Makeastand

According to the media, a new employee can be on the line working the job next to us.

IF this contract is ratified, Ford will eventually ask for the 20% cap to be raised. It may take a while but the two tier employees will out number us. Now to put a spin on it, if Ford returns to profitability then the UAW could ask Ford to make the two tier employees first tier. None of us know the contract yet and there are many ways it could go. I cant wait to go to the meeting and see what the hell we are voting on and not relying on the media.

What scares me about the two tier is what will happen after the 20% cap is reached? Do they get bumped up to full pay? Or is that the time when they ask for a 30 or 40% cap? Then we have another issue at hand. Are there going to be quality issues among the lower tier? Does that mean big turnover? Will the lower tier people get fired for bad quality as soon as they get trained on a job? Not to mention we had TPT's quit because of being under paid at $20 an hour. Lot of questions and what if's.

Im not saying we got a good contract, but they are making a better offer to us than they did GM or Chrysler or at least what we heard so far. I wonder if it would get any better if we vote it down?

If paint runs slow enough trim will run the float empty which will reak havoc on venders getting us our parts, like thats not all ready a problem. Management likes to keep the float at about 120-150 jobs for vender purposes so they can stay ahead of us. If that number drops below 70 jobs we will be looking at time off due to running out of parts.

Ive talked to several people who have Super duties built in Mexico, they have had problem after problem out of all of them, even out of the drive train. The Super duty is a huge money maker for Ford and the biggest name in light duty commercial trucks. Why jepordize all of that with Mexican made engines that will fall apart? And on top of all that, Navastar will pay Mexicans $20 to work a 12 hour day and build those engines for next to nothing and make Ford pay the same price for junk engines. So to answer your question yes shun anything built in Mexico. Shun anything built outside of the U.S. Buy American made products.

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/artic...437/1148/AUTO01 http://www.kpcnews.com/articles/2007/10/24...f9970715270.txt Our engines could come from Texas or Mexico now. What next? Last I heard Ford was talking to Caterpillar. I hope that works out. Cat engines in our trucks will turn everybodys heads, they make the best diesels. Ford needs to cut Navastar off if they build our engines in Mexico!

I work at Ford not GM, but I am outraged by the so called new contract that is being proposed. What the hell are you thinking Ron? Is the international taking bribes from the "BIG 3" or what? I am not the kind of person that says vote the union out but I think we need to vote out the top officials in the international and change the by-laws to where we (the body of the union) and not just local officials, can vote for the international officials. We need to stand up and make a statement and an example to the top officials that " If your not bargaining for the memberships best intrest then you WILL find the door. Your fired!" If this so called proposal is ratified, it will be the downfall of this nations blue collar workforce slowly but surley. WTF Ron! I am disgusted and I hope you cant sleep. I also hope you get the shits for days!

What kind of bootleg bullshit is the union trying to sell GMs back-breaking employees? If GM ratifies this contract, by 2011 the noncore workers will out number the line workers and they will get dumped on just like Delphi. Ford and Chrysler will then follow suit saying they cant compete with GM. That will trickle down and ruin all blue collar jobs in America. How many loop holes are there in this proposal? Ronnie should be ashamed.

I have an idea. How about putting the two tier employees on a seperate contract. Let them vote on their own contract so we dont get hosed on like Delphi did. Because of what happened to Delphi, Im scared of the whole two tier thing, and Im sure it wouldnt take long before they broke one off in us.

The last time I checked the seniority board, there was a guy with 50 years in at KTP. I wish the best for him and hope no one gets put in a position where they HAVE to work that long. I hope after 30 years, I can go on a fishing trip and never come back to work.

When we gave up our raises to help with insurance, the vote barley passed. At GM it didnt pass so maybe our contract will be a little different.

A memo was passed around the plant about a year ago that said that the total cost for labor on our vehicles that we build at KTP was about $1600 per truck. Supposedly that includes managements salary as well. The media claims that cost is closer to $2500 per vehicle. Now with that being said, at my plant we build trucks that range between $35k-$65K. Management at my plant says Ford Motor company makes $10k-$20k profit per truck depending on features, 4wd, and cab size. We build a lot of fully loaded trucks. A total of 1200 trucks a day. Thats a slow day. Now, I can understand taking some cuts to "stay competitive", but no UAW worker should ever have to make huge concessions like GM is asking and threatening to move jobs over seas. They are the ones being unreasonable and should learn to bargain more fairly. Good luck to my brothers and sisters at GM. May God be with you.

I work at KTP. I know workers at GM, Chrysler, and Toyota. We all have very similiar issues. All auto workers are put into a chaotic invironment and at times it can be extremely stressfull. In an industry as large as the auto industry, plants evolve every day in correspondance with what they build, therefore everyday things are changing. As soon as one issue is resolved anotherone takes its place. This is where the venting comes from like rmml was talking about. We have to adapt and overcome each and every issue on a daily baisis and that is why we vent on this forum, because we all care about our jobs and the products we build. Its just a stress relief, but some issues get resolved on this forum.

Makes since to me. By the way, we have voting machines at my union hall but every once in a while we use pencil and paper. Tricky huh?

