I don't get this at all. Aren't we the one's bitching all the time about 2-tier?
I don't have a lot of seniority, so people call me naive. Go ahead. The way I see this contract is that we sacrificed wage increase and COLA, and gained in profit share (for the majority of us that work straight time and not a lot of OT) so we could raise up the 2nd Tier and ACH people. Not only that, we can put some more people in America back to work. We can look around and see people are suffering with NO job NO benefits NO security and say, here, let me help you out. We don't have to be happy that we got no wage increase. Fuck, I'm not. I would sure as hell like to be up to 30-32/hr by the end of this contract.
And the retiree thing, well that sucks. It just does. But from what I understand, the UAW is legally prohibited from negotiating for retirees. So what can we do about it, except bitch about it and find ways to support our retirees on a local level? I mean, if we are really passionate about that, we need to set up some stuff that helps them. We can donate meals or clothes or whatever. Every little bit helps somebody on a fixed income. My father retired from Ford so I know.
But, to me, in the end, the vibrant debate around this contract shows one thing. We are strong. We have a voice. And we need to express it. We need to get involved in our local meetings. Because guess what? A lot of people bitch about the international people not getting elected...they get pulled up from our locals!!! If we don't elect dumbasses to the locals in the first place, they won't get pulled up to the international. That's just my 2 cents. I think we need to get more involved in our union meetings and not just involved in pissing and moaning on BON. I know I plan on doing that, and I hope the rest of you do too.