Makeastand

Yea they are both bitches. Sorry I forgot to acknowledge Mitch.

Here is another article. Click here "When President-elect Barack Obama tapped California Democrat Hilda Solis to be his administration's Labor Secretary, union leaders across the country rejoiced".

Finally, a labor secretary that cares about the working class and is pro union. Some republicans are whining about it though. Goodbye Elaine Chao, you bitch. Click here

More politicians should follow in the foot steps of Barney Frank and support the working class Americans. I'm glad theres at least one politician who has the balls to stand up. I just hope the rest will stand with him.

The article says the ecoboost is a turbocharged V-6. Either way, if it has more power and and better fuel economy then that is definitely a plus. Awesome car and it looks great!

That was interesting

Pussyfooting around would not benefit the company or us. You have no idea what you are talking about, you just like running your mouth.

On one hand you say "the committeemen are lawyers and should get you out of any kind of trouble. On the other hand you say "if there are problem employees, let the company worry about it". Why don't you try to make a little sense when you make a post.

WTF, are you serious? Look for loopholes. Please!

In case you've never worked anywhere else (ass u me that you are management at Ford) non union workers cannot afford a lawyer. Thats the pourpose of the union. To keep the laborer from getting screwed over by people like yourself.

People are already complaining about how we are over paid. If there were no union then we would take a pay cut. The company may pay a white collar worker more for good performance, but never a line worker. I have worked at other union and also non union shops and it is to my experience that at a non union shop they typically set a pay rate for example: When you hire in you will start out a $7 an hour. If you make certain quotas or make certain performance ratings you will incrementally get raises to say $9 an hour. If you have made all of the criteria then you may get $10 but no more unless you are on night shift at which time you will receive an additional .50 an hour. If you think we could make even more money based on performance without a union, then you need to wake up. A blue collar worker at a union or non union shop, it doesn’t matter, will always have a ceiling on their pay.

I come to work every day on time. I do my job correctly with no trouble. I do not need the union to "have my back" because I do what the union and the company asked me to do when I hired in. Come to work and do your job. That is all you have to do and you will never need anyone to "have your back". The company cannot fire the 5% that should be fired (lazy victim mentality types) because the union protects them when they shouldn't. For instance the guy who got caught stealing parts in his lunch box and security found thousands of dollars more in his car that he had planed to sell on e-bay. Shouldn't he be fired? Why should the union fight for someone like that? Wouldn’t that promote thievery on the job? The only reason they do is because they have done it in the past so now workers can sue the union for not getting their jobs back when they have done it for someone else. If the company is violating your constitutional rights then you need to hire a lawyer.

He is not a lawyer. A committeeman's job is to make sure the company isn't dicking you around, not to get you out of responsibilities. Thinking that it’s the union’s job is to get you out of trouble is crazy. The Committeeman is there to make sure your working environment is safe and ergonomic, you are getting paid the right amount, not getting cheated out of vacation time or personal days, seniority rights and overtime equalization are exercised correctly. These are the type of things they are used for, not to get you out of a bad situation YOU created. The union has helped people in the past that they shouldn't have (awolers, thieves, drugies, ect.) and now people think they should get away with murder and the union will "take care of it".

That is one bad-ass truck!

Found this today in the paper. You go Mark! I hope you get to spend enough time with Obama and Biden to talk to them about the UAW and middle class workers. Tell them about the myth and the lies that have been created about our pay. Ask them why congress/senate and Bush want us to make concessions when we only make up 10% of the cost. Ask them why the banks received bailout money without any oversight. Ask them why congress is getting a raise while they are asking the hard working people to give back. Good luck! Make us proud. Click Here

We are not giving up anything, yet. If we give up anything, it will be similar to the concessions that GM and Chrysler make, If any. They may not give up anything but you can bet if they do, Ford will seek similar concessions in order to "compete".

"Ford Motor Co. has not asked for federal loans, but said it might do so if the economy deteriorates further. Ford is expected to seek any concessions from the union that GM and Chrysler receive as part of their federal aid package." We better put our waders on, it might get deep.

I'm sorry Trim but I still don't understand where you are coming from. A committeeman is not a lawyer. You cannot compare the two. A committeeman’s job is to make sure our rights are not violated while we are at work. Example: You've had perfect attendance all these years but suddenly you are deathly ill and have to go into the hospital. After a couple of weeks you come back to work and labor relations dept. gives you a bunch of crap because your doctor didn't fill out the paper work correctly and they threaten to discipline you. That’s when you need a committeeman. Now your are telling me the guy who is late every day because he is out in the parking selling drugs and is so high he cannot hardly stand up, should have union representation? A committeeman should be trying to justify these actions to the company? The reason I am asking is because this is the way you come across. The "attendance part" happened to me. I don't miss work so I am not sure about all the paper work and who completes what. The "high drug dealer" was a real frustrating experience for my team. Not every situation qualifies for union representation. Committeemen are not lawyers.

Yes, you are so right.

