allford1

I would like to thank all those at STAP who were so kind, helpful and understanding when my wife was first hired and taken into the St. Thomas Assembly Plant family. Starting a new job is always a stressful time but the people she worked with over the years always made it easier no matter what line she worked on. You are a CLASS act. It will be a very tough day for all of you workers and those that are retired. To the ford company you were a number but to your fellow line workers you became family. Like I have said before this is now our 5th job loss. The way I look at it is that we have been thrown overboard again but with a life jacket and must swim till we find another boat to pick us up. Good luck to all of you and never stop swimming. To the remaining ford employees of this forum, thanks for allowing me to look in and at times post my thoughts even though I was not an employee. I wish you all well with the next contract but keep your unions feet to the fire and make them accountable for their decisions. I hope for the best for all.

I'm sure people won't cause a problem with the chance of losing your severance for being fired on the last day. I heard that as your job is done you have to leave the plant and can't stay to the end. Not sure if this is true but I do know at the Sterling plant the employees were allowed to follow the last truck to the end. I guess some companies have more class. I hope ford will allow these hardworking dedicated people see the last car out the door. If you choose to be an idiot and cause trouble, your fired. There will be hard times ahead for alot of people. I wish you all the best.

I thought I would give a little advice from my own experience with plant closures. Tell the caw to keep their action centre and take that money and spred it around to the people losing their jobs. I have had the pleasure of 3 so called job action centres and they are USELESS....most find work on their own as well as all the other so called services. Truly a waste of money. Also a side note about buzz saying scott is up and coming.......GOOD LUCK caw! I guess if you pull your joy stick and your head goes up and down you are a rising star in the eyes of the caw. GOOD LUCK to all at STAP

Perhaps our govt.leaders in both the USA and Canada should stop making it so easy for industry to leave for countries with unrealistic cheap labour and allowing their products back into our countries without a fair tarrif to allow a even playing field. With all the higher paying labour jobs being allowed to leave, states and provinces have lost a huge tax base. Im not a economics expert but to me if you lose all the high paying and highly taxed incomes and only replace it with minimum wage taxed incomes you will have a budget shortfall and now that makes any public sector salary seem way to high. It will, and has become a vicious circle with no end in site. As each job class, private or public is put on the over paid chopping block you will be told by your govt. leaders that each group is paid too much and they have another budget shortfall and the general public will fight with each other pointing the finger and help them force each group down even farther to the point where even Mc Ds wages will be put on the block. Welcome to the hamster wheel of control.

YUP....heres a heads up for everyone...I worked for a corrugated plant and we set production records country wide with equipment that was OLD yet they shut our plant down. Later I saw our old production manager who was a great leader and had an open door policy and was let go by our old company. I asked him personaly why they shut us down when we were so good with old equipment...his responce to me was ...POLITICS...when someone makes a decision high up even when its proven to be wrong...its a done deal no matter what. He fought to keep our plant open and raised such a wave he was let go. SHIT FLOWS DOWN HILL!!!! Plant closed end of story!!!!!

I f this is true then I would lawyer up and fight for ownership of your hall. You have been paying the tab on your local hall for many years so you all should be compensated when it is closed and sold. Not only does the company owe a severance but so should the union since it could not save you. The so called negotiated severance was already the basic and nothing more. Ask them and listen to their responce....I would love to hear the logic. JUST ASKING?????

Would this not fall under health and safety and should this not this be up to the caw health and safety rep. to make sure this was fixed B4 out side gov. reps are called. Who dropped the ball?????? JUST ASKING????This has nothing to do with a plant closing . SAFETY IS JOB ONE!!!or maybe this is fords new policy F-U keep making cars???????????

Any noise and fist banging done at a caw meeting is like pissing into a hurricane. Get a law firm outside and look into this. Nice to see SOME begin to open their eyes. I have been through 2 plant closures both union represented and guess what.......after you are done and paid dues till you are done, they are GONE. FIGHT THIS if you can, hold their feet to the fire, cause once its aug. or you are let go they have moved on. Trust me you are an after thought to the caw and are now only a source of money. YOUR TIME IS RUNNING OUT!!!! RAISE HELL! again GOOD LUCK.

I'm afraid you are dead on. Still can't believe vast majority bent over and grabbed their ankles as the caw national walked by . The chance to stop this BS has passed, but I would not just let this go..let a good law firm look at this first. You SHOULD spend your LOCAL UNION money on them and see. Oh Wait....local union due money is not for your benefit!!!.....even when your plant is DOOMED...GOOD LUCK!

