American Axle Strike: Day two(I crossed a picket-line today for the first time.)

[Squisher]

It's something I never thought I'd do. I am a Die-maker and work for American Axle & Manu. - Detroit Forge.

Even though politically I'm very conservative( big on Ayn Rand) and I'm not a great lover of the union concept, I don't think I'll ever own a foreign car and I appreciate the things that the union has given me.

I would never think of crossing a picket line out of respect for those doing the picketing.

The UAW has struck my employer over a the Guaranteed Income Stream(you get full pay for sitting at home after being laid off for 42 weeks) and against a three tier wage system. Both items I disagree with the UAW over.

But, I don't belong to the UAW. 130 of my fellow die-room employees and I belong to IAM(International Association of Machinists). Because of this, legally I was bound to come to work and if I didn't it could be interpreted by AAM as a wildcat strike and my job would have been in jeopardy.

So, I crossed the picket-line, came to work and got paid, as my fellow picketing employees, screamed "Scab" at me.

What an uncomfortable day at the office.



Update - Day Two:

Two GM plants to shut production today. One making Silverados.

One DMC plant to shut production.

Detroit News article


Gotta love - Just In time.


BTW- I took a vacation day today, hopefully they'll get this done by monday. I heard the CEO is at the bargaining table.


Update 2 1/2

Tenative settlement


But article I posted above says stuff about them dangling the potential of my plant closing. UAW says it was a bluff

 

[bradruth]

SCAAAAAAAB!

 

[Platypus]

oh well, who is john galt?

 

[beer]

Good for you. I definitely think you did the right thing. I think that the unions are going to force GM and Ford under within the next ten years if they keep on being so unreasonable. Either that or more of their cars will be built in Mexico.

 

[virtueixi]

Someone's gettin punched in the balls when the strike is over.

 

[KGB1]

It always hard not to feel guilty when you're able to perform your job, while others have to protest or fight to keep theirs. It's hard in a sense, but it is a part of life and you should really be lucky to have employment. I'm not saying never to put down those who are on strike (its perfectly fine to feel for them and understand their suffrage). I'm sure however that you have to put bread on the table also, also leads to a mental dillema of whether to support your fellow workers or employers. What a strange and dire dichotomy you're in.

 

[Squisher]

I have fellow Die-room employees that have been laid off for three years that are collecting 40 hrs. of full pay (about $70K/yr.) and have jobs making the same on the outside.

How can an employer be expected to keep this up?

 

[oniq]

Originally posted by: Squisher
I have fellow Die-room employees that have been laid off for three years that are collecting 40 hrs. of full pay (about $70K/yr.) and have jobs making the same on the outside.

How can an employer be expected to keep this up?

Some people are very unrealistic. :\

 

[rufruf44]

Originally posted by: Squisher
I have fellow Die-room employees that have been laid off for three years that are collecting 40 hrs. of full pay (about $70K/yr.) and have jobs making the same on the outside.

How can an employer be expected to keep this up?

Simple, they can't. Ford and GM have to outsource more jobs if they want to survive. Most of GMC profit is coming from their financial division anyway, since they can't even make decent profit on their auto-division. At least its better than Ford who can't even turn on a profit.

 

[Jfrag Teh Foul]

The union concept was good in the earlier years, but now it has completely outlived its usefulness. It is railroading our work and economy into the toilet. If you think you need proof then why does it cost nearly 25k for a plain two-wheeled drive truck? It's total bullsh!t and should be outlawed.

***EDIT***

I worked at a printing factory back in the '90's and we were getting very close to having the local union strike. One night one of the guys I worked with asked if I was going to come in if the strike took place. I replied that yeah... I was going to come in because I have to support my family. He then told me that I could probably expect to have the crap beat out of me if I did. I then explained to him that I have a carry and conceal license and would protect myself if anyone even thought of stepping up to the plate. Needless to say I didn't have any problems getting through the lines a couple of weeks later.

 

[iamwiz82]

I work about 1/8th mile from AAM in Rochester Hills

 

[IshmaelLeaver]

SCAB! Pick it!

 

[aircooled]

You would never own a foreign car? even if it was built is the US by american workers?

 

[Squisher]

Originally posted by: Jfrag
The union concept was good in the earlier years, but now it has completely outlived its usefulness. It is railroading our work and economy into the toilet. If you think you need proof then why does it cost nearly 25k for a plain two-wheeled drive truck? It's total bullsh!t and should be outlawed.

My employer, AAM, is almost exclusively union. We had record profits this year. It's a bad time to ask for concessions, no matter how reasonable those concessions are.

The union concept does occasionally work, but requires a level altruism that most people don't possess.

 

[iamwiz82]

Originally posted by: aircooled
You would never own a foreign car? even if it was built is the US by american workers?

final assembly is not the only process in building a car.

 

[iamwiz82]

What jackasses. I'm watching the story on channel 2 now. They already have shut down GM, which is the reason that JIT is not a good system in the U.S. :|

 

[Platypus]

oh come on you don't respond to my reply

 

[Squisher]

Originally posted by: aircooled
You would never own a foreign car? even if it was built is the US by american workers?

That is something that to this day that I find troubling. You've got American car-maker's cars being made in foreign lands and foreign car makers making quality cars here.

As of right now, I'm keeping to American cars being made by American car-makers.

Kinda limits my choices, doesn't it?

 

[Squisher]

Originally posted by: CorporateRecreation
oh come on you don't respond to my reply

Originally posted by: CorporateRecreation
oh well, who is john galt?

Hehehe, I've read it.

 

[Dark4ng3l]

Yep unions were good a long time ago, now all they do is suck the life out of companies. It's only going to get worse with time. I think some kind of limit should be put to stop these unions from destroying everything.

 

[brxndxn]

I hate these damn unions.. they have no lines for where they'll stop. Forty-two weeks with full pay after being laid off would destroy an employer. All unions do is artificially and temporarily inflate labor costs in the US and send jobs overseas.

Good for you crossing the picket line.. Why should your job suffer cause' they don't want to work?

Union people are less dependable and work less than non-union people from my experience at an engineering firm. They have mandated breaks that end up being about 1/3 of the 7-hour day.

There have been good unions and bad unions.. however, today's unions are mostly bad.

 

[aircooled]

Originally posted by: Squisher

Originally posted by: aircooled
You would never own a foreign car? even if it was built is the US by american workers?

That is something that to this day that I find troubling. You've got American car-maker's cars being made in foreign lands and foreign car makers making quality cars here.

As of right now, I'm keeping to American cars being made by American car-makers.

Kinda limits my choices, doesn't it?

Yep. Id rather have a Nissan built in Tennessee than a Ford Built in Canada (no offense to canada )

 

[rahvin]

Originally posted by: iamwiz82

Originally posted by: aircooled
You would never own a foreign car? even if it was built is the US by american workers?

final assembly is not the only process in building a car.

By federal law all stickers on the windows of new cars include the percentage of the car that was constructed in the US and percentage constructed abroad, this includes all aspects of the car from parts to final assembly. Most "foreign" cars that are popular models have higher percentages of American construction than "American" cars. Don't believe me? Go down and look at that toyota camary that is 70% US an then go look at the GM's that are 40%.

 

[Jumpem]

Unions < *. I generally despise them.

 

[Dark4ng3l]

The problem is that wages and general working conditions are great in the US, Canada and most of the well developped countries. They dont really need unions or at least not anymore. Now what countries need unions have none. What this does is it makes things cheaper to make in porr countries while destroying the economy of developped countries(and making them dependant on crappy contries like china and india).