UAW signals it would trade lower wages for new jobs

[MichiganTruck_Mafia]

http://www.freep.com/article/20110330/BUSINESS01/103300335/UAW-signals-would-trade-lower-wages-new-jobs?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|FRONTPAGE|p

 

:reading:

[mikem12]

more jobs means more dues for the international. I am curious does this mean that King and the rest in the international will also take a half pay cut? Somehow I don't see that happening.

[ffamily]

http://www.freep.com/article/20110330/BUSINESS01/103300335/UAW-signals-would-trade-lower-wages-new-jobs?odyssey=mod|newswell|text|FRONTPAGE|p

 

:reading:

I will vote no on any contract that increases the number of second tier employees . We work with these brothers and sisters side by side . They build the same products we do . But , their chances of owning a new ford vechicle is next to nil . They are waiting in the parking lot for a ride home or driving cars I owned when I was 16 . I know they took these jobs knowing what they were going to make . . How many of you really think you could live the new American dream SURVIVING .

This was one of many concessions we gave the company . But it will never be enough for them . They are already saying that they will close the wage gap with the transplants . And when that happens they will have to close the wage gap with the third world nations who build cars . They got their bonuses I get it . Whatever . Their job is to cut to the bone . I think they are doing a very good job at it . They just keep coming back to the well until its dry . Second tier wage is their best plan at getting the most from us . The company knows that its a lot easier to get a concession when it looks like it is going to effect someone else . Here is a three thousand dollar signing bonus put your mark here .

The Internationals job is to bargin for us . They get their bargining power from it’s shrinking membership . It’s not much of a choice if they have to choose between adding to the DUES paying membership or getting back wage and other concessions . So they will come to us saying all these jobs will be saved or added JOBS . Sure they will be in the same old dilapidated buildings we work in now . Maybe they will bring in some replacement parts from another plant that closed and a new coat of paint . While Ford spends BILLIONS to open up state of the art plants across the world . Sure it’s to meet world wide demand . But when the time comes they will be shipping in these GLOBAL products to the U.S. . Oh we can't get EVERYONE (EXCEPT THE INTERNATIONAL) to make 15 bucks an hour . Well we build the same vechile in this country for this much less . So bye bye . It’s coming . The only question is how long we can hold on before we're living the new American dream SURVIVING .

Edited March 30, 2011 by ffamily

[Glow]

I will vote no on any contract that increases the number of second tier employees . We work with these brothers and sisters side by side . They build the same products we do . But , their chances of owning a new ford vechicle is next to nil . They are waiting in the parking lot for a ride home or driving cars I owned when I was 16 . I know they took these jobs knowing what they were going to make . . How many of you really think you could live the new American dream SURVIVING .

This was one of many concessions we gave the company . But it will never be enough for them . They are already saying that they will close the wage gap with the transplants . And when that happens they will have to close the wage gap with the third world nations who build cars . They got their bonuses I get it . Whatever . Their job is to cut to the bone . I think they are doing a very good job at it . They just keep coming back to the well until its dry . Second tier wage is their best plan at getting the most from us . The company knows that its a lot easier to get a concession when it looks like it is going to effect someone else . Here is a three thousand dollar signing bonus put your mark here .

The Internationals job is to bargin for us . They get their barging power from it’s shrinking membership . It’s not much of a choice if they have to choose between adding to the DUES paying membership or getting back wage and other concessions . So they will come to us saying all these jobs will be saved or added JOBS . Sure they will be in the same old dilapidated buildings we work in now . Maybe they will bring in some replacement parts from another plant that closed and a new coat of paint . While Ford spends BILLIONS to open up state of the art plants across the world . Sure it’s to meet world wide demand . But when the time comes they will be shipping in these GLOBAL products to the U.S. . Oh we can't get EVERYONE (EXCEPT THE INTERNATIONAL) to make 15 bucks an hour . Well we build the same vechile in this country for this much less . So bye bye . It’s coming . The only question is how long we can hold on before we're living the new American dream SURVIVING .

