snoopy

removed

The IUAW started this entire debacle when they negoiated 2 tier wages. I wonder if anyone knows that BOOB King wanted a permanant seat on the board of directors last contract. He'll try that again before his mandatory retirement so he has a golden parashute for retirement. I detest this idiot. oh yeah I wish I knew where the spell check button is. lol

I was layed off for a week after Christmas vacation and did it online before the time to call in. There was, in red letters, a link that said I had a claim open and I clicked on that and it took me right into the questions. Sub pay followed the direct deposit. It went off without a hitch. Good luck.

@ Liquidspine, Those were some encouraging words. I can post some statistacal numbers about greivences won over Nicks 2 term tenure. I like the idea of experience and senority, not to mention working relationships with the company to get more accomplished. There needs to be some level of compromise in order to get things done. I site the federal government of the problems with no compromise. Take the good things (ideas) from both sides to come to an aggreement. By the way, does anyone know if there is a spell check tool on these posts? Help would be thankful. lol

They r not divided. Majority rules

I voted NO for three main reason and a few other small detail reasons. But the main reasons are, I don't think this contract should be ratified until the equity and sacrifice grievance from the old contract has been settled and closed. The second reason I voted No, is because we have not had a raise in eight long years and the very notion that a select few would see a raise is not only not fair but non union also. The wedge between us will be driven deeper to divide us. The third reason I voted NO, is because it is very wrong to expect us to contribute ten percent of profit sharing to VEBA when it should have been funded 100% in the previous contract. One other thing on the profit sharing formula is bothering me. We are only gaining profit sharing on thirty-five hours a week as opposed to 40 hours a week. Now there are some other minor reasons but these are the main ones. I am sure that the infiltrators from solidarity house will rip this post as other company lackeys. But, that is ok. Freedom of speech in politics is very healthy as long as it is not false and defaming or slanderous. I also want to comment on some scare tactics that the IUAW will try to use tomorrow. This tactic is to threaten the membership that a strike will be called seventy-two hours after the contract is voted down. Bob King has stated that he does not want to strike and that all means to find a contract that can be ratified will happen. Don't be bullied by anyone from the IUAW and your locals. You are the ones that this contract will effect for the next four years and if you do not like it, stand your ground.

The only reason this low senorita wants it to pass is because Team leaders will get a 1.50 RAISE while the reg worker with a hell of a lot more time then this lazy no good piece of shit gets nothing for another 4 YEARS

GM took the workers’ money and doesn’t want to give it back. They want to make the concessions permanent. The tentative GM contract means this: GM will give the workers a signing bonus of $5,000 (before taxes), plus three $1,000 bonuses (before taxes) and GM will get to keep all of the concessions that they have taken from the workers. NO raises, NO COLA, NO performance bonuses, NO Christmas bonuses, NO Easter Monday holiday, NO overtime after 8 hours, NO return of lost break time. NO end to skilled trades consolidation. Everything the workers wanted back, GM said “NO, NO, NO.” First tier autoworkers lost up to $30,000 in concessions over the last several years. Now GM wants to continue these concessions for another 4 years. At what cost to us? Lose another $30,000? All for $8,000 in bonuses? The biggest concession is that 2-tier will continue. This contract does not bring up the 2nd-tier workers up to first tier. This contract keeps them permanent 2nd-tier, with no path to move up to first tier. The pay increase, $3.50/hour, spread over 4 years, does not even make up for money that GM 2nd-tier workers lost in the 2009 concessions when their wages were frozen and they lost bonuses. There is also no cap on the number of 2nd-tier workers. The percentage of 2nd-tier workers will increase, which means the threat of everyone being eventually reduced to 2nd-tier will increase. The profit-sharing formula is supposed to be improved, by including North American operations instead of just the U.S. But what is to keep GM from now shifting profits to overseas operations or their financial arm? Do you trust GM? There is also a cap on profit-sharing when there didn't used to be one. How is that an improvement? And there is no guarantee of ANY profit-sharing. Worst of all, they want to pit active workers against retirees by taking away 10% of profit-sharing and diverting it to the VEBA. Of course, we want to help retirees. The VEBA is underfunded because GM didn’t adequately fund it in 2007 and then further reduced it in 2009. The company has all the money, the company should fund it. New retirees will take another hit because for the first contract ever, there is no increase in the 30-and-out pension. Current retirees get no increase while prices keep going up. There are promises of 6,400 new jobs. Most of these jobs will be for 2nd-tier wages, IF the promises of jobs are even kept. In the 2007 contract and 2009 modifications, we were promised that concessions would save and create more jobs. But in 2007, GM had 73,500 workers. Today GM has 48,000 workers. What happened to those promises for new jobs? When these concessions were taken away from us, they wanted us to believe that when the companies were reporting a profit again, we would get back what we gave up. It was all a lie. They want us to accept that these concessions will be permanent. But we don’t have to willingly accept that our families’ standard of living will be permanently reduced, while our bosses are the only ones who prosper from our hard work. Gary Walkowicz Bargaining Committeeman, Dearborn Truck Plant, Local 600 gwalk32@att.net (313) 737-3166 September 20, 2011

