danehilby

Shows how much you know, wages are NOT a fixed cost; they are a direct variable cost. . A part that goes into a car is a fixed cost. Each part (such as a brake) costs the same coming from a shipment of parts. You do not get a shipment of parts and pay one price for one brake and another price for another brake from the same batch. However, it may take one assembler 10 seconds to put the part into the car when assembling; it may take 15 seconds for another assembler. That is not a fixed cost. Wages for a period are added up and then divided into the amount of products you assemble, making it a direct variable cost. Then you apply the amount you have found by the division to each product you make. Supervisor salaries and your skilled trades wages are a variable overhead cost. Should I go on or do you want to still argue your untruths????

$35.98 from $30. So, I stand corrected and according to MY source, SO DO YOU. http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/ Plug in the last year a UAW worker got a raise, 2004, through to todays date, in 2011. Tells me clearly that inflation has risen 19%. Can't get any clearer than that. Heck, just the inflatin rate for 2006 & 2007 was over 6%. Might you need some reading glasses??? http://www.usinflationcalculator.com/inflation/current-inflation-rates/ But, then, I highly doubt you will look up this information. Also, using a different set of rates, from a different internet site, the same rate of inflation is calculated within 1%. http://inflationdata.com/Inflation/Inflation_Rate/HistoricalInflation.aspx So, I do not accept your 6% crap. Sounds like another set of misleading information from another person sent from either IUAW or Ford to confuse the masses.

IUAW STRONGMEN are still getting their 3% raises every year. As an autoworker, are you getting yours?????????

OMG. FATSO, FATSO, FATSO, now YOU are sounding like one of those blathering idiot WHITE COLLAR THUGS planted on here to spread the manure deeper than any of those farmers I knew up north. You and Len_A seem to have a lot of that "'nure" coming out your eyes, mouth and ears. Here is what I will do with all that money: I will try to cover the bills and buy a cheap foreign car 'cause I sure in hell am NOT going to be able to afford an overpriced Ford vehicle. Last time I got a raise was the 2% raise in 2004. Yet, since then, inflation has driven down my BUYING POWER 24%. That means what I could afford on a $28 an hour wage in 2004, now takes a wage of $35.50 an hour. Yet, you WHITE COLLAR THUGS and the IUAW STRONGMEN keep getting your 3% raises every year.

FATSO, FATSO, FATSO. Thank you for showing me your intelligence. I never once mentioned the 10% crap. So where do you get off using my post as your stepping stone to blab your blathering crap???? Either you are highly UNintelligent, or you are just an individual that picks on someone to bedraggle on. PLEASE, next time do it on a different poster's post. You may sound like you have an ounce of education if you prepare your next post properly.

To those who are paying attention: Len_A admits to be WHITE COLLAR. He also seems to know a lot about the contract and how it reads. He repeats a lot of threats that we are hearing, which supposedly come from the GLASS HOUSE. Therefore, it can be well concluded that HE is a HIGH RANKING WHITE COLLAR CHUMP. Whether you decide to vote "yes" or "no", DO NOT LISTEN TO THIS WHITE COLLAR THUG WHO IS PLANTED ON HERE TO SCARE YOU!!!!!!!!!

WOW. Len_A, your answers are making it sound more and more that you know the contract pretty darn good. You admit you are WHITE COLLAR. Therefore, I come to the conclusion that you are WAY UP THE TOTEM POLE.

Isn't funny how the IAUW reps still get their raises EACH year?????

Those IUAW Thugs are in our plant trying to explain how good of a deal this is. When one employee showed them a chart that inflation has risen 24% since 2004, the last time we got a raise (2%), a few of them almost crapped their pants. They HAD NO CLUE!!!!!!! They had NO CLUE that the life style you could live with a $28 an hour wage now takes a $35.50 an hour wage. In other words the life style a tech could live back in 2004, a skilled tradesman can't live in 2011. Can anyone say, "Cram it, Bozo!!"? Why should they?? The IUAW Thugs are still getting their 3% raises each year.