 

 

:angel:

[lquidspine]

Can we come up with a new conspiracy like Bob King wasn't born in the US or that he's secretly a Muslim?

 

Besides I'd rather have them say Fuck the dues and tell the Big 3 to ship jobs overseas as we have enough now. lmao

 

Might i ask you idiots a question? Do you know anyone who runs a 300,000 ACTIVE organization like the UAW who works for 175,000? Would you do Bob's job for less?

And perhaps someone knows better but i heard something about lower wages for the new people that went down town recently. Could be complete bullshit, but someone told me that in respect to something else.

New IUAW reps start at 70% or something like that and it takes them 6 years to max out what past IUAW reps made. That is the truth as voted on at last years Con Con.

 

1. You will ask anyway

2. I seem to recall several that made less with double the membership (Yokich , Gettlefinger to name a couple recently).

Would you prefer our leaders get overpaid like this countries CEO's do ?

3. Yes, It still is good money and it is not like alot of expenses are not paid by the members from their dues.

[ifork4u]

New IUAW reps start at 70% or something like that and it takes them 6 years to max out what past IUAW reps made. That is the truth as voted on at last years Con Con.

 

1. You will ask anyway

2. I seem to recall several that made less with double the membership (Yokich , Gettlefinger to name a couple recently).

Would you prefer our leaders get overpaid like this countries CEO's do ?

3. Yes, It still is good money and it is not like alot of expenses are not paid by the members from their dues.

Between the uaw and the caw the only thing that these guys (leadership) cares about is membership numbers.They don't really care if you can't afford to get ahead in life,as long as the union can add members at whatever the cost.If they cared about the people they represent they would'nt even entertain new jobs at lower wages.It is time all of us union brothers and sisters UAW and CAW stood up to these companies as one and tell them we aren't putting up with this shit anymore!

[f150oderus]

Between the uaw and the caw the only thing that these guys (leadership) cares about is membership numbers.They don't really care if you can't afford to get ahead in life,as long as the union can add members at whatever the cost.If they cared about the people they represent they would'nt even entertain new jobs at lower wages.It is time all of us union brothers and sisters UAW and CAW stood up to these companies as one and tell them we aren't putting up with this shit anymore!

Right now we need numbers without the Members we are weak

If we had a stronge membership of 28 dollar an hour workers we would not need 14 dollar a hour workers

[Die Wahrheit]

Right now we need numbers without the Members we are weak

If we had a stronge membership of 28 dollar an hour workers we would not need 14 dollar a hour workers

 

 

We would be a lot stronger if it weren't for all the ANTI'S thats part of the union.

[EdselBryantFord]

can we give bob king a second tier paycheck?

[jjt4433]

When 2nd tier workers numbers get comparable with 1st tier workers and we are all voting on contracts, that is not going to be a good scenario for 1st tier workers.

[ifork4u]

Right now we need numbers without the Members we are weak

If we had a stronge membership of 28 dollar an hour workers we would not need 14 dollar a hour workers

Ya thats the answer,lets fill all the plants with these $14 an hour workers than see how willing they are to go on strike for your pensions,my guess is not very willing.After what we have all put up with over the last 6 or so years we should have all been offended by the bonuses paid out to the executives and ready to fight for our fair share!

[trailfndr]

Ya thats the answer,lets fill all the plants with these $14 an hour workers than see how willing they are to go on strike for your pensions,my guess is not very willing.After what we have all put up with over the last 6 or so years we should have all been offended by the bonuses paid out to the executives and ready to fight for our fair share!

 

 

Don't worry about them voting for your pension...Worry about them voting for your PAY & BENEFIT CUT.

 

And yes, we should be offended..more importanly we should be furious about them.

[Len_A]

Don't worry about them voting for your pension...Worry about them voting for your PAY & BENEFIT CUT.

 

And yes, we should be offended..more importanly we should be furious about them.

Considering that the majority of the public (read that: customers/car buyers) considers Mulally a hero, yea, be furious, make a big public stink, as if that will ever make a difference (it won't), and just piss people off, and turn customers off. Yea, right. That will further the cause. Not.

