tcap for now

i remember back when we had fps meetings. those ever so important meetings we all had to contribute too. so important that i think we had 2 after they announced we were closing in april.

i have been enjoying my 23% off on sprint service since 2001. windows xp home edition for 65 bucks too. its definately worth taking a look. lots of good deals.

needs fog lamps and tow hooks as well. and the lower control arms shouldnt be so exposed.

i think under the new rules you could buy it under x-plan for your business.

i personally am offended by this post. i think every plant still believes in quality. thats a pretty harsh statement for you to say. at tcap we just won a jd power award for quality and we are closing. quality is still number one for us and we have no future. we are given a lot of junk parts from our vendors, and we make quality out of it anyway. which by the way comes out of our plants payroll making it look like we cant meet cost. when if the system worked the vendors would cover the repair cost of the parts they sent us. i am sure all of the other plants feel the same way and deal with the same problems. from what i have seen the plants that score low in quality, are mostly engineering problems that cant be plant controlled. or cheap parts problems that individual plants have no say about. at tcap they have invested little money in our plant. we have equipment that should have been dead years ago. our maintenance crews do a good job of keeping it running. while it may not always look like it, they do good work. and we make quality with that too. detroit has given us many hoops to jump through and we went through all of them. im sure you feel the same about your plant as do the workers from aap, nap, eap and every other plant. i hope they do invest in your plant as well as all of the others. your post "sounds" like you are putting down all of the other plants to further the future of your own plant. which is definately not a good thing. instead of saying "WE'RE ONE OF THE ONLY PLANTS THAT STILL BELIEVES" QUALITY IS JOB 1"." you should have said " we are strong believers that quality is job 1"

another well said post.

i really like that car. i would love to have one. id get my mustang and still have room for kids and groceries. that said it would have destroyed the mustang name and fords reputation if they built it. they should build a sporty wagon though. maybe a mustang 2? just kidding. i think it should be a brand new name. unless it has a serious reseblance to the original car its named for.

i agree complacency has become a problem from the top down. manufacturing and the union do need to change. but corporate america seriously needs to look to futuer. not just right now profits. the middle class isnt going away, but the lower class is growing at fast pace. the middle class is shrinking. and i likely would stay for the benefits. but i definately wouldnt be happy. especially with what the corporate execs make. they are the ones who put ford in the position they are in now. it was not the uaw or us on the line. there are way too many people in upper management and in corporate. and some of them make massive salaries. nasser's salary alone could have produced a new model. for has sank tons of money into jaguar. and for what? does that help fords image? that was spending that could have upgraded our plants. why should we take a cut in pay and benefits while the top brass throw money away? they get rich and we take the hit when profits are down. im not the one that left the ranger pretty much the same for 13 years. why should a 1993 ranger look a lot like a 2006? is it good for sales to offer old models? same goes for the taurus, crown vic and freestar. and the focus is looking like it will go that way too, as well as others. ford should have started their way forward with their designers and marketing team. then eliminated waste in the corporate offices. then to the plants.

i still think its the uaw's intent for all of us to be treated fair at work. but the system is flawed i do agree. its my opinion 2 things can kill the uaw and other unions. 1. if all employers start offering decent wages, benefits, fair treatment, job security, and some of the benefits the unions offer without being union. 2. if the uaw continues to run the way they are. they need to stop and look at their own system. while we voted some of them into office there are too many appointed positions. that makes them all friends intead of co-workers working toward a common goal with different opinions. as well as other issues.

