UAW rethinks some archaic job rules

[pcsario]

http://www.detroitnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/a.../704210378/1148

 

a non-UAW worker would not have been allowed to change a light bulb in a Ford plant, and the union fought any move to outsource union jobs tooth and nail.

 

"The use of contractors gives (Detroit's) Big Three much needed flexibility," said Greg Gardner, spokesman for Troy-based Harbour Consulting, which tracks auto manufacturing productivity.Deals are a money-saver

 

UAW leaders at the Van Dyke plant agreed to adopt work rules last year under what's known as a "competitive operating agreement."

 

 

In 2005, the latest figures available, Ford had a $2,177-per-vehicle profit gap compared to Toyota in North America, according to Harbour Consulting. Ford's profit gap compared to Honda was $1,805 and $2,839 for Nissan.[/b]

 

:reading:

[inteller]

archaic job rules......you mean like unions? That would be great if they rethink themselves out of existence.

[twintornados]

Thats right Inteller....lets make everyone work for five bucks an hour so you can save all your money while buying Chinese crap at Wal-Mart, then they can get fired for blowing their nose when the boss walked by instead of bowing down and telling him what a great guy he is.

[silvrsvt]

Thats right Inteller....lets make everyone work for five bucks an hour so you can save all your money while buying Chinese crap at Wal-Mart, then they can get fired for blowing their nose when the boss walked by instead of bowing down and telling him what a great guy he is.

 

 

Well if your job wasn't so easily replaceable by someone else (due to the skills the job requires), you wouldn't have to worry about that...

[NickF1011]

Thats right Inteller....lets make everyone work for five bucks an hour so you can save all your money while buying Chinese crap at Wal-Mart, then they can get fired for blowing their nose when the boss walked by instead of bowing down and telling him what a great guy he is.

 

Hmm...I'm not in a union and I manage to make well over $5.00 an hour.

[Catalepsy]

There are plenty of Americans in other industries that are doing just fine without unions. There was a time in American history that the Unions were needed, but they are clearly a burden on the system now. American inustries should not be forced to keep non-competitive workers. If someone else can do a better job and cost less, then the company should be allowed to hired them. That is the basis of the capitalist system.

 

If you "Have" to work at Wal Mart, then you have done something seriously wrong giving the free education and all the perks of living in the USA. Workers are allowed to take their skills elsewhere for better living, why not companies?

 

Thats right Inteller....lets make everyone work for five bucks an hour so you can save all your money while buying Chinese crap at Wal-Mart, then they can get fired for blowing their nose when the boss walked by instead of bowing down and telling him what a great guy he is.

[ZanatWork]

I've never been in any union, and I've always earned healthily more than minimum wage...even as a teenager.

 

Be worth keeping.

 

Show interest in company health.

 

Show interest in working to further the company...in other words, show interest beyond yourself.

 

Be accountable. Be on time. Don't show up drunk/stoned/hung over.

 

It ain't rocket science.

[focus05]

What this article touches on briefly and what I would like to see more at Ford is exactly what the union guy talks about towards the end of the article. Ford plant managers should be business men/women first, managing the risks and costs associated with the ther facility and how to produce the best products at the lowest prices given their inputs. If they have the union labor that is not committed to product build currently, I think Ford should definitely be using inside resources versus contractors (the overhead of managing contracts and such is fairly high) if there are compelling reasons like on-time/under-budget work. What that would mean, though, is that the UAW would have to accept something akin to salary and deadlines. So, for example, if a contractor bids on a contract that is supposed to last 6 months and entail "X" amount of work, Ford's guaranteed costs are "Y." If the contractor runs over because they are inept, they absorb the cost. If the contractor is under, they have extra money. If the scope changes, the contract is modified. Basically, it's a blanket that covers a bunch of hourly workers and makes it appear like a salary payment for Ford. That's a VERY stable way to approach finances and long-term costs.