[ifork4u]

Considering that the majority of the public (read that: customers/car buyers) considers Mulally a hero, yea, be furious, make a big public stink, as if that will ever make a difference (it won't), and just piss people off, and turn customers off. Yea, right. That will further the cause. Not.

So your plan is to what? sit back and keep letting the company and its executives tell you that you and your wage are the reason for all fords problems?Gimme a break,please tell me you are not that naive.Does ford think that the people that are earning $14hr to build these cars will actually be able to afford to purchase the products?If i was the public i would be asking mulally and his co-horts why after all the employees have given back to the company didn't the prices of cars come down.

[steve morris]

The sad part of this is that the public actually believes that union wages are what makes autos cost so much and therefor see no problem with this. If that was the case, then why aren't the cars that are built overseas with extremely low wages less expensive? I don't see Ford. Chrysler, or GM lowering the cost of the cars being built in Mexico and other countries due to less expensive labor cost. But then again, it would be hard to pay someone 56 million if they did that.

[Len_A]

So your plan is to what? sit back and keep letting the company and its executives tell you that you and your wage are the reason for all fords problems?Gimme a break,please tell me you are not that naive.Does ford think that the people that are earning $14hr to build these cars will actually be able to afford to purchase the products?If i was the public i would be asking mulally and his co-horts why after all the employees have given back to the company didn't the prices of cars come down.

I wouldn't ask the public a thing because the majority of the public is white collar and doesn't give a shit.

[Trimdingman]

The sad part of this is that the public actually believes that union wages are what makes autos cost so much and therefor see no problem with this. If that was the case, then why aren't the cars that are built overseas with extremely low wages less expensive? I don't see Ford. Chrysler, or GM lowering the cost of the cars being built in Mexico and other countries due to less expensive labor cost. But then again, it would be hard to pay someone 56 million if they did that.

 

 

Around 99% of the cost of a vehicle is designing the vehicle, designing the parts, making the parts, shipping the parts to the assembly plants, shipping the finished vehicles to the dealers, selling the cars, government taxes and regulations, and financing. Assembling the cars is just one small step in the total process. Assembly of a vehicle is about 20 man-hours of labor. If that labor is 10 dollars an hour or 50 dollars an hour means the difference of 200 dollars or 1000 dollars on a car that will retail for $50,000 counting taxes and financing.

[louie]

Around 99% of the cost of a vehicle is designing the vehicle, designing the parts, making the parts, shipping the parts to the assembly plants, shipping the finished vehicles to the dealers, selling the cars, government taxes and regulations, and financing. Assembling the cars is just one small step in the total process. Assembly of a vehicle is about 20 man-hours of labor. If that labor is 10 dollars an hour or 50 dollars an hour means the difference of 200 dollars or 1000 dollars on a car that will retail for $50,000 counting taxes and financing.

 

The difference is $800 x 2,000,000 vehicles produced is 1.6 Billion dollars over a year in savings.

 

With numbers like this I am thankful for the UAW keeping product in the USA

[Trimdingman]

The difference is $800 x 2,000,000 vehicles produced is 1.6 Billion dollars over a year in savings.

 

With numbers like this I am thankful for the UAW keeping product in the USA

 

 

2 million cars times $50,000 is one hundred billion dollars. If you subtract the increased shipping costs of finished vehicles to the dealers if you assemble the cars farther away, from the pittance that would be saved in labor costs, that 1.6 billion dollars would disappear in a hurry. Blaming everything on final assembly auto workers is just a smoke screen. Why not blame the truckers for charging so much for shipping? Why not blame the government for charging so much in taxes, and creating so many regulations? If auto workers worked for free, the cost of a car would only be reduced by less than $1000. If the government reduced the sales tax by 3%, there would be a bigger savings than that. Where is the perspective? The final assembly is probably the most efficient part of the whole process; but the one that is always under attack.

Edited April 3, 2011 by Trimdingman

[ReDemption]

Understand that Auto Manufacturing labor is a mer 7 - 10% of the total vehicle cost.

