Testy Ford-UAW contract vote spawns bad info, lame arguments
Detroit Auto may be missing a lot of things, but the ability to summon misdirected rage amid a contract ratification vote ain't one of them. We're midway through the voting on the third concessionary contract since the national agreement was iced two years ago this month, and it still looks like Ford Motor Co. and the leadership of the United Auto Workers could see this thing go down. And go down big.
Yes, old Detroit does, indeed, live, as I wrote in the column yesterday. Again, come half-baked analyses that conflate disparate elements, half-truths and conspiracy theories into something masquerading as facts; there's lots of heat, but not much light. Again, I get e-mails calling me names, suggesting I must have been one of those kids who had his lunch money stolen, accusing me (the Democrats around here will love this) of being a "liberal" member of the "mainstream media" -- and that's just for starters.
I've had people say we should just cut the pretense and pay everyone 20 cents an hour because that's what America wants, even though no one is proposing any such thing. I've had people blame NAFTA; argue that Ford should file Chapter 11 bankruptcy if it wants to reduce its heavy debt load; contend that management has given "nothing" even as it asks UAW-Ford members to agree to $1,000 bonuses, no raises, binding arbitration in some cases, a circumscribed no-strike clause and countless other things in what is, yes, the third contract reopener in roughly two years.
By any standard, that's a whirlwind of change for an institution whose members measure change in four-year increments. But it's not a race to 20 cents an hour.
What UAW-Ford members aren't being asked to approve is a cut in their base pay rate, as several UAW members confirmed to me. Nor to swallow mid-contract changes to their health-care cost-sharing. And yet, a repeated theme in the rhetoric is that "management" has agreed to give up "nothing" -- which isn't true, I confirmed(again), after re-checking the details of a preliminary proxy statement Ford filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission last March 24.
Over the same period as the current UAW contract, much of it coming in the past 12 months, Ford's salaried employees, including top executives, have:
Lost the company-match for 401(k)s accounts; lost bonuses this year for work in 2008 and next year for '09, including CEO Alan Mulally and his top execs; and lost merit raises. Health-care premium sharing is now in the mid-30 percent range, compared to less than 10 percent for the hourlies. Mulally's salary was cut 30 percent to $1.4 million from $2 million for this year and next, a cut of $1.2 million over two years; Ford's directors are taking no cash compensation; and the company has cut its white-collar workforce by 25 percent in two separate waves, a portion of which were involuntary separations.
Just a little perspective. And here's one more, offered by Peter DeLorenzo at autoextremist.com.
Comments
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opel-opel
Get Penske back on line. Ask Geniholm to join the team. Then get Ford to lease out the Wixom plant. Have Opel update the drive line on the cars they make for Saturn. 1.8 is to weak for the American driver 2 liter engines would be perfect. Ship the drive line in from Belgium. Make and assemble the rest of the car in Wixom. Then get Geniholm to lower the SALES TAX on MICHIGAN ASSEMBLED CARS to 2%. After
the first year of production add a mini van to the same platform (the car that Saturn buyers still would like back.
Of course, this requires thinking and accountability. Maybe another stimulatin' package from Obam-bam would be better
Dave FederChris D: You're doing it again, you 'ignorant fool'
Chris D says, "I consider an electrcian semi-skilled at best."
Chris D, I consider you an ignorant fool at best. Go read NFPA 70, the national electrical code. See if you can understand one word of it.
CL:
I know I couldn't understand a word of it, at least in the technical sense. This war of words, gentlemen, is getting a little too inside baseball. Soon folks in this forum'll be asking you to take it outside, so to speak. :)
-- DCH
'If your degree is worth so much ... compete globally like everyone else'
Chris_D, because of your obviously self superior attitude toward others, I would not hire you. I doubt very many employers would; knowing you would alienate much of their workforce and disrupt corporate synergy. The fact is, an engineer or any other specialist is as much a dime a dozen as any electrician. Their only safety is in immigration laws - government intervention. If you think your degree is worth so much, then why don't you want to compete globally like everyone else?
Entitlement mentality, lack of job skills is losing proposition
First of all, please learn to read. I didn't bash you for being unskilled, I bashed you for your entitlement attitude in light of your lack of job skills.
You spent a lot of time researching, maybe you don't work very much or very hard. But your sloppy research, self-aggrandizing and chest-thumping only underscores my point...