 

I wish the UAW could organize "contracting" teams better to step in and competitively bid not unlike American Airlines' unionized mechnics who proved that they could retrofit airplanes faster and less costly than anyone in the world. Not only does American keep everything in house now, but other airlines fly their planes from South America and Europe to the U.S. for retrofits. I would like to see Toyota hiring Ford mechanics for a retrofit job because they are the most efficient group in the nation. That would be so cool.

Edited April 24, 2007 by focus05

[DSenstad]

I'm having a little problem with the people who are proclaiming that they make a decent wage without a union. I have lived and worked in areas that were very anti union and areas with unions, different parts of the same state and guess where the jobs barely paid anything and guess where a person could get enough money to live a better life... even if they weren't in a union, it still affects their pay tremendously.

 

I don't think Unions were developed to protect inadequate workers forever, but I can see where they need to be aggressive. One of the engineers many years ago at our plant was a young man out of college and extremely bright. He was easily going to be a rising star. He had a dinged up piece of trim on his car which was built in the plant. His boss told him that he could take a piece just like it to repair his vehicle, and that he had authorized another employee to do it the week before. The truth is they do that in Management in our plant or did. The boss said he would call security and clear it. The talented engineer wrapped up the piece of trim and took it with him at the end of the day. The boss as promised called security but instead of clearing it told them that he had seen this young man wrapping something up and taking it. The young man was fired when everyone said they knew nothing about it.

 

In the Ford world, you can be to good at your job unless you do have protection.

[focus05]

I'm having a little problem with the people who are proclaiming that they make a decent wage without a union. I have lived and worked in areas that were very anti union and areas with unions, different parts of the same state and guess where the jobs barely paid anything and guess where a person could get enough money to live a better life... even if they weren't in a union, it still affects their pay tremendously.

 

I don't think Unions were developed to protect inadequate workers forever, but I can see where they need to be aggressive. One of the engineers many years ago at our plant was a young man out of college and extremely bright. He was easily going to be a rising star. He had a dinged up piece of trim on his car which was built in the plant. His boss told him that he could take a piece just like it to repair his vehicle, and that he had authorized another employee to do it the week before. The truth is they do that in Management in our plant or did. The boss said he would call security and clear it. The talented engineer wrapped up the piece of trim and took it with him at the end of the day. The boss as promised called security but instead of clearing it told them that he had seen this young man wrapping something up and taking it. The young man was fired when everyone said they knew nothing about it.

 

In the Ford world, you can be to good at your job unless you do have protection.

 

But that's not technically a good reason for the union. That's a problem with how Ford decides who manages their facilities and how their culture is built. If Ford's culture were open and very performance oriented, the union "protection" would no longer be needed in the sense you mention above.

 

Unions exist to break that negative and unproductive kind of culture - that's the type of culture that built the unions in the first place - but ultimately, that type of culture cannot continue (see the firings at OAC with the Edge launch) even with UAW concessions because it will, in the end, destroy any company. What Ford needs to do is encourage bright and creative people to stay with and move up through the company - whether through their manufacturing facilities, administrative branches or design/engineering studios. If idiot plant managers are allowed to continue operating their fiefdoms without accountability, than Ford is doomed to failure. Union or no.

 

On the flip side, the unions, in response to the troll bosses, have set up rules that are impossibly inflexible. I'm sure the leadership at Ford would be more than happy to pay good wages and match 401k's significantly if they had flexibility to fire poor performers, conduct proper hiring, make flexible teams that can work in several different functional areas, institute more flexible procedures for the waxing and waning in the auto industry and could allocate contractors versus union labor as needed to meet temporary demands. By becoming flexible and competitive, the UAW will naturally be more productive. By allowing merit based raises, the UAW will allow people to continue to get paid well. By clearing out deadweight losses, the UAW will not only save a company like Ford, but it will save itself. Ultimately, if either GM or Ford enters bankruptcy, the UAW is finished.

 

I think in the ideal world, FoMoCo would have plant managers whose task was to produce the highest quality vehicles as efficiently as possible and that bonuses and raises would be granted on a per factory basis, which could then be split among the different groups and shops depending on performance, further split by leaders of those groups/shops to the workers who have been particularly productive or innovative in their work. Extrinsic incentives will keep people moving. Managers of good plants will be promoted fairly quickly, bringing in new blood or raising people off the line in the vacuum. It's amazing what teamwork can and does accomplish.