I dont remember exactly where I read it but I think it was a link on this forum. Anyway I read this article about how Ford divised a new plan to develop better relationships with their vendors a few years ago. The analysts said this plan was the best they have ever seen but was poorly implemented. I believe this is a good portion of our problem in conjunction with management. I believe my sup is deaf. All of management is deaf. We have problems but they dont listen. Anyone in my dept. can tell the sup about a problem and before you can get it all out he will walk off. Poor communications skills. This has always been a problem but it has gotten worse since we stoped having CIWG meetings and town hall meeting on a regular basis. Everyone at KTP should be proud because we have persevered through deaf ears, a sorry economy, and high fuel prices. Weve been having parts problems with vendors and a multitude of changes that have taken place to help stay competitive with the market and threats that "if we dont, we will be out of a job". They have taken things off of our jobs, sped up the line speed, then added those things right back and some. Thats why so many tpt's quit a $20 an hour job. FORD MOTOR COMPANYS OWN WORST ENEMY IS ITS POOR COMMUNICATIONS WITH ITS EMPLOYEES AND ITS VENDORS. Thats as simple as it gets. All UAW Ford workers at every plant should be proud because we have put up with so much crap, but we keep on going and building quality vehicles ( AT LEAST QUALITY THAT IS IN OUR CONTROL). And Im tired of outsiders saying we make too much money. We are the most versatile employees, (meaning the most valuable employees) in America today. Not very many people would put up with the shit we do on a daily basis. Oops, Im getting off topic. Im going to bed.

If somone takes a buyout, they will still recieve a pension and healthcare according to their vestment. 5 year vestment for pension and 10 year vestment for healthcare.

Lets say in a year or so, H.R. 676 passes or some other form of National health care passes, what happens to the V.E.B.A. money? I wonder?

My supervisor told me that we will be off due to "anticipation" of slow sales, retooling the bodyshop and just in case we go on strike. Um....yea ok. Thats what my supervisor told me.

The coa says we are getting the flexible body shop. I heard that no other plant has anything in writing saying that they are getting anything for voting in the coa. Does anyone know if this is true?

Sad, but so true.

Im not sure which "New Directions" are you refering to? The New Directions which is funded by the Ford Foundation or simply the bar down the road. What are you refering to?

Sounds like you obviously have not listened to anyone.

Hey, It sounds like you have a voice and you care so why give up now? Because it is easy? If you raise hell loud enough and LONG enough, "hey this is wrong," you will eventually draw supporters of your cause, our cause. We cannot give up because we THINK no one is listening. The guys who fought for the things we have now, do you thank they gave up so easy? Do you think they are going to stand up and fight once again? HELL NO! They are all retired and in disgust because we are not able to stand on our on legs and fight another day for ourselves. It is easier to sit on the side lines and hope someone will do it for us. You sound strong, stand up and fight. Make the change that you want to see happen. Thats what we all need to do, stick together. If you make a stand your brothers and sisters will thank you, your family will thank you and I will thank you. In one voice let's stand together.

A lot of you have some really good ideas like bringing back the Bronco, updating the Ranger, building better quality vehicles, better fuel mileage, competitive pricing and so on. Some of you just complain and whine about how union dues are a joke or blaming "piss poor management" on the state that Ford is in. We all know that not just Ford but the 3 American auto makers are in a huge pile of crap right now. If every one in this forum really wants to keep their job and see the good times and actually not dread geting out of bed to go to work again, then here is what you do. Show up for work, on time, every day just like you said you would when you hired in (yea, you remember, just after that time you were praying every day "Lord please give me this job"). Stop going to medical every time some one pisses you off. Stop saying "I'll show them, I'll just AWOL tomorrow." Yea you showed them alright, you showed them that you know how to lose a day's pay. But hey, you can afford to lose a day's pay because you make $28 or so an hour. By the way who fought for these wages. Stop crying about the union fighting for the worthless people. By law they have to, ask them about their lawsuits. Ask your self what worthless people are they fighting for. You maybe? Have you ever gone AWOL to go fishing or just because you just didnt feel like going to work? Have you ever filed a greivance? Been wrote up? Give your supervisor a bunch of crap just because you can? Let bad quality go down the line without writing it up because your angry at the person who does that job? We all have to make a change to our future around at UAW Ford and we all know this, it isnt rocket science. If your not happy then do something about it and stop crying "he gets to do this and she gets away with that." Everyone is acting like a bunch of babies. Lets snap back into reality and come to the realization that we are assembly line workers. Blue collar folks. We are not executives who can ask for better pay and benefits and get it. We have to demand it but we also have to be worth it. We have to make a change, a stand, and a difference. And we have to do it together. How can you expect to keep our great pay and benifits when you bad mouth the union and the company. "Our union wont stand up for us." Watch what you say because if you havent noticed..... YOU ARE THE UNION!!! WAKE UP and act like adults, run for office if you like. Get rid of the "good ole boy and girl syndrome." Treat people the way you want to be treated and build that vehicle like its your own because your livelihood depends on it. Or you can sit back, do nothing, and bitch and whine and vote the union out. See how fast we go back to minimum wage. Your choice.