Ford At Great Risk of a Strike - Thanks to Federal Government

Ford should file a suit against the UAW. Considering they have 17.5% ownership stake in General Motors, Fords direct competition, they should not be allowed to represent Fords workers. They can make decisions that will benefit GM under the guise of representing Ford's workers.

 

I still fail to see how this is the governments fault.

 

Did you not read your own link?

I guess they are tired of being treated like non union members, and remember that a united voice indeed makes working conditions better.
From where I stand, Ford didn't take the bail outs and got out of the negatives while riding on workers backs and the 'Obama bail out mood', and now the workers are tired of being taken advantage of.
They, the workers, not the unions, not the politicians, are overwhelmingly leaning toward a strike. Says so, right in the article.
Yes, y'all are whining about the very schlepps you supported and praised just a little while ago, while everyone ran to support Ford UAW, UNION cars. Its just that they are making noise now.
What a double standard.

But then, y'all can run and buy some foreign makes. Make sure you ask for a thank you note for supporting Korea, China and Japan....
And yes, all while waiting for well paying jobs to get us out of the hole we are in.

 

An industrial reserve army strategy. In terms of anecdotal evidence it certainly seems that people are far less willing to challenge their employers over anything on this side of the pond. On the flip-side there certainly is a strategy by larger companies to 'milk' the recession by making wage cutbacks despite increasing profits. A particular case would be the supermarkets in Ireland. I suppose it is the cheapening of labour (even if it does not involve a reduction of productivity).

That said the union may be thinking in larger terms in order to reignite union vs. employer warfare.

The idea would be to act as the more outrageous faction so that the moderates are approached with a deal. This is a recurring theme. The violent IRA made the moderate nationalists approachable and increased the desire to approach them.

In the words of Tory MP Quintin Hogg in 1943 "We must give them reform or they will give us revolution". The Unions may remember that it was the threat of revolt that brought the New Deal. I do not think however that the unions have the power, support or the backbone to acheive much at the moment, they have become too institutionalised and demonised.

 

Pretty sad considering that Ford payed out bonuses last January to ALL its full time hourly workforce averaging $5k each. Whats their reward for that generosity.....a threat of strike.

 

My only point in saying that is to justify me calling it a bluff. It's not in the best interests of Ford or the employees. We'd probably agree if they had more vested in the future of Ford itself, their incentives would change accordingly.

And during good times employers have a hard time hanging on to good employees. It cuts both ways.

Doubt it, whatever concessions they may have to make, are far better than unemployment benefits, I doubt it'll come to that though, honestly they'll probably make some concessions and come to an agreement.

Nope. My issues isn't really with collective bargaining or trade unions, I do have a problem however when employee and employers don't have the same goals. Both the employee and the employer should want their organization to be successful.

 

This is the one thing I never understood. How can anyone work for an employer they hate? Why would anyone want to be part of an organization they fee adversarial towards? It just doesn't make sense to want to punish your company for hiring you, training you, paying you and giving you whatever quality of life the market allows you.

 

What nonsense, you make it sound like we should all be bowing at our employers feet for gracing us with an underpaid job? Total garbage.

 

What I would do is fire them all upon strike, move the plants to Texas and South Carolina and make record profits putting money in the hands of people who actually want jobs instead of going on strike.

 

No you wouldn't.

 

It would be a start. Except, you will be paid what you are worth. Not what you can extort out of the employers.

 

BMW good. American cars bad. Any questions?

 

Obviously not.

 

I really would. Its pretty simple actually. would probably lose money in the process but would make it up in the end.

 

I highly doubt that. If its so easy why don't they all just move? More right wing trash.

 

The Z4, M3 and X-series SUV's are made in South Carolina.
That's in the US.

 

...and then we get rid of all unions, let the big 3 hire illegals, and everyone is happy to work for min wage.
Or lets just get it over with and close their doors, sent them to China, along with millions of tax dollars we otherwise would have as tax revenues.
Don't forget, these HUGE union wage earners pay a heck of a lot of taxes, buy a heck of a lot more toys than other people, so that business owners can make their profits and survive. But perhaps we can sent them to China too, or let them peddle, charging minute amounts for their goods, because no one can afford to buy anything but Chinese crap anymore.

 

They strike they get fired....simple.

 

Slapping someone in the mouth will most likely get you arrested; and to think that only liberals are violent according to many in here.

 

obviously its not so simple

 

They can't be fired; its federal law. They can be permanently replaced and be placed on a preferential hiring list. In the meantime, the taxpayers will be paying them unemployment or welfare payments as the case may be until they are called back or find other work, plus they won't be paying any tax dollars so society loses again; you won't win......its not that simple.

 

A strike might give Der Furher an excuse to nationalize Ford and add it to his collection of car companies.

 

While I applaud Ford immensely for nto taking a bail-out, and believe I fully understand the issue, I have read a bit on this besides the article noted. The vote was just a part of the process. An actual strike seems unlikely. Cooler heads are expected to prevail here.

Again, kudos to all things Ford, management and employees, for NOT being a part of the bailout. I am hopeful they will not strike. I hope to still be able to respect all of Ford. They are the only automaker that did not succumb to liberal teat-sucking-dom.

 

Considering the skill level for many assembly-line workers is similar to that of a burger flipper, they could be up and running again in a week or two.

 

Haven't looked at the last few JD Power quality studies, have you? BMW is near the BOTTOM.