FORD & UAW to offer buyout for all the 75,000 workers

[Drakkon]

they are offering UAW workers a means to get off the sinking ship. If i worked there I'd take my buyout and run. Unfortunately there are a TON of autoworkers in detroit that to them Ford is god and abandoning a company like that would be akin to worshiping the great japanese satan. So is this a great idea? yes. Will it go over with the union? probobly. Will it help ford in the long run? probobly not as not enough will take them them up on the "offer" and a long process of cutting their jobs will have to take place.

 

[Dunbar]

Originally posted by: fitzov
The union doesn't have that power. Union employees get laid off all the time.

Why would Ford spend 9 billion buying out these employees if they could simply lay them off? It doesn't make sense that they would do this voluntarily.

 

[iamwiz82]

Originally posted by: Dunbar

Originally posted by: fitzov
The union doesn't have that power. Union employees get laid off all the time.

Why would Ford spend 9 billion buying out these employees if they could simply lay them off? It doesn't make sense that they would do this voluntarily.

Employees get laid off temporarily, at best. A few weeks every summer, that kinda thing. This is permanent.

 

[CrackRabbit]

Originally posted by: Dunbar

Originally posted by: fitzov
The union doesn't have that power. Union employees get laid off all the time.

Why would Ford spend 9 billion buying out these employees if they could simply lay them off? It doesn't make sense that they would do this voluntarily.

Because laying them off they would still have to pay a good chunk (75%+) of their normal wages to them.

 

[fitzov]

Originally posted by: CrackRabbit

Originally posted by: Dunbar

Originally posted by: fitzov
The union doesn't have that power. Union employees get laid off all the time.

Why would Ford spend 9 billion buying out these employees if they could simply lay them off? It doesn't make sense that they would do this voluntarily.

Because laying them off they would still have to pay a good chunk (75%+) of their normal wages to them.

For six months, but I wager that would still be cheaper than a buyout.

 

[Squisher]

Ford is buying them out because it has to pay, when laid off, hourly workers 95% of a 40 hour check the first year, 90% second year, 85% third, and then it bottoms out at 80% for perpetuity.


Rumor has it that they're going to offer buyouts to the UAW at American Axle. I wish it was offered to me, but it won't be. I'm in a union that doesn't have the any payments for unemployment except a company funded 401K.

 

[Eli]

Originally posted by: Squisher
Ford is buying them out because it has to pay, when laid off, hourly workers 95% of a 40 hour check the first year, 90% second year, 85% third, and then it bottoms out at 80% for perpetuity.


Rumor has it that they're going to offer buyouts to the UAW at American Axle. I wish it was offered to me, but it won't be. I'm in a union that doesn't have the any payments for unemployment except a company funded 401K.

That's fscking insane.

 

[bctbct]

Whats insane is the the new generation plans for today and not for their future.

This is a case of which came first the chicken or the egg.

Sure everyone wants cheap prices today, but what about 5 years from now. When the majority of Unions are stripped of wages and benefits where will that leave the American worker?

Unions set a benchmark, so if you lower that milestone employers will have no fear of good workers leaving to accept a better paying position elsewhere.

Much the way that defined benefit pension plans have disappeared to the tune of nearly 50% in the last 30 years.

Insurance and wages are headed in this direction so clap all you want, I will be retired. I do wonder what kind of employment futures my children will have though.


There is a coorelation between high profits= Walmart
Low wages/ low benefits= Walmart

edited to add

Its not that autoworkers are overpaid, its that everyone else is underpaid.

 

[MikeMike]

Originally posted by: bctbct
Whats insane is the the new generation plans for today and not for their future.

This is a case of which came first the chicken or the egg.

Sure everyone wants cheap prices today, but what about 5 years from now. When the majority of Unions are stripped of wages and benefits where will that leave the American worker?

Unions set a benchmark, so if you lower that milestone employers will have no fear of good workers leaving to accept a better paying position elsewhere.