We were told that "legacy" costs WERE VEBA. The pension is another fund. It should not be included in your "legacy" costs. And that is exactly what we were told back in 2007. "Legacy" costs were the "retirees health care". Good Lord. NOW you are saying that the "legacy" costs are the pension funds??? Then explain how the $70 an hour went down to the current $58 an hour when it was VEBA, or the "retirees health care" that was transferred to IUAW to take care of, not the pension fund. More rhetoric from another probable White Collar Chump. So, el norte, please don't even take the time to respond. You either don't know what you are talking about, or you are spreading misleading information. We do not need either of these probabilities here.

So, FoMoCo is telling the world that their labor costs for us is $58 an hour. Mmmmmm. Four short years ago, we were told that those labor costs were $70 an hour, which included $27 an hour "legacy" costs. In other words, $43 an hour without the so called "legacy" costs. Supposedly, those "legacy" costs were covered by VEBA. O.K. So now we are being told labor costs are $58 an hour, up from $43 an hour. In other words, in 4 short years, Fords costs for our labor has risen 35%. Yet, we haven't had a raise since 2004, seven years ago. And our inflation costs have risen 24% since the start of 2004. Seems to me someone is getting shafted here. And there are a lot of fairy tales being told.

Has anybody wondered, if just a short 4 years ago the average worker was getting costing $70 an hour, but $27 an hour was "legacy" costs for retirees, why is it $58 an hour now that those "legacy" costs have been dealt with?? If inflation has driven up labor costs $15 an hour in just 4 years, than why haven't we got a raise in 7 yeas to help us with inflation??????????????????????????

ROTF....LMBO!!! Len_A. You are a piece of cake. "Deal with it". That tells me you are trying to get anyone (and everyone, for that matter), get so upset that someone, anyone will go so far as to threaten you. Then when it happens, the glass house has the URL address looked up. Then soon the person is fired for threatening a co-worker, whether they be Blue or White Collar. Nice try. So now, in this day and age, the big men have Cyber Bullies instead of the Paid Thugs they used back in the day. But, I have your number (figure of speach), I have outed you. YOU ARE NOTHING BUT A WHITE COLLAR BULLY. DEAL WITH IT.

Your link leads to what; more rhetoric crap. It DID NOT give a dollar for dollar breakdown exactly what the costs, per hour, are for all these benefits (including the legal benefits that very few use). What you want me to believe is that Ford Motor Company pays out $5,200 a month in benefits for me and my fellow workers. As I said before, IF YOU CAN'T BREAK IT DOWN (into a dollar per dollar amount for each benefit provided), DON'T TRY TO EXPLAIN IT AWAY WITH DRIBBLE!!!

First, we have lost $2.12 in COLA (in today's market). Second, we have lost 19% in buying power due to inflation. Third, we have lost another small percentage in tax increases. But the first two are HUGE!!!! What my $28 an hour wage (plus COLA) could buy in 2006, now takes a wage of $35.90 an hour to buy. So, LS, apparently you did not do your homework. You fail the class. Go back to 3rd grade.

Here we go again. A professed WHITE COLLAR CHUMP trying to shower us with scare tactics and other rhetoric. PLEASE GO HOME, YOU WHITE COLLAR BLATHERING, OVER-OPINIONATED DRILLHEAD.

You have that right, trm1111. Those who fail to study history are destined to repeat it. Apparently you failed to see that in the 1910's inflation rose 100% in just 6 years. That is why COLA is necessary. To protect from inflation. In the 70's, inflation rose 70% in 6 years. Could this happen in today's market?? Count on it. It happens every time the U.S. comes out of a recession. The last was in the 90's when inflation rose 30%. Even though we have had decreases in our income, inflation has rose 19% in the last 6 years. And we haven't even come close to coming out of the current recession. What happens then? How much will inflation increase? Be assured, it WILL increase. 30%? 70%? 100%? More? It is possible. Yet all you want for protection from this is a $6,000 signing bonus and then $1,500 a year to protect you?? BTW, my understanding is that COLA would be $2.12 today if we still had it. But, really, that doesn't compare one bit with your 70 cents, does it. People like you are like the natives in the movie "The Gods Must Be Crazy" when a Coca Cola bottle hit one in the head and he couldn't figure out what happened. You, also, won't know what happened when your spending power is cut in half because of inflation. It has all ready been cut by 19% since the last time you got a raise. So, wha you could buy with a $28 an hour wage in 2005, now takes a wage of $33.33 to buy in todays market. But, keep your head up; in four years when you lose your house and/or your car and/or any other assets you may own, you can look up into the sky and say, "The Gods Must Be Crazy"!!!

