Canada, stay in Canada.

Video: Cristina Tenaglia reports: