Sharp Shooter

The Detroit Free Press has a pretty good write up of the new work and bonuses negotiated by the UAW-Ford team. The Highlights and contract will go into further detail for sure. http://www.freep.com/article/20111004/BUSINESS0102/111004010/UAW-Ford-deal-highlights-5-750-jobs-entry-level-raises-6-000-bonus-plus-profit-sharing?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE UAW-Ford deal highlights: 5,750 jobs; entry-level raises; $6,000 bonus plus profit sharing 1:54 PM, Oct. 4, 2011 | 179 Comments BY BRENT SNAVELY,GREG GARDNER ANDCHRISSIE THOMPSON DETROIT FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITERS The UAW and Ford’s tentative agreement creates 5,750 entry-level U.S. jobs, raises hourly wages for workers hired after September 2007 to $19.28 and pulls forward a profit-sharing payment that, when added to a $6,000 ratification bonus, will give veteran workers about $10,000 by the end of the year in addition to their regular pay. The agreement raises the hourly wage for workers hired after 2007 to $19.28 by the end of the contract, the UAW said today in a contract summary released to reporters. Those workers currently make about $15.50 an hour. Ford will also offer buyouts of $50,000 to production workers and $100,000 to skilled-trades workers, in an attempt to open jobs for more entry-level employees. John Fleming, Ford's executive vice president of global manufacturing, said Ford is announcing the 5,750 jobs for the first time. The contract also includes 6,250 created or preserved jobs that Ford has already announced. Newly created jobs will go to workers hired at the company's lower, entry-level wage, he said this morning at a press conference at Ford’s Dearborn headquarters. The contract would guarantee four $1,500 lump-sum payments in so-called “inflation protection,” in place of cost-of-living adjustments. The pact offers job security for workers at plants in Flat Rock and Kansas City and ties profit-sharing to Ford’s North American earnings, instead of just income from its U.S. operations. Under the new profit-sharing formula, Ford workers will receive an average payout of $3,752 in November based on Ford’s North American profit for the first half of 2011, the UAW said. Each Ford UAW worker also will receive a $250 payment in December for meeting quality objectives. The UAW and Ford reached the agreement early this morning after 10 weeks of bargaining, making Ford the second automaker, after General Motors, to reach a new deal with the union. GM ratified its deal last week, but the UAW may have a challenge selling the Ford agreement to workers, who expected significantly greater gains than their GM counterparts. But UAW President Bob King said UAW local leaders who heard details of the agreement this morning endorsed the tentative contract. “The leadership that was just in here were saying that they don’t have to sell the agreement,” King said this morning at a downtown Detroit press conference. “They feel like this agreement stands on its own.” Under the agreement, Ford’s plant in Flat Rock will add a shift to help build the next-generation Ford Fusion, currently built in Mexico, and continue to build the Ford Mustang in its next generation. That factory will receive a $555 million investment, providing some job security for its 1,600 hourly workers. The plant will stop production of the Mazda6 in coming months. Dearborn Truck assembly will also add a shift, UAW Vice President Jimmy Settles said. Ford will also invest $1 billion at a Kansas City assembly plant, which will build the Transit, Ford's full-size European van and will get a second-shift of F-Series production in 2012. A $128 million investment will be made in Avon Lake, Ohio, to build medium-dutytrucks, whose production was slated for Mexico, a motor-home chassis and the E-Series van cutaway. GM’s deal is expected to preserve or create 6,400 jobs. It also will provide workers with a $5,000 signing bonus, three $1,000 lump-sum payments, an improved profit-sharing plan and a raise of about $3 per hour for entry-level workers over the life of the contract. Ford’s deal gives second-tier workers more of an initial raise and offers workers higher lump-sum payments, but that may not satisfy Ford’s workers. They contend they deserve more because Ford did not accept government assistance. Ford’s UAW workers have retained the right to strike. As a condition of the federal aid to GM and Chrysler, workers there gave up the right to strike and face binding arbitration in the case of an impasse.

Lol. We want to know the details.

This is a great contract! Very surprising. Tons of jobs and plant investments. A lot of money involved and buyouts of up to $100,000 for skilled trades.

Thanks, Jeff. A well reasoned approach.

This is what you call fuzzy math.

I looked to find what, if any other media, promoted the BS story that was texted to numerous UAW plants and then an "anonymous caller" contacted Channel 4 in Detroit. Most of the media reported a response that it was a bunch of BS. The Detroit Free Press had a good follow up on it and it is below. http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2011110930027 UAW calls report of Ford signing bonus false; talks resume 12:53 PM, Sep. 30, 2011 | BY GREG GARDNER ANDBRENT SNAVELY DETROIT FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITERS The UAW resumed talks with Ford on Friday after union leaders lashed out at a television report about a $7,500 signing bonus in the as-yet unresolved contract. Late Thursday night, the UAW issued a statement on Facebook highly critical of a local TV report, which said UAW members could get a signing bonus of as much as $7,500, but showed additional amounts in a graphic that did not explain what they were. “These false rumors are irresponsible and unfair to our members. They are designed to intentionally create false expectations,” UAW Vice President Jimmy Settles wrote in a Facebook post about the report. “I want to report that Vice President Settles and the whole negotiating team have been in very intense discussions to reach a fair agreement for our membership,” King said in his phone message. Separately, about 400 workers atChrysler’s Dundee engine plant voted to become part of the UAW’s national contract with Chrysler, which eliminated their right to strike, which could have disrupted production of Chrysler’s four-cylinder engines. Tom Zimmerman, president of the UAW Local 723 unit representing hourly workers in Dundee, said the voice vote was nearly unanimous. The plant, which began production in 2005, was originally operated as a partnership of DaimlerChrysler, Hyundai and Mitsubishi. Chrysler gained 100% ownership after its exit from Chapter 11 bankruptcy in June 2009. Workers have said that a controversial work schedule that rotates workers from day shifts one week to night or weekend shifts the next has led to health problems and is a threat to quality. Zimmerman said that issue would be addressed in a new local labor contract that he will try to negotiate with plant management. National contract talks have slowed at Chrysler, where the contract has been extended until Oct. 19.

You are right. If we don't buy our own products, we are slitting our throats and we tell our friends, neighbors, church and other people we know that we don't want the product we make. That is the wrong message to be sending.

Aces, I agree with you man. I read that post and it didn't make sense. Maybe all those "Don't do drugs" commercials were missed by that guy.

You go Jimmy!!! WDIV owes you and the entire bargaining team an apology!!!

I am so sick of Gary and his complaining all the time. The dude is a broken record, like the worst record you ever heard and it keeps playing the same tired old song over and over again.

It begins with a G and you add ary and then a W and you add alkowicz.

Yep, they should be ashamed. There were many people contacting my chairman because it started out as a viral text message this morning. It said exactly the same thing. It probably was started by Walkowicz or SOS or both. And I would guess Gary is the "anonymous" source.

We shouldn't be surprised about this. Gary is the King of DTP, so it is showtime there. When he has a chance to challenge the Company, he is AWOL. Which side is Gary working for? Not the UAW's.

I saw that, too and thought Gary must have woke up from his anti-union destroy the union and company nightmare!

The media's job is to create division among us. Too bad, we have a few very willing to help them harm or destroy us.

And Alan Mulally will pick each one of us up during the life of the agreement and drop us off at work.