I'm familiar with what it takes to be a union electrician (I know two former union electricians)and [in] journeyman programs. I consider an electrician "semi-skilled" at best. So did they, that's why they went back to school got "real" credentials (college degrees) and got out of Michigan. They saw the future for semi-skilled laborers, leaving the rest of their counterparts to fight over scraps from dismembered industries.
Let's face it, in today's job world, you're not competing with with people who have HS degrees or six to 12 months of electrician's training (which you got paid for, by the way). You're competing with people who have 4-, 6- and 8- years worth of college education. They paid their dues putting themselves through school and working in a job with no union protection or "due process". Let's also not forget the obvious, they are MUCH harder to replace than you are...
What have you done? What choices did you make to put you where you are today? Why should you be entitled to the same perks that that those with "in demand" skills receive?
You were paid for training and now work in a "protected" and "structured" union environment. So stop your sniveling because you can't compete outside the UAW without a significant cut to your bloated lifestyle...
Your list of companies is impressive. But you didn't bother to mention which of those companies provides those services to their manufactuing employees company-wide on a global basis. Oh, most of these companies aren't manufacturers. How naive of you trying to compare them.
With your list of McDonald's benefits, you also assume that those services are absolutely free and are as robust as your UAW benefits. Nice try. Anyone with half a brain knows that is not the case....
By the way, I find your snobbish inference about people who work McDonald's -- ("Talk to your employer, even Mickey D's has employee benefits they offer.") -- ironic coming from a UAW member who's skills aren't much higher.
Maybe you should take advantage of the "educational assistance" you've had access to for years (but clearly haven't used), to educate yourself and better your career. Nah, that's too much work. Crying about conditions is much easier than adapting to them...
In summary, your limp attempts to research and unseat my argument have failed because you have only done the job halfway. But that's the kind of job we've come to expect from UAW members. Thanks again for validating my points...
CD:
Might quibble with your delivery, but not the content of your argument. What you're positing here -- and the reaction it elicits -- is a perfectly rational economic argument joined with an equally predictable response: Change the terms of the debate, weight it with sarcasm and a dollop of entitlement and attack the messenger. Welcome to my word. Ain't it fun?
-- DCH
The best piece of advice of all: 'Quit your whining'
Just to add on...These programs were implemented in the best interest of the employer, not the employee! Talk to your employer, even Mickey D's has employee benefits they offer. Here is the list taken directly from your employers website:
* Vacation
* Holidays
* Anniversary Splash
* Sabbatical program
* Summer Hours
* Leave of absence
* Alternative Work Approach
* Adoption assistance
* Child care discount
* Educational assistance
* Matching gifts program
* Employee Resource Connection
* Auto and home insurance group discount program
* International Fitness Club Network
* BeyondWork Internet discount program
* Profit Sharing and Savings Plan (includes our 401(k) feature)
* MCDirect Shares
* Mc$ave
* Credit union
* Financial planning services
* Base pay
* Incentive pay
* Company car program
* Recognition programs
* Medical
* Vision supplement plan
* Dental
* Flexible spending accounts
* Short and long term disability
* Employee and dependent life insurance
* Accidental death & dismemberment (AD&D)
* Travel and business travel accident insurance
Quit your whining!
N:
Is this where we should cue the "Dueling Banjos" music from "Deliverance?" Who gets the Martin guitar?
-- DCH
You are doing it again!
Response to Chris D. in Ann Arbor. First off unfortunately since you just want to badmouth me based on me being non-skilled, I am a SKILLED electrician at Ford. This invalidates your 2nd assumption automatically. If we don't have the benefits, then how can that be used to determine over-compensation? When Ford established these programs for their upper level, mid level and low level management no one complained. When they allowed SKILLED and non-skilled workers to use these facilities (some require out of pocket expenses with NO DISCOUNTS) then you whine? Yes other companies support child care sponsored programs,there are over 1000 and still counting. These are NOT FREE to the employee!
* 3M
* Adobe
* Allstate
* Alston & Bird, LLP
* American Express
* Amgen
* Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Massachusetts
* Boeing
* Bristol-Myers Squibb
* Carnival Cruise Lines
* CBS Corporation
* Chick-fil-A
* Cisco Systems
* Eli Lilly and Company
* EMC Corporation
* Ernst & Young
* The European Commission
* The George Washington University
* GlaxoSmithKline
* Intuit
* J Sainsbury plc
* JFK Medical Center
* Johnson & Johnson
* JPMorgan Chase
* Johns Hopkins University
* Marriott International
* Mattel
* Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
* Merck & Co.
