cecilmeyer

The only thing on that list I see is the pension that was done away with.That sucks and the union should have never agreed to it.The only thing we can do is gather strength and try to fight to get it back.We lost the battle on the last few contracts but the war is not over yet.I am willing to keep fighting are you guys?

Look I did not like that little back door move either but the few bucks it went up you are saying there is nothing good to be said?

Where have any of you guys throwing stones seen me on this forum say "VOTE YES" for a garbage contract? Again I will repeat myself.I voted against all the concessions 2 contracts ago including the last one.I even ran for office to try to get things changed.But guess what I could not get enough votes because people really were too scared for change.All I am saying is that the union along with all other unions are being crushed by TRADE POLICIES,POLITICIANS,THE WEALTHY AND CORPORATIONS!!!!!.I will say it again and again the IUAW has issues that have got to be addressed.But keep in mind the unions can only do so much with everything stacked against them.The economy is in shambles,middle class is under constant attack and the American public thinks we are overpaid as it is.Ford is laughing at us.The membership saying "Yea we got Ford by the balls" Really??? I wish that was the case but in the real world it is not.When I hired in you could not get anybody to work for half of what I was making then at Ford and with no pension?Now it is so bad there is some poor desperate person waiting to take these crappy paying jobs by the tens of thousands.How many of you guys complaining on this forum go out of your way or pay more for American or a least union made products?How many of you guys shop at walmart or sams club?How many of you guys shop at junk stores like harbor freight instead of buying American made tools or car parts?How many members buy Chinese junk tires that cost a few dollars less than union made ones?The vast majority of Americans do not care about anyone but themselves and if you guys think they are going to be on our side you are dreaming.I am saying just wait and see what they bring back from the table.If its a junk contract I will vote it down.But If the membership approves it I have to stand by the membership.UNITED WE STAND DIVIDED WE FALL.Do not forget that ,Ford never will.

If you do not think Ford motor co pits the workers against each other you my friend are not in the same reality as the rest of the world.

Another get rid of the union thread?

Axle I agree 100% things have got to change. All I am saying Ford has done a wonderful job at pitting us against each other with the two tier which I voted against and was adamantly opposed to .So at this point I am willing to put up with the problems we have instead of feeding the anti union sentiment that Ford just loves to no end.I look at the union sometimes as one of the relatives you would really like to give the boot but you don't because you know "their family" and you always hope they will get their act together.That being said there comes a point when we have to say enough is enough but come on guys we are not there yet. Lets stick together and see what the union brings back for us on this contract.If its a bad deal then I will vote it down and if need be I walk the picket line if thats what it comes too.I remember one time when a IUAW official was in our plant trying to sell the concessions and I said come on how much more we got to give this company? And his quote was this "I don't know what to tell you brother they are just greedy MFers"

https://www.unionplus.org/about/labor-unions/36-reasons-thank-union Please continue with your union bashing on another thread

Like I have repeatedly the union has issues that need to be addressed.What the union has officially stated was they used a lot of that money to try to organize the non union plants down south and it failed.The south has always been incredibly anti union and organizing them with the trade laws we have and the general ignorance of the American population which gets their news from Faux news its no wonder it failed. How many of our union brother and sisters shop at walmart ,which is one of the most anti union companies in existence? So you use an article from a socialist website? You are constantly praising Ford. Does't seem very socialist of you.Do you blame the collapse of Detroit on the unions too? Or was it trade laws so stacked against unions it was a no win situation? Maybe you misread the thread title.Please do your union bashing on the other threads

Sorry that is all the info I got.I got a copy of if from a friend at work.

I thought maybe we could get some examples of what the union has done right for a change instead of bashing them constantly.Look I know the union has its problems but let us as a membership not fall into the trap of the republican and wealthy argument unions are crooked and do nothing for us.If you have a problem with way things are run get involved,call the international,run for office but do not think by becoming a right to work shop we would be better off.I think many people in the membership have forgotten who we are dealing with.This is Ford motor co.They are not your friend.They do not care for your well being,your future ,your family.They are a sociopathic corporation that cares about nothing but money and power.They never have cared for us and they never will do not forget that.

I call it steal when Ford LIED saying it would return those concessions when they returned to profitability.Yes that is called stealing.I will ask you the same question.Why are you such a union basher? Ford will NEVER give you anything unless they are forced too.This is a hourly forum you sure you did not misread the title?Maybe you should find the "Salary or I want to be salary" forum.The Union has its problems but what in the world are you thinking if you think we would be better off without them.Why don't you bash Ford like you do the union? Corporate America is your enemy not unions.I would say your statements are humorous but they are not.UNIONS built the middle class in America not corporate generosity, you seem to have missed that part of American history.

Bingo the Union has been doing a pretty good job of taking care of the membership the vast majority of its inception so why are you such a union basher?

