  Salvadordelmundo Member Username: Salvadordelmundo Post Number: 65 Registered: 04-2006 |
http://blogs.forbes.com/digita lrules/2006/11/does_detroit_ne .html According to this guy from Forbes, "The average worker daily absentee rate at a Michigan--which is to say "union" auto plant--is an obscene 12%. Down south in the non-union states of Kentucky, Alabama and South Carolina--where Toyota Motor, Honda Motor and BMW cars are made--the average daily absentee rate is 2%." Is that actually true? If so, what the hell is going on? | ||
Livernoisyard Member Username: Livernoisyard Post Number: 1765 Registered: 10-2004 |
This is news??? Are you sure you weren't searching the "Ancient UAW History" archives? | ||
Thejesus Member Username: Thejesus Post Number: 356 Registered: 06-2006 |
that's pathetic...I had no idea union auto workers were such lazy f*cks...no wonder this city is crumbling | ||
Jams Member Username: Jams Post Number: 4228 Registered: 10-2003 |
So if I have a site and I write that 40% of all executives have attended AA meetings with no references you'll cuss them out as well. | ||
Salvadordelmundo Member Username: Salvadordelmundo Post Number: 66 Registered: 04-2006 |
Well, that's the thing. There's no citation for this guy's comment. That's why I'm trying to either get confirmation or a debunking. | ||
Ramcharger Member Username: Ramcharger Post Number: 130 Registered: 05-2006 |
If he is using the companies’ figures (and who else’s are there) then all the legitimate reasons a person might not be at work on a given day are included. These include, but are not limited to, vacation days, personal days, disciplinary days etc. The attendance policies are quite stringent and strictly enforced in most cases. The big three always inflate the absentee problem in the months leading up to contract talks. It looks like they’re starting early this time around. | ||
Warriorfan Member Username: Warriorfan Post Number: 579 Registered: 08-2005 |
I would assume that "absentee" means people who are scheduled to work that day but don't come in. And why do you automatically cast blame on the company? I have family that works for Ford (blue collar) and they don't exactly have a very high opinion of the work ethic of many of their fellow line employees. Didn't Channel 4 just do a story about Ford employees going to the bar and getting hammered on their lunch breaks? Obviously, not everything is the fault of the Company, there is clearly some problems with the workers and the Unions and their "entitlement" mentality. | ||
Ramcharger Member Username: Ramcharger Post Number: 131 Registered: 05-2006 |
I worked at a local DCX plant for 32 years, a few of those in human resources. The company policy is; any person who is on the active rolls but not present, for whatever reason, is considered to be absent. | ||
Warriorfan Member Username: Warriorfan Post Number: 583 Registered: 08-2005 |
I think your definition is not the one being used in the article. The 12% figure represents people who are scheduled to work that day but don't show up, basically no-call no-shows or someone calling in at the last minute to take a personal day. | ||
Ramcharger Member Username: Ramcharger Post Number: 133 Registered: 05-2006 |
It's not my definition, its DaimlerChrysler's. And that’s the point. Who knows whose definition he’s using, he cites no references. | ||
Lmichigan Member Username: Lmichigan Post Number: 4721 Registered: 10-2003 |
Damn, talk about starting a post with a spin and weighted viewpoint. People will find what they want to find regardless of anything else, and many of your are already convinced of your presuppositions, so why bother? | ||
Iseries840 Member Username: Iseries840 Post Number: 290 Registered: 08-2005 |
Regardless of the stats, I think we can all admit that our state has a really bad workforce. That is the reason why no one will invest in Michigan. | ||
Lmichigan Member Username: Lmichigan Post Number: 4722 Registered: 10-2003 |
Huh? Our state has one of the most efficient and highly skilled manufacturing workforces. | ||
Jimaz Member Username: Jimaz Post Number: 1039 Registered: 12-2005 |
If "the Midwestern work ethic" is just a myth, hiring managers in the U.S. west have eagerly chosen to challenge that myth for decades. Don't be fooled. | ||
Livernoisyard Member Username: Livernoisyard Post Number: 1769 Registered: 10-2004 |
"Huh? Our state has one of the most efficient and highly skilled manufacturing workforces." The claim is ubiquitous, regardless of state. Also your high school is always better than the one on the other side of town--that one with a 100% graduation rate... | ||
Jimaz Member Username: Jimaz Post Number: 1040 Registered: 12-2005 |
Livernoisyard, I've been outside of this state and I can tell you with confidence that workers from Michigan are highly respected for their work ethic. | ||
Lmichigan Member Username: Lmichigan Post Number: 4725 Registered: 10-2003 |
