Need to hire replacement workers to settle this mess and / or move the work south.
UAW doesn’t want to negotiate a contract, they just want to stir the pot.
20 replies (most recent on top)
Right, the best way to prevent our jobs shipping to LCC is to unionize and demand bigger paychecks.
@OP don’t come crying when Farley has shifted 85-90% of salaried (including your job) to low cost countries. In today’s day and age it is much easier to shift white collar work to LCC.
There are consumers who will make purchasing decisions based upon where the product was built. But no one makes purchasing decisions based on where a white collar cog is located.
If the union was serious about management's waste of money and bad decisions they would put picketers at the train station. Billy would freak out.
Yep, bust the Union. They were needed at 1 time, not anymore. Call their bluff and then see. I sure bet we would be alot more competitive with the Asian auto and Tesla. Just like they tell the salary people..quit whining and get back to work.
Economics 101 : Opportunity cost. What is the opportunity cost of a decade or more of high student loan payments vs putting that money to work ? The borrower is always a servant to the lender. The servant pays interest to service those loans vs the person who never has them to begin with. In addition to the lost opportunity cost of the loans, the young person who is skilled and qualified through vocational technical training immediately begins earning a salary, part of which can be invested much sooner and for a longer duration than a person coming out of college with only an undergrad degree, which sadly isn’t enough to stand out anyway. The lost opportunity cost of delaying a salary for an extra 4 or 5 years minimum is also substantial. The old career rules no longer apply, especially since the days of having a fully paid company pension are over.
I got my popcorn ready...who's bluffing and who holds the winning hand...you all, not yall...should read articles on the OEM and UAW corruptions scandals. good reading. Nothing changes and your opinions are worthless...
@sot It’s funny to me how non-college grads think student loan debt is such a big deal. It’s like $100-$200 per month for most people, very much worth the additional $1 million in lifetime earning potential. But ig it’s the only cope you have knowing you missed out on the best part of your life.
Yes, the proverbial “go to college to be successful” career game plan is truly becoming obsolete and exposed as the “only” way to success, as massive student loans have sadly become an albatross around the neck of many white collar college educated young people. Meanwhile the young person with skill and ambition who can work with their mind AND hands who is disciplined with money is far ahead of a young person who depends solely on a college degree. Especially now that an undergrad degree is very very common. Masters or doctorate level degrees are required to open doors that an undergrad degree opened a generation ago. Not to mention the astronomical increase in tuition.
@wva+ The UAW burns bridges with the white collar folks daily. They make it virtually impossible for Engineers to get things done inside a plant.
UAW workers do not have large student loan payment and many who managed their finances right are debt free. They can afford to stay out on strike for as long as it takes ti be treated fairly. What is fair you ask ? To be treated the same as executive team members as far as percentage increases. Leadership needs to lead by example, that’s why UAW is striking. Do not ask subordinates to do anything that you are not willing to do yourself is the test of true leadership.
Yeah OP, just pickup the $5B factories and move them to the south… or maybe sell them. The American manufacturing sector is very prosperous, they should be able to find a buyer in no time!
I agree with OP. They can all be replaced in 2 weeks.
It’s the UAW’s right to strike as part of the collective bargaining process. The UAW leadership is tone death however because while they think this makes a large impact it really does not matter for the global economy. 30 years ago, sure, the big3 meant something. Now there are so many industries that did not even exist back then. There are also several well established competitors that do not rely on organized labor that were fledgling then and now have created a sales and service network which rivals what the big3 had.
Frankly, you get rid of Ford, GM, and the joke up in Auburn Hills, yeah SE Michigan would hurt, but the rest of the country would barely notice it. Fain needs to be extremely careful. The snakes in Washington will turn their back on the UAW in an instant. The arsenal of democracy argument is a joke as well when we live in the world of push button warfare.
Let the UAW stay on strike for the next 3 months. It won't hurt anything. It will actually help Ford rebalance the workforce and productivity. We don't need to keep make what we can't sell.
These things always bring out the worst in people. Sadly, those memories don't go away when the strike is over. I remember tire spikes, friends in engineering being sp-t on and entrances blocked by slow shuffling strikers so you would be stuck im cross traffic. The divisive nature of this alienates the relationship between salary and hourly for a lifetime. It's a bad way to solve a problem IMHO.
“The hourly workers haven't received increases since 2008.”
That’s b.s. But if it were true, the UAW should be blamed for that. They’ve had multiple contract negotiations since 2008. Maybe they should have asked for 3% per year a long time ago. If the hourly workers have it worse than salary, the UAW is to blame.
The hourly workers haven't received increases since 2008. The first tier gets $16 to $18 an hour. Upper tier gets $28 an hour. In the meantime, the salaried personnel received about 3% a year (with the exception of a few years of wage freezes). So, the salary workforce has received about 40% since 2008. The UAW workers deserve this too.
White collar workers are just jealous because they have only been getting 3% raises.
I wouldn't call the UAW workers lazy, but I do think they are asking for more than they are worth. And spare me the arguments about how much the CEO's are making and what you gave up years ago. You need to compare yourself with the salaries of people doing similar work today.
UAW should strike. They deserve a fair wage. You can say they are lazy, but they have no more lazy workers than salaried.