Holy S%*t I would call that more like a free fall. Hang on to your lug nuts the fan is spinning fast!! I look forward to the speeches.

Interesting article, I feel like I have heard this before.Ford comes knocking with out stretched hand with the ole we need HELP to keep jobs in Canada, ask for concessions then close plants..It WORKED.. now repeat recipe. Look out OAC someone will be coming to your door again . I think the tax paying general public will be a little fed up with this game so it will soon be time for the good old firey speeches from the caw leadership and look what that did for STAP

In the letter I believe it said STAP Could remain open after Aug. 31, if orders need to be filled. I think the wording of perminently Idled is legal jargon to allow the plant to run its orders out and cover any grey area of production running past the closing date. Union answers would help and should now be expected in a VERY timely manner right Scott

Sounds to me like a politically correct way of saying GET THE F*&K OUT... WE DON"T NEED YOU ANYMORE ...AUG.31,2011....just a guess??

Now that there is an official date can someone tell me if in the contract wording does it state that 'ALL' employees will be paid until the exact closing date? Production will no doubt slow and people will be let go early, so will that leave the local Union exec. to be the only ones there till the very end?

I would be surprised if anyone (ST.Thomas /WINDSOR) outside of OAC gets hired from here on...I hope you all enjoyed the CAW COOL- AID at the last VOTE. Why is Trim making so much sense????

I don't think anyone is blaming the caw for ford shutting down STAP. What I do see and hear is union dues...( UNION HALL / 1520 bank account ) being sent to an organization that no longer has the best interests of its rank and file at heart. Once the contract was signed and the plant was officially said to close the caw no longer had a vested interest in STAP. Any decisions made by the caw does not involve STAP and I'm sure they don't call and ask for STAP involvement in the next contract. So if you are no longer being represented then why if you call yourselves brothers and sisters do you continue to take money from a plant that is closing. The caw excepted the contract and severance ford offered and recomended all "BROTHERS AND SISTERS" to except it so why can't the caw offer to give a little something back to those losing their jobs. Just remembering the words " IN SOLIDARITY "!!........(just a thought)

Once the caw said that STAP was closing, they STOPPED representing STAP. The contract was signed and you get what you get. The caw is no longer looking out for St. Thomas and you are already forgotten, other than your monthly DUES, LOCALS bank account and HALL. This is what your money gets you......NOTHING!!! or is Scott hiding in his secret underground layer hatching a caw plan to keep it open...NAAAAH... he is getting his cover letter updated to give to Whitey. Redirecting your dues to a charity is a great way to say thanks until the caw shakes your hand on your way out. (just joking about the handshake)

I think Ford fared better than GM and Cryco because they shit lucked with the timing of their restructure. Then with the contract, back peddle and closure of all the plants using the WE CAN"T COMPETE they dodged a bullet. What I am now waiting for is the toyota leaders to now play the same compete game and market share loss call back wages from employees and the cycle continue. I don't feel that this will be over for awhile. If toyota does that than Ford and the others will come calling again. Hope I'm wrong but this is not over. Don't carve me just enlighten me with your thoughts

After all the smoke settles toyoDA will turn to his N American employees and tell them they have to take a pay cut because toyota can not compete after such a costly fix and market share loss. Then guess who will come a knocken again with the we can't compete excuse. That was the dream I had, hope it doesn't come true :slap:

I have been a faithful union supporter all my life and even though I'm not a CAW member my wife is and sorry if I piss rank and file off but here is my union history. I was a union member at my first job 19 years .....lost job to plant closure. ..and no help to stop plant shut down!!!!.....next job I was a member of their union 10 years.....lost job to plant closure. no attempt.to stop plant closure....now am a TEMP... and I"m on call and pay union dues, but places have been out sourced and will get less call ins...so basically seeeeee yaaaaa. Now my wife a CAW member and St. thomas plant worker is throw"n to the wolves as has been predicted by a Oakville union comment way back( as I read the forum). So I would say SOLD OUT by the CAW. I do not know what has gone wrong but what I do know by EXPERIENCE is the so called UNION does not have your back and be careful who you trust. If this is how a UNION (CAW ) protects its rank and file then I would be very cautious. In life things are black and white and if there is a gray area watch out because money ...UNION DUES... will always come first only with the union ...why else would they charge union dues to a plant that is doomed to close. If you were a true UNION you would STOP dues to a plant you have admitted is done......but NO ...THE GREAT AND POWERFULL ...CAW ....still wants the money from the DOOMED ST.THOMAS PLANT>>> Oh YA thats right they got a severance >>>>>>that was LESS than GM plants closed , the company that took money to go bankrupt !!! THATS THE FACT SO PLEASE ENLIGHTEN ME and shove you're grammer and spelling comments. I respect a UNION that is HONEST and helps its people but if ...as in STAP case is done then why the extra burden to a pay cheak with a union due........once you say they are done why a due at all ....or why if the STAP union hall that was paid by STAP union dues..... the money of the sale go to the CAW and not go to STAP people retired and working.....THEY PAID FOR IT....NOT anyother plant... SORRY for the rant and I'm open for some constructive comments.......CAW and STAP CAW local answers would be helpful...again like I said we have been loyal union supporters but please helpfull answers to these questions.. I will support those that reflect a true meaning of UNION!!!!!

