Thread regarding Ford layoffs

That's all we really need.... A union so you can be more lazy that you already are. Just leave ford and let us do our jobs!

https://region1a.uaw.org/uaw-local-1970-ford-salaried-workers

Stop the fear mongering. Every post that says the company will fire you for joining or talking about a union reminds me of all the superstitious boomers who sent chain mail in the 2000's. What a joke!

In the United States, it is a illegal for a company to retaliate against an employee for talking about union planning activities. National labor relations act protects employees from this behavior. The strength will be in numbers. US companies benefited tremendously from being headquarter in the US. Now US companies are exploiting their power to offshore jobs to LCC. If employees thought of or treated themselves as businesses, joining a union would be viewed as being a smart businessman or businesswomen. How many companies do you see forming joint ventures, partnerships, or consortium to benefit themselves. These frameworks and institutions are all about using collective power to compete. Instead employees are bullied into thinking unions are bad for them when in reality a union is one of the few tools to increase the employees competitiveness in an unbalanced system. For those questioning a union, think of joining as a union as being in a joint venture or consortium. How many businesses bad mouth joining those institutions?

https://lawofficemichaelsmith.com/resources/blog/can-i-be-fired-for-trying-to-organize-a-union/

You people who want a union dont know what you are asking for. You will have to pay union dues or get harassed to no end if you opt out, productivity will go in the toilet, and the most incompetent will get promoted (even worse than now). Merit raises will probably be a thing of the past, and bonuses will be lower than you can imagine. I worked in a white collar office that had an IT union and it was a huge disaster.

You think it will all be rainbows and unicorns but you dont realize the downside.

@3knkm, it’s easy. You should send out a mass email to all of the other GSRs telling them that you want to start a union. Make sure that you .cc your management as well. Then just sit back and wait for your computer and badge access to stop working. You’ll get your last paycheck up until the time you sent out that email. Good luck! 👍

I would join. No question. We have no security.

How do we get this going?

Become a voice of the union... You might just get walked out the door with a nice severance package.

@2ibd I remember walking into NPD and there was a line of @50 people coming out of the union office. They were all filing grievances to overload the system. Some of the complaints were; my boss made a mean face at me, the cafeteria is always out of fries when i get there, its cold in the warehouse in the winter, ceiling heaters blow on me, second stall in the mens room was out of toilet paper last week. What they failed to mention was how they all had secret little cubby holes in the part racks where they would go to sleep or how you could find them at the Crestwood lounge on Plymouth rd all day long.

Is that what you consider communicating with the company? I call it being an impediment to company operations. No person or group of people should have the power to shut down a company. F unions right up their !@#s.

Say what you want, there is safety in numbers when communicating and negotiating with Corporations.

@1jmr+1vapVwRS Nobody denies the advances in worker protection due to the unions. BTW, some of those advances you mentioned were not due to unions, and some were implemented because they were better for the employers. However, the point is that those advances are now laws, protected and enforced by the federal and state governments. So why do we need a union?

As happened again and again in history, something that was advanced in its time, soon became irrelevant, or worse yet, an obstacle for progress. I believe unions are now an obstacle, and we should not have any union in this country.

The GSR unionization effort in VOME around 2002/2003, mainly driven by the decision to pay zero overtime on launches, fell apart when voted on. Some key reasons it fell out of favor: overtime equalization meant there would be handoff of program implementation responsibilities on weekends to those who had no previous involvement (imagine the mess one would return to on Monday). Also, performance ratings (and merit-based raises) would go away, meaning goodbye to documentation which might support opportunities to be promoted to management anywhere in the company (and future VOME LL6 prospects would most likely come from outside the organization). Cooler heads prevailed, and launch OT payments resumed (albeit with increased casual OT requirements).

You better thank a Union member…for making the Big 3 uncompetitive in the global automotive market!

@1jmr+1vapVwRS. It is a bit absurd when people say I should thank a union member for practices that have been in place since the 1950s. What have you done for me lately?

It’s not about the value of unions, it’s about that the engineers in SE MI will never be able to unionize because the companies hold all of the cards. It’s a moot point.

Friendly reminder: whatever Ford policy says, Michigan is a one-party approval state. Record audio always, easy to do discreetly.

Using Boeing as a reference isn’t good imo. They just did mass layoffs and there’s talk of divesting the branches of their corporation. But sure, go ahead and unionize and see how it changes the realities of market forces for you.

@1bzt

Unions have played an important role in the lives of America's workers since the early years of our country's history. Even today, in 2018, working Americans, both union and non-union, have a long list of reasons to thank the labor movement including these that give workers the right to paid and unpaid leave.

Eight Reasons to Thank Unions:

Weekends Off: Massive union strikes in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries led to shorter work weeks with weekends off. This allowed Americans to be home with loved ones instead of constantly working.

Paid Vacations: With summer coming to a close, take time to thank your union for the paid vacation time that made it possible to rest and relax with your family.

Family & Medical Leave Act (FMLA): Unions spearheaded the fight that resulted in the passage of this law that gives eligible employees the right to take up to 12 weeks of job-protected unpaid leave annually for family and medical reasons.

Breaks at Work—Including Lunch: Although they are now federally mandated, breaks haven't always been an employee right. Studies have shown, breaks provide important rest periods that improve safety and productivity.

Sick Leave: Without paid sick leave, many workers couldn't afford to take the time necessary to recover from illnesses and accidents.

Paid Holidays: Labor Day is one of nine paid holidays offered by most employers in the U.S. As you spend time with family and friends this Labor Day, thank your union.

Military Leave: The Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act ensures those that serve their country can keep civilian employment and benefits, and seek employment free from discrimination.

40-hour Work Week: Americans once worked 60 hours a week or more. It wasn't until the 1950's that 40-hour work weeks and 8-hour work days became standard across America thanks to union negotiations.

A friend of mine tried unionizing VOGO GSRs in around 1998 after management changed the launch model. There was a lot of dissatifaction in the GSR ranks at this point in time because of the changes. He began approaching coworkers for support, investigating unions by contacting the AFLCIO and UAW. I'm pretty sure he got a bad letter in his jacket, but management responded by elevating all launch engineers to Tech LL7s.

Here is my take:

• People in unions don't work hard, cause troubles, shield behind silly union laws, knowing they cannot be fired. Please believe me, I have plenty of experience with this. I worked in a union shop before Ford, and my brother in law works in one of the East Coast Docks.
• Unions can only be successfully implemented with monopolies, like the docks, the government, and even Boeing only has one real competitor (AirBus), and is already more unionized than Boeing.
• Ford, Chrysler and GM are no longer the NA monopoly like decades ago, and together don't even own 40% of the US market. Trying more unions would only bring the demise of the company faster.
• Unions = socialism...they both remove the motivation for work, and the need for innovations. We cannot compete with other countries in lower wages, so innovation is the only thing keeping America ahead.
• If you want better wages, go to another company or skill up. Talent is always appreciated in other companies.

Thanks

Why dont you try putting up some unionizing fliers in PD? Put your name and email on them and count the minutes before you are notified that your services are no longer needed.

Yes, you should totally unionize! Upper management will lay you off and farm out your jobs to LCCs so fast it will make your head spin. You have no play here aside from continuing to work there or finding another job.

I have been saying this for several years. The issue is that say you hire an attorney and try to unionize… LL’s will view you as a troublemaker and come up with some excuse to fire you (pretext), but the real reason is because you were promoting unionizing. Most GSR’s aren’t willing to risk their jobs for this. Sad, but that is reality.