The UAW is willing to bankrupt the auto companies to obtain their short-term gains. The auto companies should publicly announce they are cutting the top 100 executives’ compensation by 20%. That ends the evil rich executive UAW argument, for today. Then the companies can agree to have UAW representation at the battery plants. The UAW should sign the contract and celebrate “Eat the Rich”. After signing, companies can announce that the battery plants have been sold 100% to the JV partner with exclusive agreements to supply batteries to the company at a set price. That keeps the UAW out and makes them more competitive. Then every auto company can start building new plants in Mexico to replace the current old US plants. In 10 years, the UAW will have half the members and zero leverage. Congratulations UAW you will win the battle and lose the war.
34 replies (most recent on top)
“The auto companies should publicly announce they are cutting the top 100 executives’ compensation by 20%.”
How about
“The auto companies should publicly announce they are cutting the top 20% of their leadership.”
FIFY
Can guarantee they could afford the demands and likely make the company work better. Who needs so many layers of management? It’s dekcuf up
ssa eht ni meht kcuf ,snoinu eht kcuF
The hypocritical part of “it’s not a good time to ask for more” is that during bo-m times it is also not a good time to share in the prosperity.
@2dbu+1p3skSX7 Not putting down anybody and I don't believe the IT engineer feels ripped off. Maybe you should start by re-reading the posts and understanding the points made.
Since we live in an economy of offer and demand, and there is higher demand for an IT engineer than for a line worker, or a Walmart worker, the price (salary) reflects that. It doesn't mean anything demeaning for any worker. I respect and approve honest work.
I still don't think this is the right time for UAW to be intransigent with the contracts, and I said the same when CAW didn't want to take a pay cut (1CAD=1USD) and the company ended closing the plant, therefore costing the Canadian workers their jobs. The CAW did a study later on and found out that laid off union workers could not find "decent jobs". So UAW workers should count their blessings, while they have it. And it seems the CAW learned its lesson, and accepted the contract offered recently.
Either way, I don't think Ford or GM are going to be around much longer, particularly with the UAW strike and their demands. Fain pushing to unionize the electric plants, and risking the ICE plants in the process, doesn't seem smart (especially when Ford BEVs are not selling). If the UAW cost is high enough, GM will close those plants and move the production south in 4 years. Ford is already in bad shape, maybe it won't reach the end of the UAW contract. Who knows?
Since I don't buy products of the "Big 3", and I'll be probably laid off soon, I don't have a dog in the fight. I don't care either way. I don't blame UAW for the layoffs of salaried employees, since those started in 2019, with id--tic professor moonbeam. Just know that I'll find another high paying job, but union workers not (since they are spoiled with the union monopoly).
So, the complaint appears to be...IT Engineering feels ripped off because union assembly line workers make more than them in pay and benefits and may have less education.
Trying to degrade others to make yourself look wiser does not fill your bank account.
Wrong approach to down the UAW or workers. Stay in your own lane. Engineering Professors push innovation were u sleeping in college? If not union, Eng-Dev pays minimal mostly. Put yourself into gear and peel out with new ideas the company can use else you may always make less and be irritated about it.
Is UAW fighting to keep jobs in usa?
@2zg you’re right, I probably wouldn’t enjoy it, but only because I wouldn’t find snapping plastic panels together or pushing buttons mentally stimulating. But it’s a good fit for those people born with an IQ 1-2 standard deviations below the mean who would otherwise be making $10/hr as a cashier at Walgreens.
@2zgb+1p3skSX7 "You'd wilt if you tried to do their job for days on end."
And even they would wilt picking tomatoes. The point is not how boring and repetitive is the job, but how hard is to have the skills to do it. Almost anybody can be trained to do the line worker's job.
Sure, many people will leave it in time, especially the brightest, because it is a monotone work that ki-ls minds. However, many people are willing to sign in for $78,000 annually (average salary of Ford UAW in 2022) with 90% of health coverage, and get that boring job. If not for the monopoly of the UAW on those jobs, no matter how high the turnover, there would be lines and waiting lists for those positions.
Now, how about your IT engineer job? Can anybody do your job, especially those who didn't go to college? That's why your compensation should be better. While the demand for IT engineers is higher than the number of IT personnel, you'll get good salaries. The moment we get 100 millions of IT engineers in America, say goodbye to the good salaries.
The only point that I agree with Fain is how overcompensate is the C suite and all the managers. They deserve to pay back to the company, instead of getting paid millions, for all those wrong decisions.
BTW, going for the same UAW compensation that bankrupted GM/Chrysler in 2009, is not good. Going for the same UAW compensation when it seems the economy is going to flip and we'll end in a deep recesion, is definitively not good, nor smart. I think it is the worst moment to ask for so much. They missed the opportunity in 2015 and 2019, and now trying to "make up for it" will lead to nothing good.
Fain seems to enjoy being on stage. But, Pls make sure to truly care for the people. We all have bills to pay....Pls do make a mockery by comparing the situation to silly reality show.
- ….….He makes between $200,000
Oh so you're saying he makes 1% of what Farley makes.
Thanks for proving the point
Fain get $347,389 per year.
A lot of my striking brothers are not happy with him. He should be paid the same as we are during the strike. Enough already.
"spare me.... the UAW has got to be one of the most overcompensated jobs in the US"
Salaried IT engineer here, spent my first 15 years a plant. You'd wilt if you tried to do their job for days on end.
Ford should start making the 1970-1977 Maverick and ship those instead of the truck. Cheaper to build. Probably have the tooling stored at the Highland Park Complex (HPC). There was a 302 V8 offered.
Shawn Fain is a total hypocrite with his "Eat the Rich" shirt.He makes between $200,00 and $400,000 a year. Look it up.