 

None of that can happen with bad plant managers (who the UAW *SHOULD* point out and try to get removed cooperatively with Ford's management team), but still, ultimately, none of that can happen until the UAW rethinks how it operates. Because, at the end of the day, if there is too much fixed cost and inefficiency, there will be no room to encourage improvement through extrinsic or intrinsic incentives. And Ford will die off. Maybe a bit more slowly with some concessions, but will die off nonetheless.

[macattak1]

Let all the UAW workers BUY Ford and make it an employee owned company. Then they can work their union all the way to the bank.

 

 

Greetings,

 

Great posts Focus05.

 

I think we all have to remember that we do Not live in a vacuum. From the ditch digger to the waiter, call center to janitor, highly competative fields, or with your BA, MA, PHD, etc. people see things hugely different. Those at the top usually the most distorted. Top could be defined as highly payed, highly protected, highly bennifited.

 

For some time big business treated employees not just unfairly, but put their lives in jeopardy on a regular basis. Unions were needed just to keep people alive and safe. Big Business built up a really bad reputation for it and that is on BB. But big business has been forced by the outside to change and grow and become better. The laws prove it and so do the law suits.

 

Can the UAW can say the same? Who is forcing it to change? Nothing outside it. My perception is that the UAW has slit its own PR throat in the last few decades and that is on them. MI and Detroit in particular is destitute and a huge percentage of that is owed to the UAW. Complain all you want about how much money big businesses make. Start a business if you want. But I do not know of BB ever bankrupting a town, city, or region let alone a whole state. Now their kids have questionable economic opportunities in their futures!

 

Businesses come and go. There have been many companies that made horrible business decisions, floundered and failed, or almost failed. That is life as a business, owner, share holder, employee, etc. But the UAW does not seem to be in the business of driving a hard bargain. It has gone way beyond that. If not, they would not be taking 10%, 20%, 30% + wage cuts. Who gets paid $25k, $50k, $100k as a simple employee when they get laid off? Is it protecting or protectionism? Companies that have been in business for 50, 100, or 200 years can claim a major feat and can be admired in most cases. A union that breaks company’s backs solely on the bases of pay and benefits is not something most would admire and the UAW and other like unions are pushing it.

 

Pilots have taken 50% wage and benefit cuts, work hour adjustments, etc. It took them forever to get to that point and they helped to bankrupt most every major airline along the way! Retirees lost huge benefits in most cases. The UAW seems on target to out due even the pilots. If they want to be a huge part of a US automakers failure, you can bet I do not want a penny of my tax dollars going to prop Ford up and help it survive. Let all the UAW workers BUY Ford and make it an employee owned company. Then they can work their union all the way to the bank. Perhaps the Feds should have let Chrysler fold years ago?

 

Peace and Blessings

[DRODMOTORS]

I'm having a little problem with the people who are proclaiming that they make a decent wage without a union. I have lived and worked in areas that were very anti union and areas with unions, different parts of the same state and guess where the jobs barely paid anything and guess where a person could get enough money to live a better life... even if they weren't in a union, it still affects their pay tremendously.

 

I don't think Unions were developed to protect inadequate workers forever, but I can see where they need to be aggressive. One of the engineers many years ago at our plant was a young man out of college and extremely bright. He was easily going to be a rising star. He had a dinged up piece of trim on his car which was built in the plant. His boss told him that he could take a piece just like it to repair his vehicle, and that he had authorized another employee to do it the week before. The truth is they do that in Management in our plant or did. The boss said he would call security and clear it. The talented engineer wrapped up the piece of trim and took it with him at the end of the day. The boss as promised called security but instead of clearing it told them that he had seen this young man wrapping something up and taking it. The young man was fired when everyone said they knew nothing about it.

 

In the Ford world, you can be to good at your job unless you do have protection.

 

That guy wasn't too bright if he was ok with stealing from factory. Regardless of what his boss said he should have had some balls to say no thanks.