BTV to SHV Transferee

OK, OK, OK, Ford, we get the idea, Have fun in life. Mark Fields is trying to appeal to the younger generation, we get that. Ford is for the 25 and up crowd. Let Mazda have the 18 to 24 age group. Usually by the age 25, most youngsters have gone through the "I gotta have a low rider, mitsubishi eclipse thump thump mobile" or the 'tricked out' older nissan, honda or toyota. By age 25 most see the need for a real vehicle. Mostly a work vehicle. Whether you just drive to work or need a work vehicle, Ford has that vehicle. Why doesnt Ford show what they have. The only commercials here in the Cincinnati area are the 'Bold Moves, chick drives through the dry cleaners, pays for the guy behind her'. Not one mention of the car she or he is driving. We barley see the Mustang he drives. We need commercials of guys driving the Mustang, having fun on the open road, polishing the hood, showing it off to the neighbor, displaying it at car shows and yes, with some hot chicks. ****Commercial idea- Show older Mustangs and their owners at a car show, show the polishing, discussing and reving the engines. Then out of no where comes the New 2007 Mustang GT or Shelby. Kicking up dirt, raising eyebrows, then the 2007 Mustang puts itself in the show, the owner steps out of the car, begins to wipe his down. The older Mustang owners come running to see what he has, the are in awe! OR the trophy for best in show is about to be presented, then the New 2007 Mustang comes up the middle of the way, places itself in the show and then is awarded the best in show. Get yours today at a Ford Dealer near you!**** 2 ideas, not that hard to figure out. *We need to sell the Fusion to the single men and women. Show that the Fusion is eye appealing and stylish. Show that succesfull yuppie types just dont drive the imports. I know the Fusion is assembled in Mexico, but the $$$ comes back to Dearborn. * The F-Series in all sorts of work type situations, from pulling boats to hauling big loads in the truck bed. On the farm to casual driving in the city. For families to single people. Show what the F-Series was made for. * Sell the 500 to the 45 and over middle class crowd almost empty nest crowd. Sell the interior and trunk space, lots of leg room for the two adult couples out for dinner, in a relaxed seating state. Show the trunk space for 4-5 sets of golf clubs. To those who say the 500 doesnt have the power, the 45 and older crowd doesnt care about the 0-60 in 2.1 seconds. The real driver doesnt go to the grocery or work wanting to get 0-60 in 2.1 seconds. Only the magazine and web site guys are interested in the 0-60 in 2.1 seconds type of power. If the 45 and older crowd wanted the 0-60 in 2.1 seconds, they'd buy a Mustang! *Sell the Freestyle as the ultimate CUV for families with its space, fold down seats and comfort. Show its the best vehicle to take on vacation. Sell the hell out of the CVT performance and the no shift. Power when you need it, not when you get it! Sell its the least likely vehicle to flip over. *Sell the Escape as the best C-SUV out there, for style and performance. Show it goes off road as well as a grocery go-getter. *Even sell the Econoline cargo vans as the van of choice for delivery and people passenger companies. *Sell the Crown Vic as the choice of police and safety departments. We all know the cop wannabe's rush right out and buy Crown Vics. We should show the Crown Vic is the choice of governments throughout this nation. *Sell the Focus to the budget minded crowd. kia and hyundai owners buy those vehicles because its all they can afford. Ask kia and hyundai buyers about quality and style, they tell you the cars are cramped and have very few options. They bought because of price, monthly payment and MPG. *Give discounts, especially in states and local municipalities that have a foreign auto plant. G-town, KY-advertise the hell out of the Fusion and 500. Give a special discount to those buy a Fusion of 500 instead of toyota. Give $500 extra discount for trading in your G-town built toyota. Give the boost in those areas. Give the residents of the foreign auto plants the $$$, they will buy and the local loyalty will be gone. Wal-Mart has done that all across this nation. $$$ talks, speaks real loud. Same goes for the Lincoln and Mercury brands. Just taylor the advertising to the style and class. But what do I know, I'm just a transmission builder in Sharonville, Ohio. Your thoughts are welcome.