Waldo, inflation in the U.S. has risen 8% since we gave up COLA. It has risen 19% since we gave up our first concessions in 2005.

Let me get this straight. I should vote YES because I am going to get $6000 in bonus signing and $1500 a year for 4 years. A whole whopping $12,000. Yet, when we gave up COLA, we gave up about $2.00 an hour. Since the work week is 40 hours and we have been without COLA for 2 1/2 years, that means the 40 hour a week worker has missed out on about $11,000 (40 hours x 52 weeks for 2 1/2 years). Now just think if you work more than 40 hours per week. There are many at our plant that get paid for at least 70 hours per week with overtime, some even more. That works out for those to be about $18,000. That is just for 2 1/2 years. Do I really need to throw out the numbers for a four year period? Well, I will. The overtime worker would give up around $29,000. So, take that $12,000 back to the negotiating table and get us back our COLA. And I will not even touch the fact that the inflation we are due to face in the next few years will make your paycheck and bonuses look like an allowance from your daddies.

Well, though I don't agree with the TRUE attitude that Gary is portraying here, he sure has made a few of you look like idiots. If you can't tell he is being sarcastic, then maybe you should go get your Websters Dictionary and look up the word. However, I still do not agree on the position that we should accept the contract as it is without ANY protection from the inflation that is surely going to hit us soon and it will hit us like a ton of bricks. Hope all of you that vote YES are saving your money big time awaiting the time that we pull out of this recession and inflation makes your paycheck look like a burger flipper at MickyD's.

Yes, this jus sounds like more scare tactics from a white collar worker. Sure seems to be a heck of a lot of them on this forum site. Spreading rhetoric and scare tactics seems to be not only the managements job, but I think the union is sitting there with them.

You think? You think our negotiators are college educated? I can tell you that I do not know one person from our plant that went down to IUAW that has any college education other than what some of them learned in the trade classes. Sure glad you brought up the idea that we must compete with the TRANSPLANTS. Seems to me that Mr. Mullaly is NOT competing with the TRANSPLANTS. Didn't I just read that he makes more money than most of the transplants CEO's all put together??? And yes, you do sound too much like management. Therefore, just stay away. This seems to be a place for blue collar workers to throw ideas out to each other and not for white collar big stuffs to throw rhetoric at us that is just meant to scare us into voting for the contract. In fact, if you were posting in true honesty, you would identify yourself as a white collar worker so that the rest would realize just where your true colors and posts come from.

Marginal Economist? Sounds more like a politician. You said one heck of a lot and did not even come close to actually answering the questions people are posting. If you can't break it down, don't try to explain it away with dribble. I can tell you that included in those costs are things many of us NEVER use, such as the education crap, the lawyer junk, etc. But keep up the good work, Marginal Economist. Blow your rhetoric up our arses and think that all of us will accept answers that really don't do a thing to help us actually get an answer to our questions. You sound much like our Cost Accoutants that don't know their job.

Looks like you answered my question about your job and who you work for. Not once did you use the term "we" as in we workers. Therefore, your ranting and raving is lost on those who really are Ford UAW workers. So please get your miserable feeble mind off of these posts and go join your cronies in the glass house.

sez, please explain to me where Ford gets off telling us we are being paid $58 an hour. As a person getting paid $28 cash an hour, I do not see where I am making $30 an hour in benefits. And Ford refuses to break it down for us so we can better understand why they claim so. Therefore, the claim MUST BE BOGUS. If the claim were true, they would gladly break it down for us. You would be surprised how many of your younger co-workers are working at Ford but still have a college degree. They started working here under the guise of this being a well payed job. Now, it is barely enough to pay the bills because as the cost of living and inflation keeps creeping up, our wages stay the same. Well, actually they have decreased since we gave up COLA. Did you know that according to NCCP (National Coalition of Children in Poverty), that it now takes a job paying over $17 an hour just to stay out of poverty. You know, "keep your head afloat". By the time this contract is over and the big possibility that inflation will soon SKYROCKET, my $28 an hour would probably just be enough to put food on the table. Oooops. Then I won't be able to afford a new fancy car to keep you working. Sorry, I didn't get a raise to be able to afford a new car and your job just went to another country.