UAW is doing a fantastic job, but everyone knows when a new contract gets settled, salaried nonunion always gets robbed by cutbacks in money and benefits. Why? The increase for union employees in pay and benefits cost the company. So, the company goes for the weakest link that will not take up for themselves......salaried. Naturally salaried may mumble about the union. But their mumbling is not put into a fruitful existence, it is just wasted.
What UAW means by “eat the rich” is , they’re coming after you, Bill Ford, and the Ford family.
They will foment the radical progressive Marxism theories and be right at your doorstep in deep left Ann Arbor.
All brought to you by sleepy joe Biden and the green new deal.
@waz without Blue, what income is going to cover your paycheck? I actually believe that you truly have no clue.
@waz Ok, Doug...
Simply put, this UAW Fain guy is nuts. Have you ever seen anyone this crazy negotiate as the head of a union?
It would be embarrassing if this guy tried this cr-p and antics as head of a local teacher union, or a local city worker union, or police officer union. All of those bargaining u it’s realize there is no blank check to be written to satisfy their outlandish ideas. Governments have to produce balanced books, so does Ford Motor Company. Ford must work within its constraints for revenue and sales
Look at the stock…. For 30 years no higher than $30 and that was way way back to 1998.
There are no excessive profits. Barely a 5-7% profit which must be plowed back into R&D to compete with Toyota, Tesla, Nissan and Honda who don’t have unions.
And this Fain guy bring in Sleepy Joe Biden to rant and rave for 12 minutes before he jetted off to a Silicon Valley fundraiser with billionaires?
Outlandish.
This situation we are in right now just reiterates that DF's Model e strategy of leveraging BEV mobility and winding down Ford Blue is the correct one. BEV will reduce Ford's exposure to union power against Ford's business.
Is this the best we can do? Strategize about how to get the better out of "the other side"? Just a thought but couldn't everybody benefit by not being tossed out of work, loss of a paycheck and benefits too? So in our big brains we'd rather name call, sp-t threaten and whoop it up around a burn barrel so we can "win". So I was a kid when my dad left us kids to go work in another town so he could pay the bills, thanks AFL-CIO. I went to trade school and then on to college with no plan, just had a desire to learn and I worked my way through. The wedge issues used to divide us are always stupid. The families on strike are hurting - no doubt about it. So why haven't we come up with a better way to manage a company and it's labor? This method of brute force and economic pain simply allows off shore rivals a shot at taking our business - it's not us against them it never has been, but when this is over it will be re-enforced. Why do we cling to out moded methods? Why do we even have a union? Yeah I know the history, it's 2023 now so maybe give that a thought. Now think big here... why can't we sort his stuff out fairly, quickly and let businesses pay what competition says is a fair wage? Benefits too. This failure to evolve in our thinking is a sorry statement of how corruptible and manipulatable we all are. Nothing good about this. Heads bolted on backwards.
I don't think Maverick production is affected by the strike so far. My friend ordered one in August and it was just scheduled to be built.
Are Maverick builds being delayed ? Does the strike affect any part of Maverick production ?
@fqh Yes, we are mad because you refuse to do your job and have created a legalized system of extortion that will eventually put us all out of work. Big "wise" guy here, obviously you're a genius as evidenced by your impeccable grammar and knowing the difference between "where" and "were". But let me explain just in case: People whose jobs involve a high level of complexity, expertise and decision making get paid more than people who do simple, repetitive tasks.
Some Non Union engineers,management ,salaried basically are mad because the ones they call "uneducated" and the ones they feel are below them(UAW), where wise enough to receive better pay and benefits. Who outsmarted who? Union is always the better path to be on. Sometimes one must go on strike if at the end of Union contract. This is a reminder to the company-"Hey, we are Union and not the salaried noodle legs, we will stand up for what is fair".
@bbn "Sacrificed so much" spare me.... the UAW has got to be one of the most overcompensated jobs in the US. Sorry, but HS dropouts with no practical skills do not deserve to make the same as 10-year engineers. If they think they are worth that much, they will be in for a rude awakening once they drive the remaining manufacturing industry out of the country. They should be counting their blessings over the fact they are paid what they are now.
The UAW had been biding it's time for this moment. When they sacrificed so much in 2009 to save the industry, they were waiting for record profits to point to showing that the time to reverse those sacrifices had come.
I'm Ford salaried. But I think they have a point. Couple that with the Big 3 trying to use EVs to break the union (because Tesla) and the UAW is fighting for it's very existence.
That they'd rather see the Big 3 go bankrupt than to keep marching towards their own demise is not surprising. Take them out while they depend on ICE sales or risk a Big 3 EV future without unionized labor. Might as well take them down with you.
The traditional American auto industry is not long for this world. All hail Elon and Tesla.
@hqx+1p3skSX7 here
BTW, this Cr--s in a Barrel mentality when it comes to the UAW defies all logic and reason.
If you're some lowly indvidiual contributor or lmiddle manager, harboring so much hatred towads unions will do nothing to help you nor your career
Who hurt you, OP,?
💯. I cannot wait to watch the UAW lose the war. Fain is nothing more than a game-chasing wannabe. The members fell victim to the cult leader and sold their souls to the devil.
@ize+1p3skSX7 - Jealous? Envy?
You're funny (NOT).
My analogy to what UAW is saying: The people that cut the grass in all the football stadiums should go on strike – Until all the filthy football player getting millions per game give up their salary down.
20%? 😂
So instead of $20 million, Farley would make $16 million? He really have to scrape by ....
20%...that is pennies to those fat cats... The top executives make more money in the bathroom than most of us make all year... That is why I always waited to kr-p while on the clock... Keeping it real as Al says.