Which is exactly why state's like Wyoming are setting up job fairs in Michigan trying to lure away manufacturing workers, among other employees. | ||
321brian Member Username: 321brian Post Number: 205 Registered: 02-2006 |
They are highly efficient. They get all of their work done in a couple of hours and then spend the rest of their shift at the bar. Sounds like excellent time management to me. | ||
Mikeg Member Username: Mikeg Post Number: 379 Registered: 12-2005 |
The size of the absentee replacement pool is a negotiated issue at most unionized assembly plants that do not utilize the team build concept. All of the "transplant" assembly plants utilize team build. When a team member is absent, the team leader or another team member must pick up the slack and the peer pressure among team members does wonders for keeping absenteeism to a minimum. Have a frank "off the record" discussion with any UAW Local president and he/she will tell you that they have to spend ~80% of their time trying to save the jobs of the ~5% of their union brethren who have excessive absenteeism and are in the midst of the endless appeal processes that make it very difficult for management to fire workers with bad attendance records. | ||
Jimaz Member Username: Jimaz Post Number: 1042 Registered: 12-2005 |
Michigan will recover only after we recover from this kind of Self-abasement. | ||
Steelworker Member Username: Steelworker Post Number: 796 Registered: 02-2004 |
thank you pistonian. This thread and its bashing of union workers makes me sick. I and many of my co-workers bust my ass everyday for my company working 6 or 7 days a week many of us 12 hours a day and if we call off you pricks call us lazy. I do not think many of you have worked in a dirty job and survived and would say we(union workers) are lazy. My job is very dangerous and its insulting that every time any lame union bashing article comes out i and my coworkers get lumped into this auto-worker stereotype. | ||
Lmichigan Member Username: Lmichigan Post Number: 4727 Registered: 10-2003 |
It's always the same ideological hacks and shills looking to bash union workers and waiting with bated breath to pick up on even the slightest problem to "prove their point." It gets old, and quickly. It's the same self-righteous, conservative elitist, in this case, reaching for the proverbial straws. | ||
Pam Member Username: Pam Post Number: 674 Registered: 11-2005 |
I've always been amazed at the union bashing that crops up at this site. Who are these people? I thought most families in this area had blue collar roots even if later generations had become white collar. Plus as Pistonian pointed out, historic gains by unions helped everybody. (Message edited by Pam on November 19, 2006) | ||
Fortress_warren Member Username: Fortress_warren Post Number: 203 Registered: 10-2006 |
When I worked the line at Ford, we were 7 days a week. You'd go batty if you worked everyday. I called in sick every other wednesday, no doctor note, did it for months, never got written up or any hassles about it. Maybe it was because I did the work and didn't give the foreman any trouble when I was there. Last job I had there I ran the first machine on a line of 7 machines. Quota was 100 an hour, I could make 200 an hour. Humped my ass for 4 hours , gave my ID card and a buck to another guy, he would punch me out at 7am, put the ID card in my locker thru the ventilation louvers. I was out at 3am going home. Did that for months as well. Why would management let us do this? Foreman's point of view was he had two workers and three machines he didn't have to worry about. The 400 parts he needed to complete production for the shift were sitting in tubs in the department. If they didn't let me split, I would have run 100 an hour, 30 minutes on, 30 minutes reading. Then if any of the three machines me and my cohort ran, took a dump, he wasn't getting his number. If I ran out of stock, I would hunt down rejects from previous shifts and arc weld those to run. I'm not going to do that if I have to stay the 8 hours. It worked for both of us. The unions did help workers, especially working conditions. The wages union workers get had some influence on the rest of the economy, raising it. But the non-union manufacturing wages were only 15% behind union in 1960, today it's closer to 50% That's why people point to the UAW as being a big part of the problems in Detroit. They got really far ahead of the rest of the economy. | ||
Cambrian Member Username: Cambrian Post Number: 321 Registered: 08-2006 |
The union job I had, once you used up your piddley 3 paid sick days per year, you could be absent a total of four more times without pay , the fifth you' would be terminated, and yes there were on call staffers so the work would get done. Just more anti union rhetoric. Like we really need to hurry up and get rid of the few Union workers left so there are even fewer people around to buy the big three's crap. | ||
Steelworker Member Username: Steelworker Post Number: 799 Registered: 02-2004 |
