Caterpillar Closing Montgomery Area Manufacturing Plant

On Friday, Caterpillar announced that they will close down a manufacturing line at the plant near Montgomery, according to the Chicago Tribune. The move will eliminate 800 hourly jobs.

The company announced in early January that they were considering moving the production line for large wheel loaders and compactors to Decatur and the line for medium wheel loaders to North Little Rock, Arkansas.

"Faced with lower demand, we continue to evaluate our global manufacturing capacity," Denise Johnson, Resource Industries group president, said in a January press release.

Johnson also said Caterpillar would work with local leaders to find new jobs for laid off employees. Caterpillar would keep an office and product support division at the Oswego township plant, leaving about 1,200 workers.

The company said they expected the production line would shut down by the end of 2018. According to a preliminary contract, released workers will receive 40 hours of pay for every year of service.

Photo by Patrick Martin