What they’re saying about the contract doesn’t add up to what we need. 2nd-tier needs more than a small raise. They’re talking about a raise of a couple dollars an hour for 2nd-tier workers. That would still leave 2nd-tier workers near the poverty level for a family of four. The only way to fix 2-tier is to bring everybody up to the first tier. Equal pay for equal work! How much would we lose by not getting raises in the new contract? If first tier workers got a 3% raise each year of the contract like we used to get, we would make an additional $18,000 over the life of the contract. That doesn’t even count working any overtime or possible COLA, which would put the amount at well over $20,000. It would be even more for skilled trades. Getting 3% yearly raises would also mean that we would start the next contract making about $3.50 an hour more than we do right now. If we don’t get raises, we will be making the same thing in 2015 as we are right now, while prices would have gone up for 4 years. So if they want us to go for bonuses instead of raises they better hope that we can’t add, or else they better come up with at least $25,000 up front. Who says they can’t afford to give us raises? While the companies are crying that they can’t afford to give us raises, how much money would it actually cost them? A writer for Automotive News wrote an article saying that if Ford gave their 41,000 workers a 4% raise right now it could cost the company $95.5 Million. And that is LESS money than the $98 Million dollars in stock options that Ford gave Alan Mulally and Bill Ford Jr. this year alone. They can’t afford to give us raises??? Take that B.S. someplace else. WARNING – Watch for hidden takeaways to our health care. The auto companies are talking about making autoworkers pay more for our health care coverage. Even Bob King has said he wants to look at “creative ways to cut health care costs”. In other words, watch out for hidden concessions. Before we go to vote on a contract, we better look closely at any changes to our health care. A lot of the takeaways in health care may be hidden. In the past, many of these changes were not in the “Highlights”. They were only in the actual contract. If you ask, your Local Union has to show you the whole contract before you vote. Demand to see it. Gary Walkowicz Bargaining Committeeman, Dearborn Truck Plant, Local 600 (313) 737-3166 gwalk32@att.net September 12, 2011

If we don’t get rid of 2-tier, we will all be 2nd tier one day. In 2007, when permanent 2-tier jobs were negotiated at Ford, GM and Chrysler, it may have been the biggest pay cut in this country’s history. $28-an-hour jobs instantly became $14-an-hour jobs. For the next generation of autoworkers, 2-tier means no chance to raise a family decently, no chance to buy a house or even buy the products that we build. But it’s not just the next generation that is at risk. Does anyone really believe that if we allow 2-tier to continue, it is going to stop with the new hires? If you think that 2-tier wages can’t happen to everyone, just ask the workers at GM’s Orion Assembly plant. They were told that 40 per cent of the workforce would be working for $14-an-hour. Many first tier workers were told -- either cut your wages in half, or transfer to Lordstown, Ohio, 250 miles away. UAW President Bob King has said he would be willing to do the same kind of deal in other plants. The UAW leadership says that 2-tier means that Ford, GM and Chrysler will now in-source some work. The auto companies out-sourced a lot of subassembly work in order to have companies like Johnson Controls pay people $14 to do work that we used to do for $28. If Ford, GM and Chrysler now can pay people $14, they may bring back some work. But who does that really benefit? A $14-an-hour job is a $14-an-hour job. Does it really matter who signs your check? The UAW top leadership says 2nd-tier workers just need a small raise. But a small raise still leaves their income near the poverty level for a family of four. There were supposed to be limits on how many 2-tier employees could be hired. But these limits are filled with loopholes, just like at Orion. What do you think will happen when the majority of the workforce is 2nd-tier? As long as we are divided between 1st and 2nd tier, we are all at risk. It is hard to get a raise when our co-workers are working for less. If we want to make more than $28, then we need everyone to be brought up to $28. ******************************************************* Our retirement is also at risk if nothing is done to address the VEBA, which now pays for retiree health care. According to AARP’s Public Policy Institute, when the VEBAs were negotiated in 2007 the liabilities for current and future retirees at Ford, GM and Chrysler totaled $88.7 Billion. But the companies only paid in $56.5 Billion, which meant the VEBAs were severely under-funded. In 2009, the companies were allowed to use stock in place of cash for over one third what they owed, further putting the VEBAs at risk. We were told the VEBAs would last for 80 years. But in the very first year of the VEBA, retirees had to pay higher co-pays, premiums and deductibles. GM and Chrysler retirees lost their dental and vision. We have earned the right to a secure retirement. Mulally and his friends who profit from our sweat and hard work have no right to take it away. Gary Walkowicz Bargaining Committeeman, Dearborn Truck Plant, Local 600. (313) 737-3166 gwalk32@att.net August 8, 2011