Just like the VEBA fund has been running fine for years ?If that is your reasoning what's the problem then with the union running our healthcare?So the union has been doing a pretty good job of taking care of the membership for decades and you give Ford a pat on the back for the last 5 years? What is with you guys on here? Have you selectively forgotten who we are dealing with? Ford has and never will voluntarily give its workers nothing.So now Ford is our friend who loves and cares for our well being? Just how long have you been working at Ford? You either have not been there long or you are just anti union in general.

You would not have healthcare unless the union got it for you in the first place.You need to wake up.Like it or not we are all better with the union than without them.Its not perfect by any means but better than no union.Opt out and be a freeloader like the wealthy in america that only care about themselves.

You realize it was the union that fought and got us healthcare in the first place correct.Ford willingly has given us NOTHING.We have had to fight for everything we have.Ford has shown they know how to run a business? Really?? By running the company into the ground and then using that excuse to steal things that took us years to get in one contract? By taking the best selling sedan in America the Taurus changing the name, making it visually dismal and overpricing it till sales collapsed and then hiring a sociopath like Alan Mually to threaten the union to give all we did or Ford would declare bankruptcy like GM and Chrysler? Did away with the Ford Ranger,shut down U.S production only to talk about bringing it back again?Continued to build gas guzzlers when the the Japanese makers were building more fuel efficient cars?Refuse to reinforce the Explorer roofs that would have cost a few dollars and avoid paying millions in lawsuits and untold suffering for people injured in rollovers?I have personally seen them scrap completely good wheels because of a small scratch. Throw away huge amounts of copper wire,robot parts,Etc,Etc.So the "they know how to run a business" is a lie at best.

You trust Ford more???????

I agree completely that all I have is from God

Pardon me for a moment while I confuse all of you with some facts... The UAW Benefits Failure That Wasn't By Jeff Green, Bloomberg.com August 27, 2015 5:33 PM The experiment looked doomed at the start. Five years ago, General Motors, Ford Motor, and Chrysler, with the blessing of the United Automobile Workers union, created an independent entity to provide health insurance for more than 700,000 retirees and to manage the investments that would finance the benefits. The move was good for the automakers, allowing them to shed crushing liabilities that threatened to impede their recovery amid the Great Recession. The conventional wisdom was that the trust fund would quickly run low on money and ask union retirees to cough up large annual premiums or settle for more limited coverage. “People didn’t believe the math worked,” recalls Art Schwartz, GM’s labor negotiator at the time. Contrary to expectations, the $61 billion UAW Retiree Medical Benefits Trust is thriving. Retirees’ drug costs are falling; dental, vision, and other benefits have even been added. What’s more, the investment fund that pays for all of it has booked double-digit annual returns in recent years. “A lot of people thought this wouldn’t hunt,” says Fran Parker, who came out of retirement in 2010 to run the trust. Parker, who previously headed a large health plan in Michigan, said in a July 10 interview that she relished the challenge. “I thought, Oh dear, I’m going to take care of the same people that I took care of when they were active. What a fitting bookend.” Under Parker, the UAW trust, which is the largest private purchaser of medical care in the U.S., is forging paths in benefits management and emerging as a corporate-governance advocate. “The fund has accomplished some really impressive things,” says Harley Shaiken, a labor professor at the University of California at Berkeley, adding that there are lessons for other plans in how the trust’s managers have reduced costs by remixing coverage and pushing preventive services. Skeptics had predicted health-care inflation would continue to run at 3 percent to 5 percent a year, outpacing returns on investments. Fortunately for the trust’s managers, that inflation rate has been relatively low, a little less than 3 percent last year. Parker, a self-professed “big-data geek,” has beefed up coverage for preventive care and used analytics to pinpoint areas where costs could be better managed. In the past, routine doctors’ appointments weren’t covered, so retirees flooded urgent-care centers and emergency rooms when they fell ill. After administrators discovered that 400 retirees a month are newly diagnosed with diabetes, the plan began paying for programs that teach them how to contain the disease by changing habits. Coverage has also been added for cardiac rehabilitation for heart attack patients, for blood pressure screenings, and for programs to encourage people to buy lower-cost generic drugs. Annual pharmacy savings of about $500 million helped pay for dental and vision coverage. The trust has $61 billion in assets under the direction of interim Chief Investment Officer Avtar Vasu, who used to be part of the team managing Harvard’s endowment. Investment performance has exceeded expectations, with gains of 14 percent in 2013, the most recent data available. That’s almost triple that year’s returns for pension funds at Ford and GM. Meredith Miller, the trust’s corporate-governance chief, previously worked in the Connecticut treasurer’s office, where she helped thwart a plan by toolmaker Stanley Works (now Stanley Black & Decker) to quit the state and incorporate in Bermuda. In her current role, Miller leads a group of institutional investors that’s urging Wal-Mart Stores and others to be more forthcoming about when and how they force executives to return bonuses earned for actions later determined to be illegal or unethical. A trust proposal to make it easier for stock owners to appoint directors was endorsed by McDonald’s shareholders in May. Miller also helms the Human Capital Management Coalition, a group of 24 funds with more than $2.3 trillion in combined assets that focuses on how companies develop policies on safety, diversity, and fair labor practices. Since 2010 the UAW trust has been on a letter-writing campaign to press companies in which it has stakes to add women to their boards, Miller says, because of growing evidence that diversity at the top improves the bottom line. Four of the 34 companies it’s reached out to so far, including CF Industries Holdings and Visteon, have added female directors. Overall, the UAW’s experiment with the fund has been so successful that union President Dennis Williams is suggesting a similar arrangement for about 195,000 active autoworkers at GM, Ford, and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles as part of negotiations for a labor contract now under way. One doubter who’s been happily proven wrong is Jim Kaster, who retired in 2007 from GM’s assembly plant in Lordstown, Ohio. “We were scared to death when they were going bankrupt. We thought it was really going to be tough for us and our families, because we’d seen what happened at other companies,” recalls the 68-year-old. “I’d say now we’re tickled to death about how it’s turned out. They’re doing a good job.” The bottom line: The UAW’s $61 billion health trust for retirees has logged double-digit returns in recent years. finance.yahoo.com/news/uaw-benefits-failure-wasnt-213310866.html?.tsrc=applewf ... And now you may carry on with your union bashing. Have a nice day. Last Edit: about an hour ago by remember1976 I got this article from the site you linked.Looks like the vast majority of people on the site bash the the union. Read more: http://scottrlap.proboards.com/thread/14946/#ixzz3kIziMKqV

