Tony James

Here is a glaring example of what the IUAW does to people who do not go along with them. If they will do this to an IUAW assistant regional director what do you think will happen to anyone else below them who the IUAW does not like? After Tucker was sworn in, former IUAW President Owen Bieber flatly refused to give him even a congratulatory handshake and refused to meet privately with Tucker the whole time he sat on the IUAW Executive Board. I know that to be a fact. I could not bring this article up as a hyperlink. Go to Google and type the following: NY Times Union Rebel Jerry tucker The man who is fighting the UAW. There's your democratic UAW rhetoric you like to toss around.

Well, yes, Captain, from a broader view a newspaper in and of itself is not enough. It is just a tool. When you have the two most powerful aspects of the workplace-the uaw and company-telling us daily that we have to work together, as if the interests of the corporation and the interests of the workers are the same, you are going to have resistance when it is needed during times like the recent reopener. Minds must be changed and it is not done overnight or with just a newletter. It is done by direct action. That includes direct action against a union leadership that is completely out of touch with the shop floor. If you are depending on Solidarity Magazine for your information you are misguided. That rag is nothing more than a mouthpiece for the UAW's entrenched bureaucracy. If you critisize UAW policy in an article you want published in Solidarity magazine it will not get published. If the UAW is the greatest union in the world, after this latest debacle to take away a worker's right to strike, then pal, our objective to win the fight in the world is over. Nothing in this union will ever change from the top down. It must be done from the bottom up. That starts on the shop floor. Not in the union hall where most of those people are just as bad as the IUAW. Just like King said about the worker's advancement hinges on winning power in American politics, The UAW Administration Caucus applies that to keeping themselves in power as well.

Tom Lany is a tireless, dedicated social unionist and former Ford worker at Twin Cities. I encourage everyone to drop Tom an email and ask to be placed on his mailing list

King's inconsistances illustrate why the workers on the floor need to band together and support proven candidates who will go to the Constitution Convention in order to place motions on the floor for One-Member, One Vote. Then we can get rid of people like King and put in IUAW reps who will be social unionists rather than dealing with the company unionists we have to put up with now.

Form a caucus and pound that message into the ears of the membership until your polls close

I believe that was wishful thinking on the part of whomever started the rumor. We closed because of our $300.00 cost over-run on each truck. That was not going to change with a reopener. Lean production ruled the day and far too many people bought into that crap and believed if we kept up quality lean production concepts would buy us safety. I believe Ford's ultimate goal is to close every plant in America and operate in communist countries such as China, Vietnam, and other third-world countries. If they cannot do that they will have everyone in their American plants working at $14.00 per hour. With the blessing of the International UAW, of course.

I retired last year. I am in college chasing an old dream to earn a nursing degree. I moved back to Ohio and transfered into Ohio truck Plant (RTBU). I lasted a whole 1 1/2 years at OHAP. I never liked the place. In fairness to OHAP, I really didn't give it a fair shake. The plant closing sent me there under duress. It's a long story. I keep in touch with a few folks who transfered to Michigan. Each of them say they love it there. I cannot understand the mystique other than the very mild summers compared to Virginia. The winters up here are absolutely brutal. Lake Erie ices over just like the Artic. In the spring thaw you can actually see icebergs floating. I grew up here and once enjoyed the cold. I have been fishing in Lake Erie. When I am catching yellow perch the same size as the menhaden bait I used in saltwater, it just isn't the same class of fishing. Walleye get pretty big. They do not fight like fish I am used to. Pound for pound the steelhead trout fight like any saltwater fish. I usually have to get them in the cold winter and I am just not much into fishing in rivers with ice floating past my line. Usually I can't get out in the early fall because my studies keep me stacked. I may go out a few times during the Christmas holiday, but I doubt it. In Virginia I went out every weekend until the striper season closed. I love and miss Virginia and the people I worked with. It was a great place to live for my 21 years. I found the old Prez on Facebook. His friend's list is loaded with all kinds of exnappers. Check it out. Take care and enjoy your retirement. Tony

LOL Yeah. Imagine the audacity of the members expecting the International reps to come into the plants to campaign instead of strong arming weak hearted local reps at the convention.

The convention is so canned and packaged it is absolutely disgusting to witness. The only way to give the membership the right to vote directly for the IUAW president and regional directors is to support people who are genuine candidates that have consistantly demonstrated an effort to place the membership first. By and large if you vote for candidates who are on committee they will go to the convention and vote in favor of the status quo. The IUAW intend to control the convention floor and it will take great effort on the level of what we just witnessed with the contract to pull it off.

You are right; the company is not your friend. But you would not know that with today's union leaders. They force feed the members with garbage like lean manufacturing and FPS, and many members gullible enough to believe this nonsense play along. If the company punishes us that is nothing new. Their phoney team concept has always been one-sided anyway. Besides, their goal is either to get our wages to third-world levels or send the work overseas.

Here you have a chairman, of all people, admitting that there are people layed off and he wants friends and family hired. You know, you might be onto something with your assertion about conduct unbecoming a union member. His opposition should consider it.

http://www.labornotes.org/node/2466