The UAW likes to claim they are what makes this company work but Ford would have nothing without its U.S. GSRs. We design and test the products, keep the factories running, write the software, acquire the materials, coordinate the logistics, manage the dealer network, pay the bills, market the vehicles, finance the customers, provide the after-sale support, analyze the business data, represent the company in the legal system, among many other things. The GSRs deserve a pay raise far more than hourly production members and upper management.
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I see my comment about not talking sm--k about the union auto workers and everyone working together for the good of everyone got voted down. Says a lot of the toxic, jealous salaried folk I work with smh
@2kjm+1pqLMZDR As you said, I got a 10% haircut during Covid. For over 6 months, I was making 10% less, and then 5% less for another 6 months. My salary was restored to the previous amount a little bit after a year. No, I didn't get back all the money lost, contrary to the fat cats at Ford, that received all the postponed bonuses and salary cuts in the same year.
BTW, I lost more than the 7.5% of my annual salary. There were no salary raises allowed for 2.5 years.
You are also right that we are not allowed to work over 40 hours a week. Still, it beats being Ford FTEs, that are pushed to do 50+ and only get paid 40 hours. FMC is taking advantage of GSRs and contractors. Only management is getting ahead, while sinking the company with their awful decisions.
This is funny.
Without hourly labor their would be no product to sell.
Tesla has proven just his bloated and over complicated Ford's design process is. Thanks to LLs and GSRs alike.
Attitudes like this are the reason why the company is just a giant assemblage of silos where no one works together and try to dominant their own fiefdoms. You must be old because this is the attitude that white collar workers had years ago. And look at how the tables have turned. It would have been better to be blue collar anyway, at least they have an organization to protect their jobs.
The engineers I've worked with needed their hand held at every point. Even today I see people who willingly kept major faults in the vehicle getting awards and accolades. Let's not pretend like engineers are all that great at Ford.
Curious if the contract folks ever got back the 10% haircut (paycut) from a few years ago? I was caught up in a similar situating in Auburn Hills - my heart goes out to those getting taken advantage of !
Unfortunately, Ford typically doesn't work the contract workers more than 40 hours on the clock, so there is no advantage to stay here. Other auto manufacturers have their contracting folks working 50+ hours per week, where being a contract worker pays off. - Not Here, I would jump ship in a heartbeat for a 25 cent raise if there are no financial incentives to stay here.
Ask a designer, there know for moving across town for 25 cent raise - no pun intended here to anyone
Totally agree, we should all be compensated fairly. Salary employees should not be forced to work for free, putting in many many hours and not getting paid for it, they should not have to incurred hi medical costs after retiring, they should receive the cost-of-living, guaranteed pay increases, higher bonuses, signing bonuses, and they shouldn’t not need to sweat losing their job every six months, and be demoralized every step of the way. ( oh yeah and not get jerked around by the incompetent higher management.)
Why can't everyone get the raise they deserve? We are a team at the end of the day. We don't deserve more than the autoworkers. At the end of the day regardless of what we do at the pdc, if those vehicles aren't built by the autoworkers and sold, then no one will reap any benefits. Simple as that. Smh
@1pf most Ford products are not bad and are highly desirable (Maverick, Bronco, Super Duty). Recalls are the result of inexperienced LL’s and cost cutting on components. Part of the quality issues are just shoddy workmanship on the line. Panels not completely seated, insulation pinched, body panels don’t line up, water leaks, etc. not to mention half the workers are eating while working the line
If you all are so good at what you are doing, then why is Ford products are so bad in safety, quality, design attractiveness, and Fird is always 5 years behind the competitors.
You all only wait for your competitors to release something new, then you try to benchmark or copy the design.
Ford engineers are useless, not innovative, no teamwork, and lazy.
Generate Some Recalls....LOL!
I know of at least 3 cases in my area where the responsible recall GSR was promoted to LL6, and one of them even recently made it to LL5. You get lots of visibility and then when its fixed.....promotion! (or even half as ed fixed then gets recalled again...even better!)
I have never seen someone get cut or even disciplined for causing the company millions of dollars and many get promoted or awarded instead. Ford HR are really bottom of the barrel as are most of the friends and family management.
Maybe you should unionize.
@znv+1pqLMZDR Was the part redesigned at the same (or lower) cost meeting all requirements? Because I have received more than a few suggestions from technicians/operators regarding part designs and those suggestions were not viable due to a whole host of reasons. I appreciate the feedback but the GSR job requires balancing a lot of inputs.
GSR stands for Generate Some Recalls.
@bkn+1pqLMZDR
hahaha... you're so wrong. LL6 is nothing but a glorified baby sitter.
guess what that makes GSR... a bunch of babies.
