Mister.Roboto

Click on "Team Assemblers" in the job categories list to find it.

Really, the unions there ARE comparable. I didn't fully explain my comment before, I was heading out of the house. What we have in U.S. manufacturing dates back to the days after WWII when a lot of the worlds' manufacturing capacity was destroyed. There was little competition, and wages were high because profits were high. Ford's wages right now are what, maybe $25 / hour? So about 3 times as much as a "regular" job. What do you suppose the ratio is from a Mexican Ford job to a "regular" mexican job? Probably even higher than 3 times.

Quote: "Which Mexican or Japanese plants are unionized? And site the source...." Which are not unionized? It's pretty common knowledge. Unfortunately, the U.S. is still living in the days after WWII when half the world had been bombed to ruins.

Maybe I'm different, I was "born" into Ford. My grandfather started there in '53 and my father in '74. I worked there the summers of 00-02. So while I made good money there, I didn't support Ford just for the short times I worked there. To me, I support Ford because it's the "right" thing to do. My priorities are in order of importance: Blue Oval UAW / CAW made Made in USA If I get the first one it's good. If I get the first two it's better. If I get all 3 it's great.

LOL, if I tell you cyanide will kill you am I being negative? It's not my problem that Ford screwed up big time. And these "new clean" diesels are so damn complex and need so much maintenance that a lot of LD and MD trucks are going to go back to gassers. And you are going to see more HD trucks be remanufactured rather than replaced. The EPA wants all diesels to go away and they are doing a great job of it.

What, you think the Mexican and Japanese autoworkers aren't unionized? The UAW and CAW aren't the only autoworker unions..... F**k the union. Look at the payee name on your paycheck. Buy a blue oval, drive a blue oval.

When you're in Chicago, it's Cleveland. The Cleveland powertrain complex isn't in Cleveland either.

Check your national contract book, TPT's and their pay rates are covered in it. When I worked as an 89 dayer (TFT) I got COLA in my check, so I don't see why TPT's would not. TPT's also get the 5% pay raises (according to contract), it just takes a lot longer working 2 - 3 days a week.

http://www.weathernet5.com/news/10573317/d...wx&psp=news Sounds like it didn't affect much.

We get it, you have a lemon. Shit happens. See an attorney and get a buyback. I've seen gunshot victims whine less.

A good chip CAN fix problems with factory programming. However, you need a good 4 bank chip that replaces all of the factory programming. Many chips and programmers on the market only change certain parameters and are pretty much crap. I used to have an 03 F350, the first thing I got was a SuperChips Microtuner. Absolute garbage, it made the transmission slip. I went to a true 4 bank chip and the truck ran better and the trans worked as it should.

I don't have a tremendous amount of sympathy for those that chip their trucks and then blow things up. BUT the 6.0L is a flawed design. Or rather, Ford is running it at HP levels beyond what International designed it for. That's why people are going in for service and finding their trucks have less power. Ford is turning down the HP levels to try to prevent the head gasket failures. Now, International knew what HP the 7.3 was producing, and they knew that the 6.0L would need to produce more to keep up with the HP wars. Diesels are crazy critters, all you need to produce more power is to add more fuel, which nowadays is computer controlled. And you can keep adding fuel until combustion pressures and temps become so high that things start breaking.

I can't see anything significant happening with the Lorain site. There's so much wide open land to the west and south that it makes little sense to try to rehabilitate that land. And it's too far away from the city to put anything retail in.

Remember that the Ford mini pickup (Courier) started out as an imported, rebadged truck. It was only when Ford saw enough volume that they made them themselves. BTW, the Courier came with the Lima 2.3L engine and presumably a Ford transmission. To me it makes (business) sense to import the Thailand Ranger. All the Ranger is these days is a low cost work truck. Many are used in fleet applications where the buyers simply buy what is least expensive and fairly reliable. Building a "bigger, better" Ranger won't help those sales and in fact will hurt them.

TPT= Monday / Friday plus any necessary weekends. TFT= 89 dayers working normal weeks. Of course if there was something in writing the could keep them on indefinitely.