Caterpillar is considering whether to move production of mining and construction equipment out of its East Peoria campus. The move would impact about 230 office and production jobs if finalized early next year. But Cat officials say more reductions would have been needed if an early retirement offer wasn’t issued. Henry Vicary is Cat’s Director of Community Relations and Guest Services. He says roughly 12-hundred Peoria-area Cat employees took the company’s early retirement program:
“That really helped lessen the burden and take the sting out of the other tough decisions we had to make.”
Vicary says Cat is 90-percent complete with Peoria-area reductions. Cat is also considering whether to close Building H-H in East Peoria. The potential decision is part of Cat’s global restructuring process that involves thousands of job cuts in the coming years.