Sorry Sparky this was not directed at you, I was just generalizing using your toyota comment and trying to answer to those with the question of loyalty. I ment to say that but got ahead of myself.. My bad..

So if he has 5,10 15 or 20 years from ford and gets a job at the big T who is investing in Canada, should he buy ford? Lets face it if you LOSE your job you will have NO product loyalty because your income has dropped from 30 to about 15 if you are lucky. With that wage you look for bang for the buck and if the other car companies are close to any ford product in cost then WHY GIVE MONEY TO FORD WHO LET YOU GO. No one would buy a product from any company that said SEE YA! I would buy only North American but if Toyjoka hired me or my wife sorry but thats what I would buy, just like any other person who lost their job at ford would do. Ya you get a severance and ya its not bad compared to most but once its gone then the dollar kicks in. Economics 101! Just a side note...I have and will only buy North American but since ford said see ya, we will look at other products and so will family and friends. Don't BS.. if it was you you would do the same. If your wife divorced you because you weren't in her future plans would you still stay loyal to her? Good luck OAC.

I guess you could also look at it that FORD gave the wages and bennies and they didn't need the CAW. You can't give credit to the CAW for all the good and say they forced FORD and then say its Fords fault for the bad and hide behind, "we will live to fight another day". Ford is in total control and more so then ever. I hope you never lose your good paying job cause my guess is you would be pointing also. How about this... since the CAW has excepted the closing of STAP lets not charge union dues to these people or give them a union bonus for their years of support. Don't think thats gonna happen though. Sorry you are losing your job but we still need to get our money to represent you till you get kicked out. Let these people vent and shut the F*#k up and be glad you are not in their shoes. Good God this area has been hit hard and there is little to fall back on. I believe its called EMPATHY wtf.

This is my final rant on this site, and I will come clean and say I'm not a Ford employee (SORRY) but my wife is, and she worked at STAP. This is our 5th job lose since 1994 between the two of us and all were union jobs. To MR.ED .... I am glad you came out on top and it worked out for you but please don't piss your good fortune all over this forum and be all in your face toward people who feel let down and are now in a situation of great uncertanty. You may feel the union is great and I can understand that because you my friend are still working for Ford at a great paying job. The people at STAP are not or at least for not much longer and chances are will not get work at such a good wage so YES IT HURTS. The CAW knew that STAP was doomed and even spilled the beans at a meeting in Oakville according to a posting on one of these topic threads. I have always said to go for the best severance as possible if no product was coming. The CAW National knew this for quite awhile and this is the best they could do. GM recieved a better severance when they were going down the tube. Ford hinting at a profit for last quarter offers alot less and tells the CAW if you don't except this we will begin pulling product out of Canada. Well if this is how Ford feels about our workers our quality and thinks that Canadian customers will not buy from companies that invest in Canada and Canadians, then they will get a rude awakening. The CAW bought into this and the rest is history now. The CAW is nothing and they proved it by being dick-tated to and cowering. Ah yes, be happy with the severance you got and remember who got that for you. The bar is set lower now for OAC and Windsor so be ready for 2012 cause this is far from over. To all STAP workers...I know the pain of this and to say it will work out is only a white wash. Please take the remaining time and prepare to give yourselves a bit of a cushion. In the end to all remaining CAW workers I wish you all good luck and hope you are never on this side of the fence because there is really no place to go but down. We know through experience. To FORD we would like to say thankyou for the opportunity to work for you, and your welcome, for all your employees hard work to keep giving you a quality product. We have a family member battling cancer so UNION DUES being transfered to charities is a great idea if it is OK to do that? Good luck to all and again sorry about breaking the employee only rule...next time I will have my wife type what I want to say!!! :shades: