Maislebandit

The jack of all trades. The master of none. You 're that guy. That explains a lot.

Too bad ignorance isn't dollars. You could retire quite comfortably anytime you wanted.

There is a lot of folks who use up their time rather quickly when they get it. I think this is why they have 2 eligibility dates. Easier to manage the vacations for the company. They could give employees their pick on which date they want. That would be reasonable.

Lol. You must live on this site. Good luck to you and enjoy your "best" trade.

Yup, ask any tradesman what trade is the best and you'll get your answer. Obvious. If you think there is no skill in this trade, then what is obvious is your ignorance. NMS, mw is a great trade. You will realize this as you pass thru the ranks. It is THE original trade and all others have been bastardized off it. Is it the best trade? Depends entirely upon who you ask. Obviously

While a balanced PR campaign certainly would not hurt, I have always maintained that an honest, imbedded reporter working alongside an upper management personnel on an assembly line for a few weeks would open a lot of eyes.

I have to disagree. The tier disparity occurred during a concessionary blitz. They purposely put things to a vote to create this mess. That's an old trick of theirs. They once had a vote for 2 plants to "come back" to Ford. By voting yes it equivocally shut down other plants. Pit people against themselves. Believe what you want but the company goes after concessions in any fashion it can.

The OP has the right idea here. The company has created the environment for division. With the division, the company can conquer. They love seeing all this infighting. Tier two needs to understand this and realize that if we fight TOGETHER, we can abolish the separation. Tier one needs to understand what's happening to the younger brothers and sisters is NOT RIGHT and we need to DEMAND unity. This can become a superheated issue with a lot of emotion. I'm guessing you don't want things getting to the point of personal attacks and name calling, which I completely agree. It's just not there yet.

All profit share checks are taxed the same, regardless of your exceptions. Electing to put your check in tesphe is the only way to get around the tax. Also, you can only claim exempt on your regular checks if you had a refund last year.

Someones sounds bitter!! Didn't pass the test eh? How many times you take it? Quite irresponsible of you to make such a blanket statement. These are supposed to be your brothers and sisters? Shame on you!

Based only on the GIVE and TAKE of the equality of sacrifice agreement, yes you are correct. The actual particulars of others benefits do not concern me, just like mine shouldn't concern them.

How can you compare? Physical labor vs non physical labor. You expect those who don't use their bodies to get a better health package than those that do? I don't care what your bennies are, nor is it any of my business or concern. Why the infatuation?

Probably because you do not have the intestinal fortitude to do so. Educate yourself with the history of the US labor movement and tell me what you think common working conditions would be like today, if our forefathers elected to "never go on strike". Here's what you are not seeing or not wanting to see . You claim you have the luxury of job shopping yourself around. Fine. Any idea why you are able to do so? I don't want to hear the education/mensa/experience/skill crap either. Skip the Labor movement and you geniuses are paupers and slaves like the rest of us.

Why only the disgruntled ones? What difference does it make if they get satisfaction out of their job or not? Or if they worry about other people make? The only thing that should matter is if they are doing their job. Period. I don't know if you have noticed or not but, there has been very little replacement for attrition for the last decade or so. Ford's workforce is a mere shell of what it used to be. Whenever they do have grand scale hiring, there are going to be training issues to address. Quality will become a concern also. Believe it or not, experience counts in this business. I agree with you that we need new blood, but your suggestion that a certain segment of the workforce should fall on the proverbial sword is ridiculous. Everyone has different situations and things don't always go as planned in life. They'll leave when they are ready. BTW, I am thrilled with the fact that I can walk out after giving 30 years. I hope I am able to do so.

He's the same person who keeps getting banned and coming back with a different user name... How many ids you going on now ?

So where is the line drawn? Are the Lions okay to talk about? You know, the ones that play at Ford field and are owned by the Ford family. Sport teams (Detroit in particular) are highly revered throughout Ford automotive facilities, so why not here? Go Verlander, and go Tigers!!!!!

The day after our contract expires? Really? Mighty strange coincidence.

Trade law reform. Our tax base has been decimated by corporate America offshoring. Can't blame them, they are in the business to make $, bottom line. We need fair trade, not free trade..

The better part of a billion dollars in givebacks had NOTHING to do with that?

Dozerman, do you happen to know Tex? He is one of the last ones too. If you do, tell that good ole boy that us yanks in deeetroit miss him. He was a riot to work with.

Thanks for posting this article. He really nails it here. I hope his efforts did not fall upon deaf ears because our resources for training purposes are fading real fast. Once that is gone, its game over. There are some things you just cannot learn from a book or a website.

You stated "if you are that skilled, what are you doing in a factory?" I take this as you suggesting that no skill sets are required for factory work. "Demand" is cyclical to many companies. If demand increased w/ automakers and internet companies declined, would that make the autoworkers somehow more skilled than the internet companies? I don't think so. BTW, I don't "need" to know any of your information. I simply was curious as to which plant in the Ford system would give you the impression that "skills" were not needed.

Are you suggesting there is no skills involved with making a factory run? What plant are you at? By your reasoning, a Google employee could walk into any of our plants and show us how to run our operations better, right? Hard to compare skills that are worlds apart.

The dollar amount indicated is a package amount (benefits, legacy(retiree costs) etc.). I might agree that an able bodied person could be easily taught to perform many jobs on the line. The question is can they do it day in and day out? Back when they hired at full rate, there was always a certain turnover rate. From an outside perspective, it is easy to say "who cannot turn a bolt?" Until you have walked a mile in those shoes however......................................

It sounds like you guys are on the right track. Please keep vigilant brother, this nonsense must stop. 1. Safety 2. Our brothers and sisters with no home 3. Maintaining competency within our trades Any one of these is a good enough reason why this should not be happening.