So Ford is offering it’s entire domestic workforce of 75,000 employees a buyout. Today it let 14,000 salaried employees go. Union breaking?
And Bill Ford stepped down and brought in Alan Mulally, who was until VERY recently the head of Boeing.
There’s some heavy shit going down at Ford Motor Company right now. This should get interesting.
It would be really bad if all 75000 just walked out.
FiatFord has a good ring to it.
Salaried employees are probably not union.
unions fucking blow. I wish every company would shitcan every union worker and get normal salaried employees.
unions served their purpose, there is no need for them anymore
/union rant
yea, ford is in pretty bad shape. I hope they get their stuff sorted out. It would suck to have to get a chevy. 
Yeah everone is against a guy makin a living.
I’d really hate making a good wage and good benifits.
thats all well and good if you work for it… i know too many union guys that get paid 30 dollars a hour to sleep on the job at a steel mill. when they got laid off they cried … fuck them… work and maybe you would have kept your job you piece of shit. fuck unions… your just helping some fuck that really doesnt care about you get rich…
Stop and think about what your saying. Your just mad because you don’t have that job. Always remember the COMPANY agreed to pay the wages and benefits to the employees. That should show you how much money the COMPANY was making. As soon as times got tough they pointed the finger at the employees and said it was their fault and all of you mindless idiots fell for it…Most employees nowadays are spineless jellyfish, who are mad because they don’t make anywhere near the the money their father did in the mill, and don’t have the balls to do anything about it…I was in walmart the other morning and they had all the employees gathered around for a meeting, at the end they all did the walmart dance, clapping and cheering and dancing. I was really embarresed for the fool that would degrade themselves to that level. If the boss would have took a dump on the floor they would have ate it.
And where are the mills now? The unions were created to protect the employees, but have somehow turned into a political entity that forces employers into providing unrealistic wages and benefits for the services provided. You can’t pay someone $60K a year to push a broom. And if you’re a skilled worker, supply and demand should take care of wages just like salaried positions.
I’m generalizing here of course, this obviously doesn’t apply to EVERY union job. I’m sure there are plenty of people that are hard working union workers who deserve more than their coworkers who slack off, another problem that can be created by the union.
Nobody wants to see people lose their jobs like at the Ford plant, but the problems of the US auto industry are so complex that it can’t all be blamed on one thing - unions, poor management, lack of quality, foreign competition, etc.
Just my $0.02.
Obviously they could afford it. They did it. Which goes back to my point… How much money could the company be making to agree to pay someone to do this?
Looking at their earnings over the past few years I’d have to say that they obviously couldn’t afford it. They may have done it, but were they just pandering to the union? Don’t get me wrong, I think there are a lot of overpaid executives too.
The engineers are definitely underpaid though. 
j/k
[QUOTE=Jeff95TA;454046]Looking at their earnings over the past few years I’d have to say that they obviously couldn’t afford it. They may have done it, but were they just pandering to the union? think there are a lot of overpaid executives too.
Back to my point. If they couldn’t afford it why did they do it?
If I owned a company and if the wages I paid were too high and the buisness was going to lose money, any money, I would close the doors right now!..This makes me believe that what these major companies are showing is loss of Projected Profit, not a true loss. If anyone would run a buisness at that kind of a loss, they must have rode the little blue bus to school.
If Ford North America was putting out the same kind of cars as Ford Europe, we wouldn’t be having this discussion.
When’s the last time you saw two Five Hundreds on the road in one day?
I love the asian cars, but if I could buy a Mk2 Focus, Fiesta, Ka, or SportKa, I would.
edit: by the way…
the workers are overpaid.
the executives are overpaid.
the product is uninspiring.
the marketing is unimaginative.
i wonder why they’re failing.
posted by shaler punk "edit: by the way…
the workers are overpaid.
the executives are overpaid.
the product is uninspiring.
the marketing is unimaginative."
What does everyone have against someone making money???
think about this:
i’m a liberal… practically a socialist… but even i’ll admit that if a business isn’t performing, it can’t afford high labor costs. the problem with the UAW is that they’re not out to make a fair wage, they’re out to make as much money as they can.
High labor costs mean less money to spend everywhere else… Marketing, research, development, and all other aspects of the business suffer. Executives are JUST as guilty as unionworkers of being greedy fucks, if not more so.
I’m not saying to exploit the worker, but there has to be a reasonable balance of capitalism and socialism. The workers can’t bleed the company dry.
How does it affect you in any way. The more money an employee makes the more goes back into the economy. What would make you or me give a rats ass about the lack of money they put into marketing or research and development?
Whats your answer? Maybe we can go back to my grandfathers days and load 4 ton of coal for a quarter. Or maybe we can be like the chinese and work all day for a bowl of fish heads and rice? Would that solve your high labor costs and make everbody happy? Not me pal. Im taking all I can get!
Well since you bring up the point how is it affecting you? I mean honestly you sound like one of the people that might have lost a job in the same form. If the company is failing take a pay cut and change your lifestyle. work > no work
R&D … keps you ahead of the other guy so you can atleast keep your company in business… taking away from that will eventually kill you. Bottom line. If your asked to take a pay cut take one… if you refuse a pay cut and you get canned don’t cry about it… chalk it up as you being a greedy bastard that got burnt. Sucks, but its your fault.
Major thing about the generation gap… is most old people kept everything. They weren’t like todays society… had to have this and this and this… to the point where everything is driven by greed and useless wants.
IMHO your attitude is probably just like all the laid off steel workers and auto workers. Step down off your high ass horse and be happy you have a decent job, work for what you have and dont expect it to be handed to you. Just my .02
haha unions… speaking as the grandson of a teamsters president… they dug their own grave, fuck’m.
workers deserve fair wages… unions have golden deals. i know one union member caught with cocaine on the job 3 times but Penndot couldn’t fire him due to union ties. he laughs about it
good for them for ‘getting all they can get’… but now they’ve gotten it all and tehy have to join the real world like the rest of us. no one is guarenteed a living.
You guys should go into work on Monday and give half your wages back. That will insure the company thrives and you can feel good about yourself at the same time. Closed minded morons!!!
BTW…I was a teamster for 5 years…worst time of my life…have not been a union member since…so don’t think this came from a union member. Just cannot figure out how everybody thinks this way.
[QUOTE=HaNnIBaL64;454178]
. Bottom line. If your asked to take a pay cut take one… if you refuse a pay cut and you get canned don’t cry about it… chalk it up as you being a greedy bastard that got burnt. Sucks, but its your fault.
Spoken like a true fool!