OK, OK, OK, Ford, we get the idea, Have fun in life. Mark Fields is trying to appeal to the younger generation, we get that. Ford is for the 25 and up crowd. Let Mazda have the 18 to 24 age group. Usually by the age 25, most youngsters have gone through the "I gotta have a low rider, mitsubishi eclipse thump thump mobile" or the 'tricked out' older nissan, honda or toyota. By age 25 most see the need for a real vehicle. Mostly a work vehicle. Whether you just drive to work or need a work vehicle, Ford has that vehicle. Why doesnt Ford show what they have. The only commercials here in the Cincinnati area are the 'Bold Moves, chick drives through the dry cleaners, pays for the guy behind her'. Not one mention of the car she or he is driving. We barley see the Mustang he drives. We need commercials of guys driving the Mustang, having fun on the open road, polishing the hood, showing it off to the neighbor, displaying it at car shows and yes, with some hot chicks. ****Commercial idea- Show older Mustangs and their owners at a car show, show the polishing, discussing and reving the engines. Then out of no where comes the New 2007 Mustang GT or Shelby. Kicking up dirt, raising eyebrows, then the 2007 Mustang puts itself in the show, the owner steps out of the car, begins to wipe his down. The older Mustang owners come running to see what he has, the are in awe! OR the trophy for best in show is about to be presented, then the New 2007 Mustang comes up the middle of the way, places itself in the show and then is awarded the best in show. Get yours today at a Ford Dealer near you!**** 2 ideas, not that hard to figure out. *We need to sell the Fusion to the single men and women. Show that the Fusion is eye appealing and stylish. Show that succesfull yuppie types just dont drive the imports. I know the Fusion is assembled in Mexico, but the $$$ comes back to Dearborn. * The F-Series in all sorts of work type situations, from pulling boats to hauling big loads in the truck bed. On the farm to casual driving in the city. For families to single people. Show what the F-Series was made for. * Sell the 500 to the 45 and over middle class crowd almost empty nest crowd. Sell the interior and trunk space, lots of leg room for the two adult couples out for dinner, in a relaxed seating state. Show the trunk space for 4-5 sets of golf clubs. To those who say the 500 doesnt have the power, the 45 and older crowd doesnt care about the 0-60 in 2.1 seconds. The real driver doesnt go to the grocery or work wanting to get 0-60 in 2.1 seconds. Only the magazine and web site guys are interested in the 0-60 in 2.1 seconds type of power. If the 45 and older crowd wanted the 0-60 in 2.1 seconds, they'd buy a Mustang! *Sell the Freestyle as the ultimate CUV for families with its space, fold down seats and comfort. Show its the best vehicle to take on vacation. Sell the hell out of the CVT performance and the no shift. Power when you need it, not when you get it! Sell its the least likely vehicle to flip over. *Sell the Escape as the best C-SUV out there, for style and performance. Show it goes off road as well as a grocery go-getter. *Even sell the Econoline cargo vans as the van of choice for delivery and people passenger companies. *Sell the Crown Vic as the choice of police and safety departments. We all know the cop wannabe's rush right out and buy Crown Vics. We should show the Crown Vic is the choice of governments throughout this nation. *Give discounts, especially in states and local municipalities that have a foreign auto plant. G-town, KY-advertise the hell out of the Fusion and 500. Give a special discount to those buy a Fusion of 500 instead of toyota. Give $500 extra discount for trading in your G-town built toyota. Give the boost in those areas. Give the residents of the foreign auto plants the $$$, they will buy and the local loyalty will be gone. Wal-Mart has done that all across this nation. $$$ talks, speaks real loud. Same goes for the Lincoln and Mercury brands. Just taylor the advertising to the style and class. But what do I know, I'm just a transmission builder in Sharonville, Ohio. Your thoughts are welcome.

6FM = 6F-Midrange It is supposed to replace the CD4E (Escape,Marineer and Mazda Tribute (formerly in the Contour and Mystique)). Also it is supposedly going into the F150 Lt Duty (option), Ranger (option).Freestyle & 500 (replace the ZF-CVT and Aisin 6 Speed) and as an option for the new Edge. Lots of work for the 6FM. The geering for it will be done in Sharonville.

