tincup2b

KCAP posted for 17 Electricians about two months ago and only had three apprentices accept. They said they all have around 6000 hours. Haven't seen any of them in the plant yet but we are still short 17 Sparkys at the min.. Would like to see more like 30-35 be replaced. We had at least that many retire over the past year. With the new RTO numbers I doubt we ever see all of them come back though. Good luck to all of you in JSP and at ACH facilities.

Back to the question at hand. The number that was given out at the contract explanation meeting concerning GEN/JSP, and ACH employees is as follows. There are approx. 960 GEN/JSP and 5600 ACH employees needing placement. They did not give a breakdown as far as Trades vs Production numbers. They did say that the company felt they had approx. 4000 extra trades on rolls (yes that's three zeros after the 4). They did not elaborate and go into numbers of extra by craft though. Nor did they say all of those people were in JSP. That number sounded extremely high to me and for some reason nobody questioned it when it was said. The way the international rep. said it made it sound like he disagreed with the company on that number. For all of the trades lets hope the International disagrees with the company. Sounds like the new language concerning Skilled Trades Governance Teams and the Helping Hands Concept may be worse than originally thought. That's if that number of 4000 is correct.

I heard rumor that the real reason TCAP is staying open another year is due to the Ranger failing the crash test. Now the launch is being delayed so Ford can fix the engineering oops before they begin selling them to the public. Any truth to this or is this just another upset employee starting rumors?

Same at KCAP. Looks like it will be Friday the 16th. I wouldn't make any plans until the company anounces it for sure though. You know how they like to change their minds in mid stream.

38 with Hillary and Obama. Now what do I do?

CSMJ, do you work at MTP? Just thought I would ask because you think that they will stay open every prediction you make. I'm not saying they will close but I'm not positive they will stay open either. It has been stated all along that there will be two more assebmly plants closed. Do you mind letting us know what two they will be? Obviosly you are in the know. I'm not trying to rag on you here but if you are gonig to put a bunch of BS on these boards at least state in the post that it is your opinion that these things are going to take place. The other topic that is not listed in your statement is the new low cost plant that Ford is scheduled to build in NA. Where is that going to be placed? That is if you know. Even if you don't I would like to hear your opinion so we can once again say "Nice guess but sorry, wrong again". Good luck to all regardless of the accuracy of CSMJ.

That is correct. If you do not show up to cast a ballot there is no vote to cast. One must vote either Yes or No for there voice to be heard. Why someone wouldn't take 5 minutes out of their day to cast a ballot is beyond me. Then again maybe the state of the union is as bad as perceived by some.

I know all of the talk right now is contract talk but I wanted to bring the topic of down time back up. Any new news on down time at DTP? Looks like KCAP might have the first two weeks of Oct. off. How about KTP?

I have heard that certain IMT's will be sent to Detroit for a 5 week training course on how to do basic maintenance. From what I am reading under this thread it looks like they are moving them more towards taking over the supervisors job and not the tradesmans jobs. I was under the impression that they would be using the IMT's in direct relations with the "helping hands" language and would have the right to perform minor (non core) related repairs. I'm sure alot will change between now and Sept.. It looks like they are going to try and bribe us with some sort of small bonus so we will believe that the company is doing their part to help us help them. I say nobody gets bonuses until the company makes a profit again. That includes everyone on both the union and Company side. Just my two cents though.

The daycares and FLSC are also negotiated benefits but they are closing the KCAP daycare on June 29th. Not sure about the fitness center yet. Still several rumors out there. If I see anything official I will try and post. What fitness center are you refering to?

Hopefully IMT's are not being utilized in Ford facilities at this time. If your plant has placed the IMT classification please let us know what word they are doing. This was a very big topic at Sub a few weeks ago and the idea of having IMT's did not go over well at all. I know there was mention of IMT's in the local 600 COA but I think the intend is being interpreted differently from the company and the union standpoints. Nobody at sub had said that their plant was currently putting on the IMT classification at any plant. If this is untrue we would sure like to know at what plants they are beiing utilized. Thanks.

I heard you bought a new Dodge pick-up, any truth to the rumor? If so I hope it all works out for you. I still think Ford has the best truck on the market but to each his own. I wish the best to you and your family.

You better find somebod more reliable to get your information from. Once again rumors that are nowhere close to being accurate.

Looks like things changed over the past 24 hours to go ahead and cancel the vote at MTP. Bob King announced Wednesday afternoon that he was very optimistic that management was going to work with the UAW and not give LL-6 and above the bonuses that were announced. Looks like he was a little to optimistic since the vote has been cancelled. I am now curious as to what will happen with all of the plants that have already passed a COA. Will they still follow the new language or will they revert back to the original contract that goes until Sept of 07. I guess that is a question that all of us can answer and once again "thanks to the great international leadership." Good Luck.