So, even at 14 an hour we are not safe in comparability with foreign labor. Add liability, retirement and health care and you’re now at 40 and hour. Go to 0 an hour for hourly labor wages and your still at 26 an hour. The problem is not labor, it’s all about benefit costs, health care costs, taxes, liability costs, and export shipping costs. I’m sure I’ve missed some other costs enforced on American manufacturing companies but you get the point.

 

Simply said, without our representatives addressing manufacturing costs in the US, we as laborers are doomed. We as a Union need to start banding together along with our International representatives to force our state representatives and the US Government to help save our American manufacturing jobs.

 

• We need to have health care cost incentives, direct shipping tax rebates, property tax incentives, building tax incentives, health care kick backs for amount of employees.

• We need to start addressing the real problem in this country, and that’s GREED. This being pharmaceutical costs, health care costs, manufacturing costs and total

liability costs.

• We need to address the infrastructure of NAFTA and either every other country accepts the same rules or we do away with it.

 

This country has been brought to its knees before and American leaders with great minds put it back on its feet. The News media and economist say time and time again that we laborers need to change our way of thinking. I agree that change is needed for sure but the change would be to start looking out for us, the American people, because it’s certainly not happening even after we laborers did our part.

 

Be Good

 

Jeff Hodges

DTP Body

Local 600

[DTP Nick]

Understand that Auto Manufacturing labor is a mer 7 - 10% of the total vehicle cost.

So, even at 14 an hour we are not safe in comparability with foreign labor. Add liability, retirement and health care and you’re now at 40 and hour. Go to 0 an hour for hourly labor wages and your still at 26 an hour. The problem is not labor, it’s all about benefit costs, health care costs, taxes, liability costs, and export shipping costs. I’m sure I’ve missed some other costs enforced on American manufacturing companies but you get the point.

 

Simply said, without our representatives addressing manufacturing costs in the US, we as laborers are doomed. We as a Union need to start banding together along with our International representatives to force our state representatives and the US Government to help save our American manufacturing jobs.

 

• We need to have health care cost incentives, direct shipping tax rebates, property tax incentives, building tax incentives, health care kick backs for amount of employees.

• We need to start addressing the real problem in this country, and that’s GREED. This being pharmaceutical costs, health care costs, manufacturing costs and total

liability costs.

• We need to address the infrastructure of NAFTA and either every other country accepts the same rules or we do away with it.

 

This country has been brought to its knees before and American leaders with great minds put it back on its feet. The News media and economist say time and time again that we laborers need to change our way of thinking. I agree that change is needed for sure but the change would be to start looking out for us, the American people, because it’s certainly not happening even after we laborers did our part.

 

Be Good

 

Jeff Hodges

DTP Body

Local 600

I can agree with PARTS of this. Our (UAW) labor costs are inline with the foreign automakers at 45 bucks an hour. I believe that it Hyundai, and Kia that are still lower at 40 an hour. From what I read in Sundays paper Hyundai and Kia are the automakers that the Union is going to target down South. I hope the UAW is succesfull in their push to Unionize these shops but from what I read it seems as if the majority of workers in these plants DO NOT WANT A UNION. It will be an uphill fight in extreme right wing republican territory down south where they dont take to kindly to Democratic Yankees from up north coming down to make trouble and push their Democratic politics. I wish the Union luck as they are gonna need it. Before you say im all over the board I am a moderate republican(in the middle..a centrist) not a tea party right wing radical and have voted for many democrats in my day...My politics are in the middle of both parties. I just cant support extreme left wing entitlement welfare democrats as I cant stand extreme right wing redneck repubs

[Len_A]

