Mr.Roboto

No Cummins is Chrysler (well Dodge) they have an exclusive contract for the light duty trucks. You can go the Ford dealer right now and buy a heavy Medium Duty Ford with a cummins powerplant.

The domestics merging makes no sense. Why combine companies that build products that are in disfavor (trucks / SUV's). Ford needs to import or build more small European and Asian cars. And get the 4 door Ranger imported ASAP. Yea yea I know, that's taking jobs away from American workers. But if the Ford NA does not survive, there will be NO jobs.

Meetings are on Sundays because it is the day that workers are most likely to be able to attend (i.e not working). If your union meetings are turning into a religious affair then they should be reminded that the meetings are about business and they are free to air their religious beliefs (or disbeliefs) the other 30 days a month. Seeing you blessed reminds me of the "family guy" episode with Peter spraying the Holy water "The Power of Christ Compells You". LOL.

They already know which way most of the states are going to go. To win, they only need to rig the vote in one or two key swing states. Florida in 2000, Ohio in 2004. I'm simply apalled that there are not LAWS that apply to elections like any other business. If there were certain persons in Ohio would still be in prison.

I've noticed that a lot of the smaller cars look a lot alike. I suppose by the time they meet CAFE standards and crash standards there are only so many shapes they can be.

Class action lawsuits are usually initiated by attorneys that specialize in such things. They find a company to sue, something to sue over, and a person on who's behalf they will sue. In return, they get a large percentage of the settlement as a fee. Yea what happens sucked. But jobs aren't guaranteed. Lots of people take jobs and are let go within a few days for whatever reason.

Speaking of Wal Mart.... Some may recall when Wal Mart's big thing was "Made in USA". They had banners in the store, and had big tags on their USA made clothes. Now you can't go in there and buy USA made clothes. The clothing they have is absolute garbage. Yea it's cheap, but if it isn't useable, what's the point?

Both the Focus and Contour were duplicates of European models, so it can be done. Back in the last rear gas crunch (70's) Ford brought in European powerplants in the form of the 2.0L OHC and 2.7L Cologne V6 to power the Pintos and Mustang II's. The Mustang II had a European twin as the Capri, although I do not know which one came first.

That's exactly what a hybrid does - store energy to use when starting from a stop and at low speeds. Hybrids aren't some mysterious magic - you can duplicate much of the same MPG results yourself by driving a tiny, low powered car, shutting off the motor at stop lights and accelerating very gently. If you took a 46mpg Prius, took out the (hybrid) battery and electric motor and gave it to the average driver, they would still get 46mpg, maybe more with the reduced weight. It's a gimmick to get people to buy tiny cars that they otherwise would not consider.

Hybridization only gets better mileage in stop and go driving, i.e. dense city driving or city delivery work. For normal driving all it does is increase weight.

The general public does not care if a auto is union made, only that it is U.S. made. The transplants need to be organized to bring them down to our level. No more no less.

We've all seen for several years how gas prices go. They raise it 10 cents, then drop it 4 cents so we think it has "come back down". Any drop in the small amount of taxes in the price would be gone in a matter of weeks.

What a BS article. If all of that was true, the domestic automakers would have gotten rid of the unions years ago. It isn't easy, but it can be done.

To be fair OHAP was a little screwy because of the plant split they did in 74. The new jobs in OHAP were ones that had never been there before (having previously been done in Lorain). So you had people transferring with half the product (Econoline) plus people in the plant with a discontinued product (Escape).

Now I'm no stock wizard, but it seems to me that the stock really doesn't effect the company itself. Once the company initially sold the shares they are "in the wild" and the only people making or losing money is the ones buying or selling the shares. If they get low enough Ford can buy them back and end the stockholder BS (i.e. the Visteon selloff). Nothing came of that but bankrupting a division so the stockholders could get a payout.

Is it possible things are running slow because people AWOL'd and there aren't enough to run the line? So you have utilities and floats on the line and people doing unfamiliar jobs....

Normally this is a kit to add an extra transmission pump that runs off of the driveshaft, to supply fluid pressure to an automatic transmission to lube the bearings (since the regular pump is driven by the engine while running). However if you are flat towing a RWD 4x4, most transfer cases have a rear driven pump and do not need an add-on. You would put the transfer case in neutral and the trans in park or gear. Many manufacturers have stopped giving towing recommendations of any kind, I presume to limit their liability. You should be able to find a camper directory that will list which vehicles are flat towable without modifications.

Simply because you don't like the answer does not make it a "smart ass comment". If you want to be able to bump them, get Ford to hire them as seniority employees.

This has been gone over numerous times. Temps are just that, temporary. They do not have seniority to hold jobs. They are there to either hold a spot or fill a job until it is gone.

What the hell??!

Or if they had gone back when their jobs re-opened....... But when you stick a bunch of new transfers on the Jag line where you can read books between engines, for some reason they don't want to go back to a B&A plant... Had they stuck them all in the foundry they would have left smoke trails leaving when their jobs re-opened.

Not represented by the UAW? I was an 89 dayer for 3 summers and paid union dues and had representation. I never had a problem getting a comitteman to help with an issue (well no more than any other worker). Sounds like the worker quoted didn't know the facts. The article is almost a non-issue. The temps were always paid starting rate, it's just that starting rate has been reduced in the contract. At least when I was there, summer temps were not addressed in the contracts (TPT's were). You were simply a new hire that was to be laid off before gaining seniority.

I really wish you wouldn't insult monkeys like that...

I'm in freaking awe. Maybe that was the problem, she tried to get one and it went wrong. Horribly horribly wrong.

"Fortunately" all the new emissions diesels just suck. Even the ones in semi trucks etc. I foresee a market in rebuilding pre-emissions light trucks like they already do with "glider" kits for semi trucks.