Much the way that defined benefit pension plans have disappeared to the tune of nearly 50% in the last 30 years.

Insurance and wages are headed in this direction so clap all you want, I will be retired. I do wonder what kind of employment futures my children will have though.


There is a coorelation between high profits= Walmart
Low wages/ low benefits= Walmart

edited to add

Its not that autoworkers are overpaid, its that everyone else is underpaid.

unions are generally BAD. they look out for their own good, not the companies.

the UAW is NOT helping in anyway shape or form.

in todays world, unions are NOT needed.

back when comunication, and punishment was not as easily done, they were needed.

now, you can video tape what goes on if you feel like it, back then, you couldnt.

 

[bctbct]

Originally posted by: MIKEMIKE

Originally posted by: bctbct
Whats insane is the the new generation plans for today and not for their future.

This is a case of which came first the chicken or the egg.

Sure everyone wants cheap prices today, but what about 5 years from now. When the majority of Unions are stripped of wages and benefits where will that leave the American worker?

Unions set a benchmark, so if you lower that milestone employers will have no fear of good workers leaving to accept a better paying position elsewhere.

Much the way that defined benefit pension plans have disappeared to the tune of nearly 50% in the last 30 years.

Insurance and wages are headed in this direction so clap all you want, I will be retired. I do wonder what kind of employment futures my children will have though.


There is a coorelation between high profits= Walmart
Low wages/ low benefits= Walmart

edited to add

Its not that autoworkers are overpaid, its that everyone else is underpaid.

unions are generally BAD. they look out for their own good, not the companies.

the UAW is NOT helping in anyway shape or form.

in todays world, unions are NOT needed.

back when comunication, and punishment was not as easily done, they were needed.

now, you can video tape what goes on if you feel like it, back then, you couldnt.

The US does not even have a livable minumum wage. Most baby boomers have a pension, what about this generation, they going to live off their 401s?

 

[fitzov]

in todays world, unions are NOT needed.

"needed"? How about : "better for workers"?

It always strikes me as odd that people think workers shouldn't be allowed to collectively bargain for their own interest. Oh wait, maybe it isn't odd, because if they weren't, then companies could simply take advantage of their employees, which they by and large do (when there is not a union).

 

[NuclearNed]

Originally posted by: fitzov

in todays world, unions are NOT needed.

"needed"? How about : "better for workers"?

It always strikes me as odd that people think workers shouldn't be allowed to collectively bargain for their own interest. Oh wait, maybe it isn't odd, because if they weren't, then companies could simply take advantage of their employees, which they by and large do (when there is not a union).

Toyota doesn't have a union. They are #1 in the world right now. If their employees feel exploited, I've never read a single news article about it.

 

[Goosemaster]

In my opinion, unions in an of themselves are nto a bad thing.

The issue is the leaders, the issue is humanity.

Unions are run by normal people but those normal people get cast into the spotlight, into a role with a great deal of power, and that has always seemed to get to the leaders. These leaders, isntead of cooperating with the Corporation whose ear they now have, attempt to take out years of frustration out on their host by abusing this power.

In the U.S. , this has led to unions that only care about this jsutice, about their people, and about having power. Waht the unions as a whole will not accept, is that they are dooming the company to failure. As a matter of fact, the product is what sells, and they are simply labor hired to produce it. Then cannot accept this, either to pride, patriotism, or a general longing for rigtheousness, and you can't really blame them. People liek waht they do, many tiems take pride in it as well, and they go a little overboard.

In the end, you end up with an entity so powerful that it places its workers on a pedestal, acting as if the employees are doing the company a favor by doing so. For the msot part that isn't so. The company's lack of ROI go down and production costs skyrocket, and the Unions, beign human and all, could careless as long as their members are happy and 'proud" of their work.


