Allen Park wind tunnel workers are all Jacobs contract employees, why aren't they all Ford employees?
All of the technicians and the majority of the people are not Ford. All Ford systems are used along with team center!
Can any Ford folks explain?
Thanks.
7 replies (most recent on top)
Not much talent or experience left in product development. We lost most of the experienced employees in the buildings on Rotunda. They are full of employees on H1B visas, and do not have a whole lot of experience in automotive. Sell your Ford stock in the 401K before the quality issues hit...
I agree that the agency contracts benefit the agency more than the contract employee or Ford. Many of the contract employees are denied training and development opportunities. In spite of high hourly rates many contractors are underpaid and if their Ford LL6 manages to get them an increase the agency takes 90% of it. Ford claims that agency workers are used so that headcount can be managed during lean times but I’m not convinced that’s the reason. In the last two rounds of job eliminations my organization cut Ford positions and did not cut agency positions.
I have seen contract/agency employees both with no skin in the game and some hard working ones. The hard working, knowledgeable contract employees want to get hired and have stability in their job instead of the frequent moving around the country.
I have seen where the same contract company controls both development and support. This is where they don't care about a quality install because the support team is there is fix all the issues. A double win for the contract company.
I have also seen companies write up a bad contracts (favorable to them, obviously) and also abuse contract workers.
I worked at one company where they would sign a 5 year contract to bring on agency workers. Then they would renegotiate the contract every year for less money which meant less agency workers each year and less quality from them. The same company would overwork the agency. Agency workers would get paid for 40 but put in 50/60 hours with no time off or extra pay. The turnover was atrocious which brought down quality.
Yeah not a good spot to be in,
Noooo oh, not really.
These transient employees you are speaking of are typically looking to get hired direct. Therefore they contribute as much if not more in order to prove themselves since they normally are the 1st to be cut when times get tough.
I am direct have been for 20 years. I see 6's & 5's covering for inept direct report on a daily basis.
Sickening
They are probably cheaper. Problem with non-direct employees is that they are always searching for the next best thing- often on company time. For the most part, they are transient employees. And because they have no skin in the game, aren’t about to go above and beyond. There are intangible advantages to direct hires.
ford employees sold out by a shadey union i guess