OP... spend a month at the manufacturing plant and you will know Ford is a Automotive MANUFACTURING company. it's found by a man with the vision of mass production of cars on an assembly line. that is why F is in the dumpster that it is today, because it's lost its ways with people like you and JF not buiding on it's strenth but trying to reinvent it into sw company.
According to Ford+ new mindset LL6's are the core of the company. This approach has been cascaded from JF all the way down.
GSR according to Ford + are expendable. if you look at all SIRP's 80+ were GSR. It wasn't until last 08/22 that LL6/5 were SIRP'ed.
LL6's have been running the show since I got hired 20+ years ago. LL6's are encouraged to change positions every 3 to 5 years. There is no LL6 with more then 5 yrs in the same position, they are jack of all trades and masters of none.
LL6's make $150+K, only attend webex'es and try to give direction to GSR that are wild goose chases so they can brag about it with their LL5.
Very few LL6's are worth their salary. And indeed they are chosen by LL5's to be part of the sorority.
GSR's are the backbone of Ford, we have the knowledge that made Ford great. However, as many of my GSR counterparts we have followed LL6's directions and look where Ford is now. By this time, JF et al, Kummy, Jimmy et al should change direction and fire most LL6's and promote GSR8 to stay in that position until Ford improves quality. Dougie is a smart cookie and he brought his cronies from tesla, aka Beach Boys Gangs, all of them have deep knowledge, but they are facing the same old gang of useless LL6's trying to protect their fiefdom. Dougie created a parallel organization to avoid all the rotten wood from Chucky Cheese and Cuck Po-n Po-n.
@znv - “You can tell a lot about a person by how they treat and talk about “lower status” people.”
Indeed.
@hff+1pqLMZDR. Over the years I’ve witnessed numerous occasions where a plant worker took a component apart and within a few minutes figured out how to resolve the engineering problem.
The engineers were spending time in the world of CAD and had zero practical knowledge.
The sad part is the engineers instead of listening looked down on the plant workers.
You can tell a lot about a person by how they treat and talk about “lower status” people.
Often times those uppity engineers sank their own careers as word got out that the Ford engineers were designing bad parts that plant workers could redesign in minutes. So then ford leadership outsourced the part design to suppliers with Ford engineers doing paperwork and coordination.
And now what is the number one complaint voiced by Ford engineers in job satisfaction surveys? That they spend all their time on paperwork and meetings and aren’t allowed to do actual engineering
It’s unfortunate that Ford has evolved to a company that doesn’t respect and reward knowledge and skill regardless of the position the holder of those attributes resides. There was a time when Ford management would say holy smokes this dude is talented, let’s pay for a degree and move him to a position that he can better serve Ford. Now its OMG this guy is so much better than me, how can I marginalize him and then get him fired.
80% of LL6s fall into the non-productive category.
I think we all know that at least half the GSRs @ Ford are non-productive.
- Some are on the friends and family plan
- Some are in the wrong position, relocated to a position that they have no aptitude for by some manager who was threatened by their skills
- Some are retired on the job because they grew weary of trying to do the right thing while their coworkers sat and twirled, so they stopped doing work
- Some are giving the finger to management after years of mistreatment. They sit and watch and laugh at managements foolishness and do only exactly what they are asked to do.
- Some are eager beaver incompetents who busily wreak havoc and then deflect the blame.
The last is the worst kind. Far better to have lazy ixiots than eager beaver ixiots
Very difficult to do nothing on the plant line. GSRs and LLs make a career out of doing nothing at Ford
@fhs+1pqLMZDR: I wander what that makes you? You seem not to focus on your job but worry about what everyone else is doing. So I guess that means you contribute nothing.
Average line workers do not need to create anything on their own, design or develop anything on their own. They are shown what to do, how to do it and when to do it. All that is done for them by an engineer some where. They fallow what is laid out for them. They may not like to hear that but it’s true. I’m not trying to slam anyone by any means but it’s frustrating how they think that salary employees have it so much better than they do? I will trade UAW benefits for mine any day. ( I wish I would have worked for UAW for last 30 years. I would be so much better if that 30 years as salary)
Yeah we are working on automating or outsourcing most of that
@jdr
There's no reason to call people names or denigrate an entire class of employee. I've known a press operator with a PhD, skilled tradesman that build show vehicles from scratch, and GSRs that couldn't change a spark plug or tire if their life depended on it.
It takes real effort and skill to assemble vehicles at line rate and it takes real engineering to create a robust design that can be assembled at line rate. We all have a part to play.
Most Ford GSR are useless anyway. All that they can do is making PowerPoint presentations for their boss.
From LL to GSR, they are all the same.
I agree! These are the most important yet overlooked employees at the company. The UAW tries to take all the credit for building the vehicles. What they fail to realize is there is a great deal of upfront work done to get all the designed, developed, and validated parts to the plant that were specifically designed so that a mo--n could assemble the final product.