deflep1

The AAI workers scheduled to go to woodhaven, have been told to go back home to AAI., on the 23rd. We need more back fill to cover the saline transfers. This will probably be gen pool workers.. In Trim & Final some units are losing half their workers to saline transfers. We need new people to cover them right away! We're like a great big spinning wheel, older workers out and then newer workers in. Plus we have the availibility of the buyouts in 2 weeks, which will change everything all over again. Mass Chaos, what could go wrong?

I really hope the 4-10 hour day scenario would keep both shifts going. With Wayne stopping production next year, and the Focus going next door to MI assembly(the old MI truck), that eliminates 2 plants we could transfer to if we lost a shift. MI assembly would be using all Waynes' workers with some left over to work in stamping & body at Wayne for overflow. I've said for a long time we would most likely go down to one shift unless something changed and we squeeked by. The 4-10's might be the squeek factor! I wish us all luck, we're going to need it.

Does anyone know what the last (lowest) seniority date was for Saline tranfers for this week ending on the 13th? Last week it was Sep 13 1993. We were off this week at AAI, and labor did not post it as of Fri afternoon. Within 4 weeks we are going to lose about 100 people from Trim and Final and they will have to give us some workers from the dismantled gen pool so we can have enough people to run!

Tell management that worker is creating a hostile work environment, have labor enforce the zero tolerance against harassment. If they don't take care of it immediately, let the guy know he can be sued for slander and harassment, and the company can be sued for not protecting the rights of the worker with the medical issue. If you're in the right, use the law to your advantage. The company will force the hostile worker to straighten up immediately, so they won't get sued. If medical precautions need to be implemented, fine. Give everyone the facts, show the affected worker some respect, let him do his job, observe safety precautions.. then life and work goes on. Peoples ignorance shouldn't hinder a workplace from making its' products and making its' profits. Good luck to your friend and I hope this gets resolved right away

It wouldn't suprise me if Scarberry got fired, there's a lot of bad management there, and a lot of blame to pin on salary, regardless if they deserve it or not. I hear Linda Bell in Unit 17 Final may be on her way out, she says she makes twice what her counterpart makes, and her performance record isn't good. That's a quick way to force the company to make an easy choice... you make too much and don't make us money.. BYE BYE!!! But you never know, some people we think will definately be gone, are still around and probably still be there Monday. It's a circus, but at at least it's an interesting circus!

Job 1 ,Are you asking if we have 3 more weeks in a row after this one? I don't think so. If you're asking if we have at least 3 more down weeks in the near future, yes we have a lot of down weeks scheduled as long as there's two shifts. If we go down to one shift (probably right after the Mustang launch--May, June or maybe July) then there won't be as many down weeks. We have to call the AAI emergency announcement # to confirm we'll be coming back to work Monday. But at AAI anything is possible and never say never!

Amen, Hvcpicker! Too many people on this site think GM filing for bankruptcy won't affect Ford at all. They're dead wrong! We are going to have lower wages when this is all said and done. GM will lower their wages to what the bankruptcy court judge says.(because the UAW contracts get thrown out!) Chrysler will lower their wages because they also took bridgeloan money. Ford will claim the other two have a unfair competitive advantage over them and they will reopen the contract again. If we take bridge loan money later this year, then we will be under the same terms, we don't have to go through bankruotcy for the govenment to impose new lower base wages. The companies and suppliers will still be around with govenment help, but they will demand lower wages to make us more viable in their eyes. I've been saying this would happen for a LONGGGG time. It sucks, but it is the reality we are facing. I don't think our wages will be cut in half like some people here think, but we could easily lose 5-10 bucks an hour. When things pick up next year or 2 years from now, we may be able to renegotiate and get pay raises again. The next two years are going to be bad. We will survive, but it will be much different for us. Good luck to all of us.

Whereswaldo, I never said 12 bucks an hour, trufflebuns did. I think the pay could end up at $19-25 an hour. I'm not paranoid, I'm a realist. I've been through losing a shift at AAI, I've seen the early 80's recession and have seen many union shops get busted or take major wage concessions. We only get to vote to match GM's pay after they file and the judge decides wages,etc. Chrysler took money,so the government will tell them to follow suit. A vote won't matter. If they strike, they will just be replaced. The govenment will be in control. They take over the banks--they make the rules. Ford will need bridge loan money before the end of the year. They say they don't, but that's based on selling 11 million+ cars industry wide. We're currently at a annualized pace of 9-10 million. They are burning through 1-2 billion a month. If sales turned around significantly, we'd have a chance to not accept money, but sales just keep getting worse every month. They haven't even flat lined yet. When we take the money the same rules will apply to us. I know the Ford family controls 40% of the voting stock and they don't want to give up that power. But when your stock value net worth is down to a few billion when it used to 10's of billions, you lose your barganing power. If the auto industry becomes nationalized, everything will be different. We will still have our jobs (if you have enough seniority) but $28.58 an hour will be gone eventually. We may be able to renegotiate in the future when we only have 30 thousand workers and the industry is running strong (2-3 years from now). These next two years are going to be bad! We are in a global depression where Japanese, Euro and Korean makers are begging their governments for assistance. No one is doing well. GM & Chrysler are days from bankruptcy. Ford is months. We are in a little better position then them, but we'll be in the same position by fall. We need more sales, not more money. I want us to make it and will not root against us, but we all need to think about what will happen to us if sales don't pick up fast. Never say something can't happen, because everything the experts said couldn't happen ....HAS!