Now to answer the original question, No to the going down to one shift. KY Truck has scaled back 600 units meaning SHV doesnt need to produce the 600 units. The two shifts can absorb the 600 units without cutting a shift. Thats only 60 units cut per shift each day. In Sept., KY Truck is supposed to re-align their plant and then reasses their need again. 19 new jobs were created in FN. This meaning 19 people on layoff will come back into the building. Meaning only 21 are now on layoff from SHV. 14 that were on layoff are now working in BTV. 8 hour days are here to stay for a while. 6F gears are taking more downtime due to engineering changes and product development. Machine installs are on time and under budget. Once the engineers give the OK for 6F, it balls to the walls. Van Dyke did indeed receive the 6FM assembly. SHV's wonderful plant mgr lied to the Local about getting the work and claims he never wanted the 6FM at all. Makes one wonder if he didnt submit a plant proposal. Yes, some 'Blue Shirts' got some time off, but only after they were lied to by the same wonderful plant mgr. The inverse layoff was to take place at the National level then the plant mgr axed it. The National Ford Dept approved the deal with Labor relations in Dearborn, Tom 'the Axe Man' axed it and said labor relations never was given approval for the inverse layoff and he never asked Dearborn for it. Again, he lied to the Local Union. If I were a Commitee man, I would have give him a few choice words too. Thats about it.

As stated, you should have shown up for the meeting. The info your looking for was brought up and discussed at length. Next time, show up. If the info you are seeking at the meeting isnt discussed, then step up to the mic and speak your peace!

Those who are wondering about the Sharonville plant, should have gone to the Local Union meeting this past Sunday. Everyone wants to 'Know whats going on' but always fails to show up for the meetings. I know you have a busy life, but 2 hours every 90 days for a meeting wont kill you. To show support for the Local, you should attend. And I can hear it now, "I attend all the meetings, but this last one I couldnt make it". Same excuse, same people. 200 were placed on layoff from BTV as of this past Friday, but less than 5 bothered to show up to the meeting. I'm not sure 5 was there. I know of only one personally. And as usual, the Commiteemen had to around the plant Monday and do damage control; "That wasnt said at the meeting". Support the Local or the Local wont exist. Ford will take the carpet out from beneath SHV also. Believe it. BTV are living it!

"bread fumes"? Huh? what the hell are bread fumes and where do they come from. By the way, who you believe I am is who I'm not. No I havent written any article for the newspaper or transmitter. I'm not a commiteeman or a relative of one. I'm not related to anyone in the building nor has any of my relatives ever worked at Ford that I know of. I just pay close attention and not let plant politics cloud my view. I ask the questions most wont because 98% let the rumor mill answer the questions for them. No, the ATM guy doesnt carry his gun into the plant. It is checked at the guard shack and a BTV guard escorts the atm guys to the machine(s). Pay attention. Watch closely to what is actually going on. What looks like a duck isnt always a duck. So far, my postings on this site have been 99.9% correct. The .01% error for blinking my eyes and missing .01%. As the layoff meeting in BTV happens on Tues, you will see people being frantic. Some in this meeting were on layoff a year ago and some have never been on layoff since they started working in the building. The question will be asked if members could tranfer to SHV and bump over there. The answer will be NO, not at this time. The lower seniority persons in SHV will now be in BTV dispalcing some BTV members. Remember, all members at SHV have to be in the building before any BTV member can bump to SHV. Feb of 2007 will be the soonest any curent BTV member will be able to bump to SHV. But, will the BTV member have seniority to bump any SHV member? Only 6 SHV memebrs carry less than 2000 seniority. Those six will complete their 46 weeks of layoff in FEB 2007, therefore placing them in GEN. Those six are now untouchable through the Job Security Agreement. I believe the BTV members will be out for the full 46 weeks then back into GEN around April 2007. Collect Unemployment and SUB funds while its there to collect. The funds may dissappear in the 2007 negotiations. We all know the GEN bank will be either reduced time or eliminated altogether. Collect it while you can. Damn good thing ZF workers voted to go into Ford. ZF didnt have a SUB fund or GEN bank. More to come......

