crowdogg

Idk if it makes a difference, but there was no ON AND OFF for us. It was constant full time employment. Not even once did they lay us off until they "needed us again". We were there everyday.

I'm one of a small group from Twin Cities Assembly Plant that was hired between November 2006 and November 2007. We were hired under the 2003 contract as TPT's and started at $19/hr plus the $2 COLA at time, with the standard 5% raise every 26 weeks. Never did they play the 89 day game on us, we had got our 90 days and were relieved we had made it without getting cut at 89! When the contract came out in 2007 which began the new entry level wage of $15/hr and restructured the TPT's, we had already got our 90 days so we were unaffected, yet we got lost somewhere in the mix. So time went on and we were making $28/hr, for years, We worked the exact same schedule and hours as "full time/legacy" employees. Then the 2009 concessions came and we gave up our COLA and break time and such just like everyone else. Finally it came to be that our plant closed in December 2011. This small group of what came to be called "Super TPT's" were told that our gracious union bargained for us! The bargain was that since we were originally hired as TPT's nobody owed us anything, regardless of the fact that we had gained 4-5 years plant seniority and continuously worked for Ford throughout that time. They bargained that they would give us preferential hiring if we chose to move under our own expenses and accept employment at a different plant as a new tier two employee as defined under the 2011 contract. WAIT, we've been working for 4-5 years at full scale, completed our 90 days, had benefits, what!? Aren't WE "real" employees, we got our 90 in under the 2003 contract, doesn't that make us "real" employees? So some of us picked up and moved, on our own dime, to Chicago or Louisville to continue our careers with Ford. We lost all our seniority, got new hire dates, wages cut from $28 to $16 an hour and had to go through the waiting periods for benefits again as well as go through the 90 day probation period and be oh so careful, again. How is this right or fair? We would have been the last people EVER hired into Ford that still makes full scale, to still get a PENSION. We were the last people to get our 90 in before the doomsday 2007 contract that began a new low wage and got rid of pensions. This scenario sounds F'd up to everyone that has heard our story. How can you let someone work for 5 years at full scale and then just cut us back and hit the "reset button"? WHO WILL FIGHT FOR US? WHEN WILL WE GET OUR JUSTICE?

I still don't fully understand this "donut" thing you guys are always talking about. I will agree on your description of the contract as "unskillfully and unartfully put together." and while I do understand your whole "done deal" definition of how labor contracts work, I still believe the contract was/is a joke and those in the solidarity house that assembled the contract should've/could've done a much better job negotiating for us. Also, although it is a done deal I feel that we SHOULD strive for more and we should push international to reopen the contract to make amendments in our favor as well as seek to regain some of the concessions we took in 2009. If Ford was able/allowed to reopen the 2007 contract in 2009, why shouldn't the UAW be able to? Unfortunately you're right about the majority being frightened into voting for this contract, or maybe others swindled by a measly 6k signing er I mean settlement bonus. I guess I would just like to see our union take a stand for us for a change. They did pitiful in 07, 09, 2011, and on the SoE grievance. It'd be nice to be able to feel like they care or actually try.

That's probably true. They already stole the Teamsters' jobs.

EXACTLY

SC430, but 2010 was the last model year.

Langston Hughes, <- another pansy ass who is "just happy to have a job" and thinks we should all just be satisfied with what we have rather than strive for more. Pussy.

F Bob King and Jimmy "Settles for anything". We need to change all IUAW positions to membership voted in positions. F these self appointing "good ole' boys"