1993Stang

O.k so when is the last time you received a raise? Has it been 7 years, if so can you go another 4 without one? Is it really greedy to ask for a raise when the company makes a profit and rewards just one side of the company and not the other? Have you made concessions when your company was is need? Did you get a reward later after the company was on proper footing? If someone is going to buy foreign they will, period. Demand for the product that is made is the only thing that will drive profit,, it is doing just that. To reward your workers accordingly would be nice. You outsiders are all alike, knowing little about the facts and listening to only what you want to hear. Bits and pieces of the news media will force the outsiders to be negative once again but hopefully they are learning that it trickles down my friend. Without us, there companies do not do well either. How often are dentists, right now as we speak, begging us to come in for an appointment? Why? Because most who left the auto field no longer have benefits, they need patients because our healthcare is all they have. Before they hated us for having good healthcare, now they love us.

Not greedy at all: WE ASK OUR IUAW (1) Settle the Grievance FIRST before you settle the contract. (2) No CAP on profit, if you say there is not one, that is not true period (3) Time and 1/2 after 8 hours. (4) No AWS, this does get rid of people while combining trades, so no added jobs. (5) Stop selling out the skilled trades and veteran production/seniority production workers, a yes vote, is not one raise since 2003, by contracts end 11 years. (6) Equal pay for equal work (7) Team leaders eliminate line supervision, so why haven't you made this cost cut yet? (8) A democratic voting process, we should all be able to vote for our LEADERS period. (9) Allow your employees to contribute to a more fair 401K plan where the company at least matches 1/2. (10) Your salary to hourly ratio is ridiculous, so much waste. (11) I don't care how many employees your CEO or the former convinced to leave, this should not have been a bonanza of bonuses just to have people volunteer to leave a company. LAST!!!! YOUR FUZZY MATH ON PROFIT SHARING IS PATHETIC...Do You see any lavish bonus requests NO! Do we feel that things should be returned because of captured market share, product demand, and concessions made to help the company out YES!! When it is returned we can all go to congress and tell them "I'm good where I'm at" Al M. didn't have a hard time expressing his views/ ya so what some bad PR, union is EATEN up by media and OUTSIDERS all the time, I think the membership can handle IT!

First, the IUAW would have to call a strike and from where we are standing they love this contract. Second, there is no way temporary workers could take over for 41K plus people walking out at the same time and know the job. Have u seen the way a line person does their job specifically. Team Leaders would also be on strike. Your to tell me that supervisors would be going to the line to train new workers? Yeah o.k.?? Third, it would be a PR nightmare for the salaried as well because product quality would take a tremendous dive. Fourth, some of your skilled trade bosses leave the job solely in the hands of their skilled trade workforce because who knows the job better than them. This would have a dangerous outcome if there was a so called un-certified temporary trade person doing the job of what can be considered professional. Fifth, everyone loses at a strike and that is why most salaried are more concerned with this than the hourly. Last, this is not meant to be mean, but are we to believe that you got invited into a launch manager type meeting, are a salaried person and want to be union during a contentious time, while most salaried folks that are invited into a launch manager meeting that are LL6 or LL5 are talking to the big dogs and not middle management? Obviously, even with our "NO" vote u haven't seen the mysterious vote outcomes of 51%. If you high enough on the management pole, can I ask you a question without insulting you, how is your 1999 escort holding up?

Thanks Spring, if I can add one more and I don't want to sound caddy but the membership should know if the I.U.A.W 's raises in this contract are in fact equal to that same sacrifice as the membership have/will make. An apology from from Settles if he did in fact say that the people that turn the contract down are not intelligent. He needs to face facts that social media, google searches, union activist have kept the membership informed more than ever before : ) we now have access to Read the contract instead of walking into it blindly. I know that social media and groups like those against us have used our rate or pay against us so why do the IUAW or others long before social networks talk about our salaries? You never here about the middle managers salaries, nurses salaries (under the union), or other salaried employees salaries discussed, only ours. There use to be a day that you didn't tell others what your salary was, it just was not proper to discuss it. So why as soon as the contract has been met the discussion of what the membership is receiving is front page news. Maybe there should be a confidentiality agreement not to discuss our wages to the media. It only hurts us, it only brings the U.A.W. membership into a bad light, media influences the outsiders looking in that we are not appreciative, we are not hard working, and we are not loyal.