this country is in a race to the bottom. soon all we will be is a service country with no products to offer. its already starting. a factory closes and 2000 good paying jobs go away. a shopping center opens in its place that employs 4000 people making minimum wage with no benefits. they say job growth is up. but those 4000 people cant afford much so they look to cheaper products. cheaper because the factory that made the products went to china for cheap labor to increase profit. soon they will have to lower their profits to lower prices because there wont be enough people in this country that can afford it. you can say get a college education all you want. what happens when there are twice as many doctors as therer are are jobs? doctors will become disposable just like you think autoworkers are now. same goes for engineers, accountants, or any other field. its just not feasable for the entire country to go to college and enter the job market. it would flood the system and excessive competition would destroy the pay and benefits of those jobs. putting all of us in the same boat. what happens then? will any of us be able to afford anything then? how cheap can things get? certainly not free then no one will make any money. now if there were more decent paying jobs, more of the population would have more cash to spend. the more we spend the more jobs we create. if those jobs pay decent wages their workers will spend more money completing the circle. it is the only way that can be sustained. it helps everyone including the corporate execs trying to save money. it insures long term income. that said one of the problems is who is going to start the trend? if only one company does they will go bankrupt because of the companies that keep their prices and wages lower. the uaw even with its flaws tries to keep wages fair for all of us. and many owe their wages to the uaw even if they arent uaw. i agree they have become too corporate and i dare say maybe a little greedy in thier own interests. i still believe their primary goal is fair wages, decent benefits and more jobs in this country paying decent wages. as well as being treated fairly at work. which raises morale and improves quality. ford execs have also been filling their pockets instead of looking to the future. they are a bulk of the reason we are in the mess we are in now. they sat back and invested nothing in new models for years. they were foolish to think they could sell cars that look the same after 10 or 15 years. they still dont add the personal touches other manufacturers do. they have eliminated thigs to lower a cars cost to make. not even thinkining that if it were an option many customers might pay. they left all of their fuel efficient cars for dead. and when gas prices went up they were caught with their pants down trying to run to catch up. and so far they still havent even gotten out of the bathroom stall. in 1999 did the costomer care how much we made? i don think so. sales were good and there was money to go around.

my reasons for going to the dealer and paying 10.00 more for an oil change and waiting an hour or so: the lube tech at the dealer makes almost fair wages. (for now anyway) 7 quarts of synthetic blend for only pennies more. all of my fluids checked. and topped off if needed. tires checked, pressure adjusted if needed. free car wash. if they make a mistake (which they havent yet) they would be the ones fixing it anyway. its also a good time to mention anything that could be wrong with a vehicle. for me its not so much price as it is value. most of the time the cheapest price includes no frills. and that goes for just about anything. not just oil changes.

very well stated. i think that about says it all.

our pay and benefits arent the root of the problem. i feel we earn every dime of them too. just ask someone retiring after 30 years how thier body feels. the only reason they can fill our jobs ith people for lower pay is they are desperate for a job. if times were good and sales where soaring, nobody would care what we make. if the people at the top werent making millons a year maybe i would feel different. but how can the people who failed in their jobs make that much and still have a job? how can they make that much at all? the big 3 were caught with their pants down. they relied on the government to keep the market biased towards them. they also changed their buisiness from selling vehicles to selling stocks. they also raked in profit by not investing in new models. they sat back and enjoyed the profits by not investing in their own comanies. now we have to downsize. and i had no chances to get a better education untill i started at ford. i consider myself lucky to have gotten a job in a ford plant. its hard work with good pay. it gave me the ability to support my family. and with the uaw i didnt have to worry about being treated unfairly. and job security. while yes im losing my job, i have options with the buyout package. this country needs good paying jobs. there are good jobs outside plants that will be gone when the plants are gone. partsuppliers, car haulers, truck drivers, and railroad workers will lose buisiness. smaller things like the local bar, restraunt, gas stations, fast food, liquor store, and convenience store will also take a hit. on top of that the less we make the less we spend, the less we spend the more it hurts the economy. if everything is made out of this counrty for cheaper labor, and there are no jobs left, products will be cheaper but we wont be able to afford them. if everyone 25 and older in the country had a 4 or more year degree how many job openings would there be in any given field? nowhere near enough. that would drive pay and benefits to the rock bottom, and killing the job market.

its the "way forward" for only for government and corporate executives.

they are giving us an hour for luch thurday so id say at tiffs. maybe ill go to both just in case.

im paying off everything but the house, banking some emergency money, and i might spend 2k on a used pontoon and a new dinning room table.