Where is your solution dickhead. oh yea you have none. Next

Louie, your a jackass. They have been talking in the press for over two years what they will be negotiating. So piss off jackass and get back under the desk.

Its nice to see the blue oval news forums have been taken over by IUAW. They spew corporate views to letters written by a man (Gary Walkowitiz) that has done an enormous amount of good for the working man. If that is the only way you can promote Bob (I sold the Rouge Steel workers down the river) King then you are sadly mistaken. When King came to support both concession votes, he was wrong both times. And might I add, he was staunchly BOOED!!! out of the birth place of the union by low seniority as well as high seniority workers. We workers across the country voted 92+% not to accept any more rubbish from him or the company. Enough was enough. We have not had a raise in 8 years and this in itself is a wage cut through attrition. The bills go up and our wage goes down. It makes me sick that the IUAW and the company think we should lower our standards of living so we can compete with foreign companies who take there profits over seas. You want a solution, try forcing tariffs on the foreign companies that don't reinvest in our country or pay taxes into our country. Let them raise there living standards to ours and you will wipe out slave labor. You want to talk about profit sharing, well how about the company share overseas profits with us here in the U.S. After all, they take there profits made here and invest in overseas projects. The Greed is so easy to see and yet, you people can't see it because Bob Kings head is so far up the companies ass he could touch the inside of its belly. I would also like to comment on an article written 2 weeks ago that Bob King wants a permanent seat on the board. That sounded like he wanted to get another lifetime appointment after his stay in the IUAW. All of you need to think long and hard before you vote for anything. We are the workers that put the product out for the company to survive. And we should not accept anything less then a raise and all benefits to remain as they are. The cost of living allowance needs to be reinstated with an updated formula that reflects today's economic conditions. Now I know that you Bob King clones will have a field day with this post and thats okay because a debate is healthy and your credibility is already shot with the second concession vote. So have at it. Remember one thing, You asked for solutions and I have given them to you. What have you done for your union today?

DO your time and give your sweat and blood as other high seniority people have and then we will talk about bring you to our rate. The Corporate America would love nothing more then to have us slaves to them. Since when to we digress in this country. We should always progress. Corporate America should bring the Asians to our standard of living instead of us going back in time to the days of oppress sweat shops and depressed pay. Take your head out of your ass so you can see what is going on here. In a capitalist society, every year the company needs to make more then the previous year. Since when do they progress and expect the worker to digress? I urge everyone to tell BOB KING that he is out of touch with the worker and that he needs to remember who pays the union dues around here. He also needs to be reminded of the boos he received at the hands of the workers at the birth place of our union, Local 600. The workers are together on this and we will vote NO to this bullshit contract. We have not had a raise in 8 years and we gave about 15000+ per man backed to the company who bull shited there way out of equal sacrifice. And in addition, the line of crap about our equal sacrifice grievance is yet to be revealed. I say No to anything less then a raise and profit-sharing bonuses. GIVE US OUR COLA back.And settle the equal sacrifice grievance NOW. Down with BOB KING and Down with Corporate Greed.