* Morrison & Foerster LLP
* NBA
* NBC Universal
* Northwestern Memorial Hospital
* The PGA TOUR
* Procter & Gamble
* Ropes & Gray LLP
* SC Johnson
* Staples
* Target
* TIAA-CREF
* Time Warner
* Toyota Motor Manufacturing
* The Venetian
* Viacom
* Western Pennsylvania School for Blind Children
These are just a small sampling.
Me=1, you=0! Don't make assumptions. Do some research and base your argument on facts.
This is just the kind of "uninformed" sentiment that makes people hate whiners.
Entitlement sentiment 'makes people hate the UAW ...'
Quote from UAW member:"We gave back our hard earned programs such as Education reimbursement, child care centers and fitness centers design to help us reduce stress and injuries on the job. So who is actually doing something to help out their industry? Surely Daniel Howes isn't."
This quote speaks volumes about how over-compensated these non-skilled workers really are...
Can this worker point to any other industry in the US that provides these kinds of benefits to non-skilled workers?
I'm tired of hearing the UAW members belly-ache about "givebacks" and other "benefits" they are entitled to. I think they should all go out and find non-union jobs to find out what the REST of us get...
This is just the kind of "entitlement" sentiment that makes people hate the UAW...
CD:
You're absolutely right: That quote does speak volumes. So loudly, in fact, that the speaker has been deafened by it. Three generations inside the echo chamber called Detroit Auto can to that to a guy.
-- DCH
'So who is doing something to help out their industry?' The UAW, of course
Talk to the regular workers on the shop floor. Yes, some of us are not the entitlement activists that you think UAW workers are. In 2005 we each had given on average $10,000. In 2007 UAW members took a 50 percent cut in pay for new hires and also we gave up another $10,000 COLA and wage freezes. In 2009, $15,000 in givebacks, we gave up our break time and agreed to receive no overtime compensation for working over 8 hours a day, we also agreed to give up our unused vacation time and 2 major holidays and again no COLA.
Ford Motor had put up for collateral the Ford logo, and we the workers, had outright sold our mantra that was the core belief of our institution. We went along with the union leadership to sell out future generations that was bought by our predecessors with blood. Long gone is "Equal Work For Equal Pay" and "The UAW, FIGHTING FOR ALL WORKERS!" and "A Fair Days Wage, For a Fair Days Work."
To "do our part" we stuck it to the next generation of workers: low wages, no cost of living ad,justment, no pension, no health care in retirement. The propaganda wing of the Big Three (Daniel Howes) wants us to feel sorry about their debts, but at the same time want us to take concessions for their mistakes. If you remember in the 90's Ford ask us (UAW) to work harder to stop Toyota from passing them as the #1 USA automaker, so we gave them record profits and investors record profit shares.
In return, they misused the funds and then decided our opinions were no longer popular to what the buying public want. They stop collecting ideas, eliminated moral supported bonus programs, and stop asking for our help. Now they hire lame columnists that are suppose to make us feel sorry about their slow comeback because they are not debt free as GM and Chrysler. Once again you could not ask questions, you could not input your ideas to help nor take notes and reply to what you heard. Ford cried for government help but when they realize the books would be open to the public and the government car czar, they begged us hard working UAW members to take more concessions. They needed a way to continue business without financial exposure. We gave back our hard earned programs such as Education reimbursement, Child Care centers, and fitness centers design to help us reduce stress and injuries on the job. So who is actually doing something to help out their industry? Surely Daniel Howes isn't.
N:
"Hire?" "Propaganda?" Lots of big words, empty charges and predictable complaints there. Only thing missing is reality. As in cold, hard economic fact. The simple reality is that it's not about what UAW members have given -- or not given -- that is the yardstick now, as the Detroit Three drift toward a collective market share of something like 45 percent of the U.S. market. The issue is parity with the competition. A monopoly -- of labor, of production, of whatever -- cannot set prices in a market place, even in Detroit, once it's no longer a monopoly.
The brothers and sisters of UAW-Ford are free to reject the latest round of contract concessions. They're free, even as they decry the demise of "equal pay for equal work," to also rejecting the union's post-war "pattern bargaining" because adhering to the pattern in the post-bankruptcy world would pose a theoretical obstacle against striking. But positions freely taken don't necessarily get a free pass.
Elections -- all elections -- have consequences. It's just a matter of what and when.
-- DCH
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