4 days of night shift left. it will be odd seeing so many people that i know leaving and the place is still running. the strangest part will be after christmas, i will be on dayshift as im not on the first list. that will take some getting used to and a little planning. thursday will be one hell of a day.

are you high or stupid? how dare you call all of us quitters. am i a quitter because i dont want to force my immediate family to move to another state and move away from the rest of my family? especially for a company that has let its buisiness get to the point its at today, needing to downsize? their first 2 attempts to fix it failed. what if this plan fails too? then i would have put my family through hell and for nothing by transferring. if tcap wasnt closing, id stay. i do not want to start a new career. i like my job. but since the plant is closing i will take the "BUY OUT" and move on. its an opportunity to start something new. for some its a chance to look for the job of their dreams. and on top of that, if no one took a buy out, they would be massive layoffs. and a lot of people would be forced out on the street with nothing. i will agree the system for getting people out is flawed. but if you stop to think about it, it is a really complicated thing to do. somebody will get screwed no matter what they do. its my opinion that at tcap they going about it as fair as they can. i dont know how others are doing it. as for me i made plans that dont rely on my last day. it was easy for me because of the options available to me. and i thought i was getting laid off last summer with no buyout, so i had already been working on what next. and for those taking the education buy out. it is my understanding that you have to enroll within 30days, but you dont have to start right away. for example, you can sign up in jan for a class that starts in april. ask your union reps, labor relations, or call the 1-800 number in your package for questions. that is the only way to be sure.

yes they did send it to india.

i got mine direct deposited on 12-7 but have not recieved the stub in the mail yet. all i heard was that it was an error from the new company running payroll. and eagle said the same thing at the meeting. all these payroll problems are getting out of control. if i made that many mistakes they would try to fire my ass. but its outsourced so we all have to pretend it didnt happen. i would like to thank ford for outsourcing something as important as payroll, and prooving that outsourcing hurts quality and production.

i dont like that last line lol, the ranger has been beating the toyota in quality from dar one. with the plant closing and moral at an all time low we are still building quality.

i still say keep the ranger close to its current size. make it just big enough for a bench seat in the back that kids will fit in especially car seats for the supercab. and make a 4 door with a 6ft box. give it a v8. offer a 4cy 4wd. and updated sheetmetal. that said my guess is that ford will stop making the ranger and have no replacement. instead they will meet cafe with a v6 diesel in the 150. or maybe even a de-tuned v6 with a 6sp. from what i have been hearing an f-150 with a v6 and a manual trans gets 23-25 on the highway and a 4cy man trans ranger gets 28-30. the only problem would be the cost difference. ford is very concerned about f-series sales. they want to stay on top bad enough i could see them eliminating the ranger as competition just like it was a chevy.

i got my sub pay today and was shorted 1 weeks worth. anyone know what the problem is? did it happen to anyone else?

i heard that too. i heard they wanted to, then they did not want to, and now i heard they may have to due to the lack of temps. if they ask me it would be a tough call to stay or go. if i do stay it would mostly to see the plants last day. but i dont know about doing the same job for a lot less money.

i agree, but ford should be looking at some of the features on the titan and the toyota. toyota isnt known tough trucks but they do know how to appeal to drivers. nissan has few ideas too. this is just my opinion but i think ford needs to offer more convenience features. such as supercab rear doors that open all the way like others have. (mine piss me off every time im in a tight spot trying to get the kids out. we have to play the door game). i would love to have storage boxes like the titan and my brothers 71 f-250 have. i would love to have a secure place to store my dirty jumper cables and tow rope after helping toyota drivers. factory power to the bed would be nice. i would also like 3 cup holders in the back seat since there are 3 seats, but so far im the only one i know who cares about that one. now these are jus fairly inexpensive ideas that i know appeal to buyers except maybe the last one. lately for has been cutting back on creature comforts to reduce cost, but why cant they be offerd as options then?