Credit scores/ratings are lower than they have ever been among Americans. The liberal democrats pushed for equal lending to minorities and the poor, and banks/lending institutions took horrible advantage of this by offering "subprime" loans to applicants that they knew could not afford the loans. If you dont know what a subprime loan is, it is a loan usually with no money down and an unusually high intrest rate and/or fees. What most people know but cannot fathom, is the fact that banks/lending institutions do not lend money, they make money. I don't mean they print money, they create it out of thin air. Example: A bank has $100,000. The government says, a bank can "loan" 10 times the amount of money said bank actually possesses. So the bank can loan $1,000,000 by law. If the bank loans that money at 5% intrest for 10 years, over the term of the loan the bank will have pocketed $272,786 out of thin air, on top of the $900,000 that they didn’t even have. That would be $172,786 more than what they started with, plus $900,000! But now the government doesn’t care what the “actual cash on hand, to loan ratio” is, so the banks said lets make even more money with these new "sub prime loans". If that wasn't enough, the banks had another great idea by offering Mortgage Backed Securities or MBS's, only the banks aren't telling the investors what percentage of the MBS's are sub prime. Yee haw, now everyone is fucked because the poor people the banks tried to take advantage of didn't pay up. Well, the banks aren’t really loosing any money, they just aren't creating it, which means the execs aren't getting huge bonuses. Now the GOP says amongst their selves "these banks are holding our money so if we bail them out, maybe they will pay us a little extra interest under the table. Now the banks end up with billions of bailout dollars that they not only use to take lavish vacations with, but they use it to pay out more bonuses and pay out dividends to their investors (which by the way, the Big 2 are not allowed to do with their LOANS). So here we are with two companies who are just trying to stay afloat in a recession that our government created. The Big 2 were given two small bridge loans with so many stipulations and regulations, and were set up for failure. We all know that 621 is too low of a credit rating to take a chance on, but given the times and circumstances, what else were they supposed to do to sell cars? Even if they built the most wonderful car ever, with the best quality and at the best value, it would not sell in this economy. The American auto industry has been set up. Bush gave the Big 2 bridge loans so that they would not file bankruptcy on his watch, and hoped that the American people would forget all the dumb shit he done. The GOP voted down the bridge loans to satisfy their constituents (the transplants). Bush gave the LOANS with so many stipulations so that it would bring down organized labor and destroy the middle class. I better stop here. I’m falling asleep and being long winded at the same time lol . Sorry for the rant.

I believe that 800 is a perfect credit rating so I would say 621 is too low to set the bar. IMHO it should be around 650, but still, 621 is supposedly above subprime (subprime loans helped get us into this recession). It boils down to Cerberus. They are the same company who owns Chrysler, and they own 51% of GMAC. In order for GMAC, GM, and Chrysler to make money they need to sell cars. It gets frustrating when you cannot make a sell due to credit issues especially when they potential buyer makes enough money, but cannot qualify for a loan because he/she just paid off their bankruptcy last year, for instance. Credit ratings can be deceptive also. A guy with great credit can finance a vehicle he cannot afford. The banks and lenders are too greedy and give people loans they know they cannot afford and/or charge outragous fees and rates (subprime). Thats what got us in this mess.

I is geting increasingly harder and will probably get worse untill they figure out they cannot break us. We have to hang in there until the economy picks up. The way we (the body of the union) fight them, is to educate the general public by word of mouth, the truth behind deceptive media outlets. People like us need to be aware of the media and stay on top of it so we can share the truth with the blue collars that dont know any different. We need to get them on our side and show them that the rich are trying to squash our voice so they can kill the middle class. Knowledge is the only thing they cannot take away from us, and this is also our biggest weapon. How we expand, use, and share our knowledge will be our fate.

I hop we keep the education center, it would be a huge mistake to sell it. Most members do not realize that anyone can attend classes there and that is where our union leaders learn things like bargaining skils and contractual language reading skils.

I don’t believe Allin was trying to pour salt in the wound. I think what Allin is saying is we need to be aware of what these uberconservative media outlets are saying to further ruin our name and cause controversy among us and the general public. The reporter says "I would like to know what the UAW is doing with our money". I have news for the reporter. We (the UAW) did not borrow any money for your info. Tell your GOP friends to do their jobs and fix the economy!

You are right to an extent. You have to remember that Ford is and has been on the right track for a couple of years while the government was asleep and let the U.S. economy go to the crapper. If people don't have jobs, are worried about their jobs and/or taking pay cuts, they can not afford a new vehicle. Its not all the fault of the Big 3. "FORDWORKER" We definitely cannot turn our backs on the retirees. What choices would you want "teir 2" (new hires) employees to make when we retire? Some day our future will be in their hands. I dont want to work my but off for thirty years thinking I have a pension and healthcare, for some snot-nosed little brat to sweap my tired feet out from under me, so he/she don't have to fight for their own lazy asses. Yea those teir 2 employees will not have the same benefits and pay as us but what people tend to forget is they are UAW and they will be negotiating their contracts as well as ours when we retire.