(1) there has been an absolute breakdown of the members and their trust for their leadership. To re-open a contract while the I.U.A.W/company were asking for concessions and the members on the social networks and activists banning together to say no and then right in the faces of our hard working members, just days later giving back to the salaried was just not right, it is a mistrust that will never be erased period! Even if there is a equality of sacrifice agreement, our union bought this absolute dog and pony show from the company and stood by them and supported what they said that "they absolutely needed more concessions" from the hourly workforce after the contract was already re-opened. The leadership should explain this in full detail!! (2) an amendment that stands by a democratic process of electing all appointees and leadership positions. (3) Balance sheet of the Veba, which was told would be good for the next 80 or so years by Ron G. The Union took stock in order to pay for Veba, what amount was put into Veba?? (4) The lack of support to the hard working veteran full time wage earners. If the company is still in a situation, why are they hiring at all. It would seem to me that you would make due with who you have unless there is a major exodus with buyouts or product commitments that really require new employees. Admit the fact that 2nd tier wages cause veteran workers pay to remain stagnant. Don't get me wrong I support new hires but not at a much lower rate. (5) The amount of money given to the top in just 4 or 5 short years while the bottom have taken concessions. It is almost as if the hourly take concessions in order to feed the pockets of the salaried. (6) A Q and A with the leadership to ask the questions that should be answered as to why this and that was done. (7) Most important, for the equity or sacrifice/equality of sacrifice agreement to be reached before the contract is signed. This way the U.A.W. members know exactly if the concessions or amount of money given up will be returned?? Why this is important, because it shows that the I.U.A.W. wants to be fair when it comes to its hourly workforce. That they have recognized that if the membership was willing to bend a little then, in order for the membership to be "made whole" later should not be an issue. (8) REcognize that we understand that there are dynamics with the way that business seems to now run, the less the labor cost the more profit for them. Yes, we share in the profit of the companies profit but only because that profit is driven by the demand of good products and the reduction of labor cost is also a key to that profit. (9) I think more than the money is the communication of leadership to their members, we have to do this, in order to achieve that.

The $30,000 loss was a direct statement from Bob King himself. Ask him Jeff. Why on earth would you support a 2nd tier wage? You seriously need to be educated in Labor History and what the Union used to stand for! Back to the $30,000 figure, the time 1/2 alone after 8 hours adds up, with xmas bonus, performance bonus, COLA roll in with new contract depending if its a contract year. Your happy with $15 during this gas crisis? Stagnant wages of your fellow veteran employees those that are 1st tiered? Again, product drives sales, sales are the only thing that drives job security, not a union promise of anything!! A slap in the face kills an employees morale. especially if u give up on the people that are counting on u the most.

What you have lost: Jobs, when product demand goes out the window and with that your so called 1200 jobs, not added Jeff, remember that $100,000 will be enticing to those that can leave near retirement. If 1200 leave, no new jobs created. Some jobs will be brought back first from layoff. Thousands have left, so if u are right about 1200 added at $15 hr.all I can say is "seriously, how kind of them" ?? Really? Only product drives Job Security period!! A raise since 2003. Respect from the leaders Most of your hourly workforce is absolutely blessed that they have a job, no doubt about it, but when it came time and the Ford Motor Company said to their workforce, we need to give up a little in order to keep the company going, that is what was done, period! Only weeks later to give salaried back what they had lost, during what they said was an "absolute time of crisis" is just crazy. Bonuses to the top were huge on the backs of the hard working U.A.W. people period. It is no different then asking the hourly workers to cut their current wages in order to give the salaried a raise!! It is an absolute sell out to your loyal veteran workforce who work hard, spread the word to family and friends to buy the cars they build, take pride in what they build or do for the company they work for. If the company really needed to "stay competitive" they would keep the employees they have and not hire anyone. Again, the union fights a good battle for health care, I give them that and some of the returns are what we had before just another word being used in its place. IMHO, they have lost the battle for their full waged membership but even this will not bother them, because their will be a time when there are lower seniority people buying into the "job security" deal which again PRODUCT drives job security, not a union promise. That is as good as another opened contract in another two years. I'm surprised that you don't give more credit to the hard working veterans of the company while you stare at the millions of dollars the top is making.

Fair enough, but seriously minus the taxes of that $10,000, go back to 2003 when raises were no longer given, fast forward to when this contract ends and the overall picture might be a 10 cent raise per year over 10 years!!! Right is right, fair is fair, but come on more than enough people have left at full time wages, benefits etc. One dime/if that per year raise, one dime. O.k. add up the other bonus stuff and divide that into a four year contract and then again by 10 years!! I'm sorry that your family and friends lost their jobs, I truly am but someone has to make these cars and it should be a smack in the face to you, probably a very loyal 20 year veteran, that you are not worth more than 10 cents while the top get paid so lucrative. Demand drives product. People have to like the product to buy it. Our wages are competitive. Sorry but the I.U.A.W in what they stand for has diminished with givebacks to corporate greed. They fight a good fight for Heath Care Benefits, I give them that, but they left their veteran employees in the dust. Let me ask u this? If the second tier can get a raise over the next four years, why not split the difference down the middle and go 50/50 to veterans as well as the 2nd tier. Hell, they lost everything they stand for by allowing this 2nd tier shit to happen in the first place!!