Whereswaldo, We're not playing chicken little. If GM files bankrupty, the judge sets wages, pensions and benefits so they can be viable. We have parity in our 3 contracts, so Ford and Chrysler will say GM has an unfair competitive advantage and they'll want to reopen the contracts. Since Chrysler took bridge loan money, they will have to follow what GM got anyway. If we take money,(which we will need in about 8-9 months) it's the same for us. If we somehow don't take any money, Ford is still going to get the government involved in helping our suppliers and getting more concessions from us. The government knows they have to keep the suppliers, GM, Ford and a smaller/merged Chrysler going, but they don't care if we make a lot less per hour. The UAW isn't going to have 3 different contracts with each of the big 3, it has to be the same (parity). If GM's wages go down, our wages will go down, period. The only way the auto industry will survive now is with government intervention. They will tell us what kind of cars to build, (mostly small & hybrid) even if the public doesn't want them. We are now intertwined with GM, Chrysler and the suppliers. We are not a separate entity anymore. We can't go it alone. No one really knows what the lower wages would be,trufflebuns, but it definitely won't be a minor cut! This sucks, but it is our reality and we have to face it!

We've never had a good chairman, some of the reps have been good, but the same issues haven't been solved in more than a decade. Besides the Mazda vs. Ford seniority issue, some of us worked 4-6 years as part time, even though we worked more than 90 straight days many times. Having those extra years of seniority would really help us in getting placed at another plant when we go down to 1 shift. 12 years is good, but 16 or 17 would be a lot better, especially if it takes about 17 years to stay at AAI. The union did nothing to help us get hired full time, and now it's coming back to haunt us. What's important now is that we fix problems and work to keep this company going. I'm less worried about my lost time, but more worried about the state of our company and the big 3. Gary is not the most intelligent guy, but we need to push the leadership to do their jobs and inforce our contract. If we do that he might do an ok job. The good workers at AAI don't need the union like the bad workers seem to. The union spends way too much time helping people who obviously don't want to work. We can make our union better if we get more involved and demand they be accountable to us. The concessions in the recent vote were hard to swallow, but unfortunately necessary in this horrible economy. If our local could finally solve the old issues, it could put more attention on the current problems, and it really needs to!

Trufflebuns, good comment, but besides insane you forgot bitter and naive. Chuckie thought GM filing bankruptcy was a good thing for Ford. The bankruptcy judge can THROW OUT THE UAW CONTRACTS!....how is that good for Ford? It's also possible for the vote at AAI to pass by 2 percent, without tampering. If it happens at every local, then you know it's fraud. AAI has a lot of problems, but if (more realistically when!) we go down to 1 shift, it will take about 17 years seniority to stay. I'm not going to bash AAI , I will be thankful I have enough senoirity to be placed at another plant. I don't know what we will be making per hour if our contracts are reworked after a GM bankruptcy. We need to think about how we will make it in the future with lower wages and if we want to stay. Worrying about how much the vote passes or fails by and then bitching about all of it doesn't help. I don't trust the company and I don't trust the union. I do my job, fight for the important things and try to give my fellow workers correct info and the truth. Voter fraud does happen sometimes in the union, but we have much bigger concerns to worry about!

You guys are missing the major point of bankruptcy...besides restructuring debt, the bankruptcy judge has the right to throw out the UAW contracts and decide pay wages, benefits, pensions etc., to make the company viable. Once GM is paying their workers a much lower base wage, Ford and Chrysler will say GM has an unfair competitive advantage and they will want to redo our contracts. We are supposed to have parity in our 3 contracts, they have to be very similar, so whatever one has, the other two will follow. If Ford takes any bridge loan money (which we will have to if sales don't pick up), the government will be able to enforce those conditions even if we don't file bankruptcy. We can't have 3 different contracts with 3 different pay wages. If GM files, then they lose a lot of customers, which should increase our market share, but the government will only care about the company and suppliers surviving, NOT how much we make per hour! I've been preaching this for years, it's the reality of the business world. Rick Wagoner has wanted to break the union for years, now they have nothing to lose by filing bankruptcy, GM stock fell to $1.45 today. The total stock value is just over 1 billion today, 3 years ago is was over 60 billion. The big 3 can survive... if the government takes over, but they will tell us what cars to make and impose all sorts of restrictions on us. Like it or not, if GM files, we are in big trouble. The auto industry will be forever changed, just like America is now forever changed. We were a democracy with a capatilalistic market, now we are a socialistic country that rewards failure and punishes success. This does bode well for us at Ford. I wish the best for all our workers in all the UAW workplaces.