I can agree with PARTS of this. Our (UAW) labor costs are inline with the foreign automakers at 45 bucks an hour. I believe that it Hyundai, and Kia that are still lower at 40 an hour. From what I read in Sundays paper Hyundai and Kia are the automakers that the Union is going to target down South. I hope the UAW is succesfull in their push to Unionize these shops but from what I read it seems as if the majority of workers in these plants DO NOT WANT A UNION. It will be an uphill fight in extreme right wing republican territory down south where they dont take to kindly to Democratic Yankees from up north coming down to make trouble and push their Democratic politics. I wish the Union luck as they are gonna need it. Before you say im all over the board I am a moderate republican(in the middle..a centrist) not a tea party right wing radical and have voted for many democrats in my day...My politics are in the middle of both parties. I just cant support extreme left wing entitlement welfare democrats as I cant stand extreme right wing redneck repubs

I can tell you that all the transplants try, as hard as possible, using a lot of personality tests during the hiring/interview process, to weed out anyone that could be sympathetic to unions. So, for the UAW organizers, the deck is already stacked against them before they even get started. An article, in this past Sunday's Detroit Free Press, illustrated this quite well. See the attached article, but here's a quote:

 

 

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Deric Golden has what he calls his dream job, fixing small flaws on the sedans churned out at the Hyundai factory in Montgomery, Ala.

 

So when two organizers from the UAW knocked on his apartment door one day, hoping to get him to sign a union card, he quickly sent them packing.

 

"I told them I didn't work at the plant," said Golden, 29. "I just wasn't interested."

 

and this:

 

 

 

Wages vary by company and geographic region, making exact comparisons difficult. Average labor costs — wages and benefits — for the unionized Detroit automakers and nonunion Toyota's U.S. plants are about the same at $55 an hour, according to the Center for Automotive Research.

 

But the rest pay less; nonunion Honda pays about $50 an hour. Nissan, Hyundai and Kia are at about $45.

 

Though much smaller now, the union remains a force — and King has moved to expand its reach by courting new political constituencies such as environmentalists and human-rights activists as well as new industries.

 

But the UAW is having trouble making its case to workers who have an intense loyalty to the automakers who brought high-paying blue-collar employment to small Southern towns and cities starved for jobs.

 

"I don't want to give any more pieces of the pie to anyone else. I need it for myself," said Kevin Carroll of La Grange, Ga., who was unemployed when hired by Kia last year.

Southern factories are crucial for UAW.pdf

[Dragonfly]

Auto bosses, UAW press ahead with “pay-for-performance” scheme

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/feb2011/wage-f04.shtml

 

"...That the UAW is preparing to impose such conditions only underscores that it is no longer an organization of the working class, but a co-partner in exploitation. Auto workers can only begin to defend themselves by breaking with this rotten apparatus and building new organizations of struggle—elected by rank and file workers—to mobilize against the auto companies, their UAW servants, the two corporate-backed political parties and the capitalist system they all defend..."

[louie]

Auto bosses, UAW press ahead with “pay-for-performance” scheme

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2011/feb2011/wage-f04.shtml

 

"...That the UAW is preparing to impose such conditions only underscores that it is no longer an organization of the working class, but a co-partner in exploitation. Auto workers can only begin to defend themselves by breaking with this rotten apparatus and building new organizations of struggle—elected by rank and file workers—to mobilize against the auto companies, their UAW servants, the two corporate-backed political parties and the capitalist system they all defend..."

 

Welcome to the table....... Chuckie

 

Are you a low seniority worker?

 

Seems you are.......

 

Well its bargaining season and this is called "bargaining through the press" if you dont have the stomach for it then stay on the porch.

[ffamily]

The UAW always goes about things wrong.

 

Once again they won't get one single plant organized. Its sad but its true. You just can't keep sending the same ole people down there doing things the same ole way. For all his talk about making a difference they are not.

 

First off, you can't swoop in at the last minute and try to talk people into wanting a union/company relationship to people still in a honeymoon period. Fucking dumb.

 

You have to remember one of the most profound things my father taught me,

 

"Always say nice things about the guy who brought the beer!"

 

Sorry but I wouldn't turn on the people that came in a gave mye18 or 20 bucks and a few benefits when i had none last year and i am a hardcore union guy. You have to stay true till they step on your dick then you say okay now i need the union.

 

THE TRANSPLANTS BROUGHT THE BEER!!! Nuff said.

Best post ever !

Edited April 6, 2011 by ffamily