Paging Captain Underpants, I mean 723, after this contract finishes, you will have officially not seen any increase in your wages for an entire decade (or 10 years) however you want it justified. 10 years!!! What company has ever been able not to give their employees (veteran employees at that) a single raise in 10 years??? Would Allen M. work for a company which has made a profit have his salary remain stagnant?? Would Bob King, Jimmy Settles, or others say it was o..k. to keep the most loyal veteran employees wages stagnant this long? This is exactly why 2nd tier does not benefit the membership in general. We'll raise the 2nd tier and the balance has now shifted because the 2nd tier want a raise and will automatically vote yes while the veteran workers still remain with the same wages and remain pissed. Justify the money, the $250 is more than half than the xmas bonus returned. The $1500 might be some of the performance bonus spread out over the life of the contract but less, way less. I still find loopholes and wordy language in the profit sharing. $6,000 settlement bonus, well just divide that into 4, will ya (after taxes) about $1,000=$1200/ per year (half of COLA). What we do love, HEALTH CARE BENEFITS but for the retirees (veterans) as well.

How many jobs will actually be created or added? You have a lot of skilled trade people that now will probably take the option to leave because of the $100,000 incentive. It has been a while since they offered that lump sum and most people probably didn't have quite the years, fast forward to 2011 and now they will more than likely leave. Again stagnant wages for the veteran workers at the plants, 6 years now and another 4 added on. I'm surprised that more people are not upset by this alone.

Why on earth would you say "shut his mouth", he wants nothing more than jobs returned to the U.S. and the wages to build those cars the same throughout the plant. This will more than likely add jobs, add overtime, add people, while all are working hard and should be receiving the same wages!! How is this Republican, I don't get it. Tell me, please, am I missing something??

LOL LOL LOL Seriously a Communist??? The Spark lady is an activists for the working class. What voice have you brought to the table "0" Nada, Nothing. Gary, in the unemployment line, well if that were true, you in Body Shop C-Crew ,probably very low seniority ,would be right there with him way at the back of the line. What is sad is he would have to protect your rights so you wouldn't lose your job because of your sen. status. I will say it again, if you feel the need to give back benefits and some of your wages I can contact the HR for you, I am sure they would appreciate the savings.

What, don't think so, that is happening as much as Gary W. changes his political affiliation to Republican NOT!!! What are some of the posters thinking??? The "Spark Lady" is on the working class side of you "the people" period!! Please make use of those ETAP funds, please I beg you. You call out old fashioned activists that are for you the working U.A.W. I hate to burst your bubble but Mazda 6 and Mustang are built on the same line as AAI, the Fusion and the Mustang can also. Bye Bye Mazda, hello 100% blue oval.

I totally see that Fusion to Flat Rock plant also while Ford sells the rest of Mazda. TCAP getting new product and hiring more people for both plants.

(1) ALL PRODUCTS TO BE BROUGHT BACK TO THE UNITED STATES (more products here creates employment and brings those who are laid off back to work. (2) 401K Match for the hourly employees. The company should want all employees to invest in the company not just the SALARIED!! This makes up also for pension shortfalls or social security shortfalls when employees want to retire. It hopefully will allow people enough to retire on time and not prolong retirement taking up space for new entries into the workforce. (3) The truth is that wages have remained stagnant for the veteran hourly in this company while we have all had significant increases in the cost of living expenses in our lives minus buying a house. If it is Equity of Sacrifice that was agreed to then DO IT!!! If you returned promises of performance bonuses, 401K match, and a better profit sharing formula to the salaried folks then do it for your hourly workforce as well. Those who build the product. Thousands walked out by volunteering to take a buyout, a decent salary upfront but reduced long term debt in the millions. (4) I know we can only ask for 3 but this contract should include a clause that says "NO -reopening of a signed contract" period. Make the contract 3 years then instead of 4.

O.k. Thanks....I also wanted to add this stuff just relates to GM but I'm sure some stuff might spill over to the other two . They have something called the Inflation Protection and Quality Lump sum payments over the term of the contract and the amount is up to $4000.00 whether this could this be a part of the lump sum performance I had mentioned previously or (Inflation Protection a.k.a. C.O.L.A.) will be on top of the $1,000/yearly.