All I know is at least if the the union was running our healthcare and they stole the funds someone is going to jail versus someone at the corporate level would not only not go to jail but get a raise!!I'll take my chances with the union over the company any day.Since day one at Ford the company has never stopped try to cheat me.The union from day one has almost every time defended me when I needed help.Just remember people can say what they want about the union but I know exactly where I stand with the company.Do not ever forget who they are.They would fire all of us and throw your family in the street to starve if they could get away with it.I have seen them try to cheat a worker dying of cancer his family's insurance money because he did not sign one piece of paper.The union had to fight but they did prevail and his family received their insurance money.We are nothing but chattel to Ford do not forget that.

Bingo you are in the dark beyond reason

Its not the politicians fault? If I am not mistaken they make the laws that the corporations have paid them to do.So Nafta has nothing to do do with the massive job losses the U.S has sustained? The only reason the Europeans unions are still doing well is because they have the backing and support of their politicians and the citizens.President Obama is a liar just like the rest of them.I am a Democratic Socialist so that is why I am a supporter of Bernie Sanders.The automakers would have never been able to force a 2nd tier if the economy was still intact.I voted against a 2nd tier knowing it would be the undoing of us autoworkers.It has worked precisely how the corporations planned.By having us all fight amongst each other.If the UAW would not have given in to the 2nd tier there would have either been a strike or massive cuts even farther than we took and there would have been no hiring of any new workers.So either way we were screwed.Its one of those lousy deals like the politicians we have"Pick your poison".The only way the working class we ever see its fair share of their labors is to have a government and citizens that support them.The U.S and its dim witted citizens have bought into the the lie that if I work hard enough I can be rich like Donald Trump even though Mr Trump has declared bankruptcy multiple times and inherited the vast majority of his wealth.Again I am for equal pay for equal work.That is what unions are all about.And the UAW has many issues that need to be dealt with and one of the things that can be done is new people running and getting elected.I tried once to run for committee man after all the concessions the UAW agreed to but I was too radical I was told.So anyone who says I did not try does not know me.If you do not have the support of the sheeple in the U.S forget it unless you are are on the other side.Then you have unlimited funding and support of the idiot masses.

Closet Republican?How perceptive,especially after I posted I am a supporter of Bernie Sanders.Yea he is quite the Republican LOL

If it was not for unions we would still have the third world sweatshops,and child labor.So corporations and the rich share what workers produce because of the kindness of their hearts????That statement is beyond laughable.Do you live on planet Earth with the rest of us?

Axle you are spot on about the Dems being no friend of the working man.I am a Bernie Sanders guy but the powers that be will do any and everything to see that he does not get into power.Clinton pushed through Nafta and President Obama is pushing another garbage trade deal the TPP.This President cannot get anything to help the working class of this country,the Repubs block everything but they all line up to back him on the TPP so what does that tell you?Its no good for the working man if repubs are backing it! Goodluck on the contract Axle we are going to need it!