I cant say who I am. I just do a lot of reading of the labor agreements and ask a lot of questions. I get interpretations straight from SHV or BTV chairmen to reduce the cloudiness the labor agreements have. I also pay close attention at the Local and SHV-BTV meetings. I like to be informed and not rumored to death like so many let themselves be. All you have to do is ask questions. If your commiteeman doesnt have an answer or gives you the "I dont know", then follow up and make them get you an answer. You pay $XX.00 in Union dues, get $XYZ.00 worth out of them. Read the language of the labor agreement and use it to your advantage. Last October when there was a lot of transfers from BTV to SHV, most from SHV didnt want to go because the OT was cut. The SHV employee didnt follow the rules of the transfer agreement, they didnt pull their transfer. Transfer time came and they all tried to back out. To late for them. They had 1 year to transfer or pull it. Transfer came up. They agreed to go when they signed the transfer slip, signed, dated and gave it to labor relations. Nothing their commiteeman or building chairman could do, but honor the transfer. When it comes time for BTV to complete the "IDLE", a lot of BTV employees will be in layoff and on recall to SHV as some retire or more work becomes available. I dont see BTV coming to a complete stop. I believe that BTV is where the "Low Cost MFG facility" will be. The building is in a great location, fantastic shape, has rail & highway access, its own heat treat facility that can handle all the heat treating with no out sourcing, inside un/loading docks and plenty of capital building investments made over the years to keep the building in great shape. One sticking point for BTV to survive, Labor cost. Ford wants BTV to have its own labor agreement like Visteon. Visteon had 2 agreements with their employees as did ZF-Ford. Lower the pay 40%, give an 80/20 health plan with $20 and $50 deductables, less work classifications and rules and NO PAID Union time. By the way, the only reason Ford workers were in ZF, Ford has an agreement with the UAW to build the CD4E. Ford sold the business and had no where to go with the CD4E, therefore as part of the sale to ZF, they had to maintain 49% ownwership as per UAW agreement to build the CD4E. the couldnt pick up the CD4E and move it, Ford had to have it for the Escape and Contour(Mystique). Ford wants to have a location to mfg parts because so many of their suppliers are now into bankruptcy. Ford can only stockpile so many parts. The warehousing of stokpile parts cost millions, ala the LOC on Half Acre road that stockpiles CVT parts. Ford pays Ryder LOC to handle CVT warehousing and Ford pays the same price for the 3 mile trip as they would for a 3 thousand mile trip. BTV could easily warehouse the parts, but the "No Guns in the building policy" kills the warehousing. The gun is attached to the customs officer. Parts are coming in from overseas and has to be counted and inspected before they are used by the customs officer. So much time and money are wasted on this process. As time goes by, I'll post more. We'll see what the letter on Thurs 5/25 says. Let the comments flow.

As a transferee to SHV last October, I was amazed at how the SHV plant was run compared to BTV (former ZF'er). WOW, what a difference 35 miles makes. The best thing I did for myself was to transfer to SHV and make SHV my new home plant. As the current contract language is in effect (JOB security agreement, part of the local agreement), before anyone from BTV can exercise their right to displace SHV workers, those workers have to be in the building working or in GEN. SHV has 60 workers on layoff. Therefore, no one from BTV can displace an SHV employee unless all SHV workers are back in the building, working or in GEN. Also, if all SHV workers were back, and a diplacement of SHV workers were to happen, it would only be for 42 weeks. Then right back to BTV in GEN. But 17 have opted to displace BTV workers as their 60 days of time are up on WED 5/24. They have been on layoff since 3/27. Technically, the SHV workers should be in BTV on Thurs 5/25. The letter should show were & when these workers will be coming to BTV on 5/25. All have 2000 seniority except 4, 1 with 2001 and 3 with 2004. Those 4 will get hit with the BTV layoff. Why would they come back to SHV knowing they would get layoff again? Health Benefits. 3 have their Health Benefits cut on May 31 if they dont come back. Those 3 are just buying time. We'll see what happens within the next 2 days. Going to be interesting.