Performance Bonus Lump Sub payments $1,000 payable on 6/10/12 $1,000 payable on 6/9/13 $1,000 payable on 6/8/14 Only time and 1/2 paid after of coarse the 40 hours have been met but for both Saturday and Sunday. Maximum Relocation of $30,000 (Enhanced) relocation will terminate ones seniority at all other GM location therefore, not be eligible for recall/rehire or RTBU/ however, other relocation packages would be available and other stimulations for someone who was laid off and the plant closed down and could not return to basic unit. Looks like there is going to be an interview process as well as a combined score for apprenticeship applications process for those considering skilled trades.

Thank You Spring, God Bless his family and his workforce family as well.

Don't Tread u are so wrong wrong wrong. Many people who have worked with him and those who respected him, were represented by him and those who were transferred not seeing him anymore have the right to know so they can offer their prayers and in fact notify everyone in case of a service for him. This is absolutely devastating news and was so sad. It is not sensationalism sorry but I don't agree. His family should know that his work family has everyone praying for them. Just as on facebook people can rely heavy on each other and then remember the good in what is now gone.

No what the hard working U.A.W workers really want back are those concessions, yes a profit is just gravy but many many years were spent with little profit but I understand that with low seniority job security might me everything to you. Is it a big deal?? yes, because many quotes have been made that wages will remain constant and instead a better profit sharing formula will be used instead, making the workers feel that this contract was a fight for the hourly and somehow this plan will be better. Again, a raise is constant with or without OT.

Skeptic and 2seater both of u really get it. A raise is solid, no matter what whether it be just $1 or $2 or $3. It adds up even without OT General. Job security, hello earth to General, GM is hiring and even bringing back 750 people that they laid off. I know, I know they can manufacture in other countries, I get it but that is leveling off with the new wages they pay and the amount of full timers that will either take a buyout/retirement. So many full time wage earners have left previously. I wonder if the maximum dollar amount will be in black and white?? Can't worry to death about job security with high seniority but if General has low, which maybe he does, I guess I would worry especially under two tier wages.

According to Crain's, Gm Contract "Future profit sharing payouts will be determined by a simple chart that provides (RANGES) of profits and corresponding payments. " Payouts will ALSO BE CAPPED. " HMMMMM I wonder what this means??? The profit can only get so big??? Profit will be capped to the hourly only?? You tell me how this reads??

Just one other note arbitration did not work for airline mechanics at the previous Northwest or Dephi. Those workers lost big time. Siding with the company instead of the workers.

Thank You for posting Spring, I look forward to more insight. I feel sorry for you Leroy, u are completely clueless. Spring is so right. Now that the 5K bonus is on the table for GM, I am afraid that the grievance might be indeed rolled into this signing bonus. If I'm a arbitrator, I'm looking at "wow they can get a 5K signing bonus, should we offer them anymore? I took a class in arbitration and my teacher, although I liked his class, he was an arbitration lawyer for the Big 3 and every time I listened to his class, it seemed he was always on the side of salary which was so hard to listen to when you are sitting there as a U.A.W. represented hourly person.

Sometimes u just can't be a voice for those who are completely blind. You are so right on so many levels and have the experience to be right in the thick of it as a rep. Sadly, most on here might be lower seniority, don't have families to feed and are o.k. with taking concessions. If they can afford less then ask them if they would like to give back some more to the company so others who don't want anymore concessions can breathe easy. Just Thursday a bill was passed in Michigan that dues will no longer be taken out of teachers paychecks anymore. Instead of an opt out plan if teachers do not want to belong to a union, now the State of Michigan will no longer deduct dues from any teacher whether they want to be union or not. Now if u want to be represented the member will have to write a check each month or maybe annually to be represented. Seniority means nothing anymore. Let's say a teacher has 10 years and the new hire has 1 year, if the one year teacher is making much less, who do u think the lay off will go to first, the one with 10 years of coarse. "They" say that won't happen??? Really? If the savings is $10, yes they would, we all know it would happen. Right to work is already in play, even if they say it is not. Did they advertise this about the teacher union membership, no. The quote was "what teacher wouldn't want extra money in their pocket? " What??? They were not thinking about teachers when they are now making them pay 20% of their health care. HIring for less for new teachers, seniority all but vanishing. Will this kind of thing ever happen to the private IUAW, who knows? But concessions were returned to everyone except the hard working U.A.W.