From the vantage point of a rather centrist and open-minded student, from my own viewpoitn that is, I see them as organizatiosn that have become, in many cases, too selfish and unrealsitic. As a result of poor management and these unwairverign unions, U.S. Automotive prodution is faltering, and Corporations with Unions that focus less on social issues and more on equality, safe worker condions, and market-driven wage fluctuations are excelling.

I'm glad G.M is hopefully trying to restructure itself.

Frankly, G.M., it's designers, its workers, and the resultant lacklsuter designs and horrendous quality adds up to a very pathetic entity indeed.

We can do better.

And yes, blah blah blah, what I wrote was tupid etc, but I tend to beleive it.

 

[Goosemaster]

Originally posted by: NuclearNed

Originally posted by: fitzov

in todays world, unions are NOT needed.

"needed"? How about : "better for workers"?

It always strikes me as odd that people think workers shouldn't be allowed to collectively bargain for their own interest. Oh wait, maybe it isn't odd, because if they weren't, then companies could simply take advantage of their employees, which they by and large do (when there is not a union).

Toyota doesn't have a union. They are #1 in the world right now. If their employees feel exploited, I've never read a single news article about it.

It's becasue they are ground up and used to make Firetone tires.

 

[Dunbar]

Originally posted by: bctbct
Its not that autoworkers are overpaid, its that everyone else is underpaid.

I heard that the average Detroit autoworker makes $26 an hour. That isn't a realistic wage for what amounts to unskilled labor, especially when someone in Mexico or China will do it for $4/hr. The reality of a global economy is you can accept it's an unrealistic wage, let Ford go out of business, or let the government inflate the price of Ford automobiles by imposing tariffs on foreign built automobiles.

The American way is all about giving you the oppurtunity to make yourself better. Go to college or learn a skill that pays more money. Don't feel entitled to be able to support your family and get highly subsidized health care when your working the register at K-mart.

Walmart's profit margin isn't any higher than the average for the retail sector. They sell stuff cheaper, which saves poor people money BTW, and make it up on volume. Their average hourly wage is more than minimum wage. Some of that money they save on wages is reflected in their lower prices.

Most of us who work "white collar" jobs have to put up with an increasingly competitive work envirnoment due to competition from other countries. Now blue collar employees are having to put up with the same thing.

 

[Fiat1]

The end of an American idol as we know it. America invented the car

 

[Howard]

Originally posted by: bctbct
Its not that autoworkers are overpaid, its that everyone else is underpaid.

hahaha

"We shall strive ever forward until all of our citizens have above-average incomes!"

 

[bctbct]

Originally posted by: Dunbar

Originally posted by: bctbct
Its not that autoworkers are overpaid, its that everyone else is underpaid.

I heard that the average Detroit autoworker makes $26 an hour. That isn't a realistic wage for what amounts to unskilled labor, especially when someone in Mexico or China will do it for $4/hr. The reality of a global economy is you can accept it's an unrealistic wage, let Ford go out of business, or let the government inflate the price of Ford automobiles by imposing tariffs on foreign built automobiles.

Importing cheap labor is why minumum wage does not increase.
The American way is all about giving you the oppurtunity to make yourself better. Go to college or learn a skill that pays more money. Don't feel entitled to be able to support your family and get highly subsidized health care when your working the register at K-mart.

Were not just talking about unskilled labor. What type of benefits do you have today compared to your workplace 20-30 years ago?

Walmart's profit margin isn't any higher than the average for the retail sector. They sell stuff cheaper, which saves poor people money BTW, and make it up on volume. Their average hourly wage is more than minimum wage. Some of that money they save on wages is reflected in their lower prices.

Factor in benefits avail to these employees and their compensation sucks. Yeah, they make $8 no insurance sucking off your tax dollars for medical so you save .02 on a bar of soap....you save today, pay at the end of the year.

Most of us who work "white collar" jobs have to put up with an increasingly competitive work envirnoment due to competition from other countries. Now blue collar employees are having to put up with the same thing.

Blue collar was effect by this global economy way before the white collar worker....yours is yet to come