KCAP also does not have the machine repair classification but instead we use P/F, M/W, T/M, and Elec.. Depending on what type of repair needs to be made. I did hear several conversations took place about the possibility of getting rid of the machine repair classification but like everything else that is all rumor. Good Luck to all.

Unless something has changed in the last 12 to 18 hours they are NOT going to cancel the vote at MTP. What I have heard is that even if the vote passes it will not be implemented until the UAW and Ford work out a couple of key differences they currently have. These differences are not part of the COA but part of the way the company has decided to run their business. The international union has a major problem with several of the things that the company is about to do and unless the company cancels their plans to do these things the international is not going to help them anymore than they already have. I know a large percentage of you do not believe the international would stand up for anything in this day and age, and at times I am in that majority. With that being said I do think they are serious on this one and I actually believe what they are saying. I also feel that it is about time they grew a pair and stopped rolling over on every issue. I know that times are tuff and Ford is in a financial crisis. Even with that said, in my opinion we have given enough up on the union side and now its managements turn to take concessions. I'm not talking about the line supervisors. I'm looking more in the direction of upper management. When they are willing to give up an equal percentage of their wages that we gave up then we can begin to build a relationship to revitalize this once great company. Until they are willing to sacrifice like we have I say we give no more.

Yes they belonged to Visteon which Local 249 represents. Those employees had the option of a buyout, transfer with their work to MI, or tranfer to KCAP. The majority of them took the tranfer to KCAP. I heard the number was 67 but don't quote me on that. We did also have a parts depot in KS that closed sometime ago. I'm not sure if there is anyone left over there or not. We did get a few of there employees at KCAP a year or two ago. As far as TCAP coming to KCAP I wish you all the best. I think there might be a few left at SLAP that are waiting to come. I know that is true for the trades just not sure about production. I'm not sure who they would bring first (TCAP or SLAP). It's one of those top secret things that only certain people are allowed to know about. I'm still alive so I guess I don't know yet.

We all wish we knew for sure. The facts right now are that we are hiring TFT employees to replace the ones whom take the buy out packages. We are also being told that they do not plan on replacing skilled employees on a one for one. Instead they are going to reduce the amount of each classification. At this point in time we are still not sure how far they are going to reduce each classification. Whe at TCAP is telling you folks that you are going to be offered transfers? Just curious because last I had heard they had put a freeze on all transfers. That's why the last few folks at Atlanta are so upset about. Good luck to everyone regardless of what they decide.

You have to be joking right!!!! If not, you are telling me your local leadership is going to allow the company to layoff one shift and then work the other shift O/T during the week plus occasional Saturdays. There has got to be a better way for all involved. Maybe similar to what LAP is going to be doing with the line speed reduction. At least that way the amount of people getting layed off will be minimized. If they would go with that route they could probably do a inverse layoff and let the seniority employees take it if they choose as a TLO instead of a ILO. Most of them would be on days and the afternoon people that want to go days would be able to bump then. Just my thoughts though. Maybe now I am starting to understand why local 900 complains about their union so much. Good luck to all of you.

The two year program is 70% while the four year program is 50%.

KCAP had around 1500 sign up with approx. 180 of those being trades.

Well the numbers have now been released at KCAP and they are higher than I anticipated. That being said we will have to wait and see how many actually go when it is their time. I'm sure a fairly large percentage will back out but wanted to sign up to have that option. The total number that signed up was roughly 1500 with approx 175 of those being trades. Several tradesman have already backed out. The breakdown of the remaining trades is as follows: TRADE # of Journeymen Appr. # P/F 41 Elec 66 1 M/W 17 2 T/M 6 1 Mech 9 Smtool rep 4 Tinner 2 Painter 7 Power House 1 Cement Finisher 2 Welder 3 All of those that do choose to take a package I wish you and your families the best in all regards.

It looks like a limited number of skilled trades will go as of Jan. 1 but not all that signed up for a package will get that oppurtunity. If I were to guess I would say maybe 10 at best will be gone as of Jan 1st. I would say no more than a couple per classification though. We should know late this week or early next.

Go to Monster.com and run a search on skilled jobs. There is more out there than you think for a pipefitter or steamfitter that is willing to take an extra class or two. For instance there are over 600 job postings for industrial electrician in the US. On the other hand there are over 1,000 openings for HVAC. Yes I know that electricians could do this work as well as Pipefitters but there are jobs out there if someone will put out a little bit of effort.

If I remember correctly they can put a probationary employee on a protested job but they can NOT settle the job without a non-probationary employee on both shifts. I could be wrong but I am pretty sure that is how it works.