I get 2 paid sick/person days and 6 time with out pay, the next one firing. So if i get the flu or cold a few times in a year and miss two sets of 3 days i would be about fired. That considering i work 6 or 7 days a week what are the odds you wouldnt get the flu or a bad cold and miss work? | ||
Mike Member Username: Mike Post Number: 787 Registered: 11-2003 |
i think the union bashing comes from folks who went to college, got a degree and still earn less than the uneducated union "blue collar" worker. | ||
Pam Member Username: Pam Post Number: 676 Registered: 11-2005 |
I would fit that description but it hasn't made me dislike unions. I still think they are necessary. | ||
Oldredfordette Member Username: Oldredfordette Post Number: 803 Registered: 02-2004 |
There is no point in having this conversation once again with the worker-haters. They resent everyone they consider beneath them and are especially virulent when these terrible cockroaches make close or more what they make. These same jerks are over in the non detroit issues screaming unpatriotic if you disagree with the silver-spoon pinhead in the White House and his "war". You can trash American workers all day but support the slaughter in Iraq. Priceless. | ||
Patrick Member Username: Patrick Post Number: 3676 Registered: 10-2003 |
Yeah, it's too bad it has turned into a union bashing thread and I am sure your job is very difficult, BUT, no one made you take that job. Remember that. | ||
Jimaz Member Username: Jimaz Post Number: 1049 Registered: 12-2005 |
What strikes me as revealing is that "worker-haters" (great term, Oldredfordette! <bows>) too often also hate nonworkers, but only if those nonworkers are impoverished. What this contradiction reveals is that the truly intended (but revealingly never admitted) target of their hatred is neither workers nor non-workers but rather the impoverished -- both the working and nonworking poor. If a wealthy nonworker (say, someone willing to game the system, just barely within the law, without actually contributing anything useful to society) is assessed, they're automatically applauded as "successful" by this cantankerous nonworking elite. An honest assessment of this whole situation would be to take into account who intends to be constructive and who intends to be destructive. Workers are, by definition, constructive. | ||
Lilpup Member Username: Lilpup Post Number: 1481 Registered: 06-2004 |
I have a college degree and make less than others with less formal education, but I don't union bash. I don't bash anyone who earns their pay with productive work. But I know quite a few who automatically resent those with college degrees, too. My bottom line is play well with others and play fair. The unions are the only chance of getting management to play fair and I think something needs to be done about the excessiveness on Wall Street, too. | ||
Barnesfoto Member Username: Barnesfoto Post Number: 2753 Registered: 10-2003 |
like the chickenhawks who are so adamant about other people needing to make sacrifices for their phony war, the worker haters, (none of whom seem to have any assembly line experience) blame union workers for all manner of ills, from the "crumbling city" to the demise of the auto industry to globalization to the breakup of Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman. From listening to the tired old parrot squacks of the conservocrites, you'd think it was the unions who decided to make the Ford Pinto, and leave off a cheap part that made the car less vulnerable to explosions. Now here's a question: How many days of work did President Dressup miss in the last 6 years? | ||
Cambrian Member Username: Cambrian Post Number: 322 Registered: 08-2006 |
I gotta wonder what the end game is for these pro business types. Say they are successful at getting rid of unions....what is then supposed to happen in that right wing utopia? Lots of people will then be available to work for minimum wage, 5.75 hour? How does this help the country as a whole? If more money rolls into the Grosse Pointes and Bloomfields around the country, what benefit is that to the US? only thing I can think of is more money in the stock market and financial institutions, this only benefits a small # of people. Righties, your thoughts, how does more rich rich people help us as a whole? | ||
Lmichigan Member Username: Lmichigan Post Number: 4735 Registered: 10-2003 |
I'm glad all of you came out in force to call the hacks and shills on their game. I think they obviously thought they were going to get away with this senseless bashing. If you're going to attack union workers, jeeze, at least come up with some truly shocking and verifiable, objective data if you can find it instead of "well, this guy in so-and-so says that...". The whole premise of the thread was weak from the first post. One can have an honest discussion about unions' role in America without having to sink to the bottom. | ||
Jerome81 Member Username: Jerome81 Post Number: 1187 Registered: 11-2003 |
I think people take issue with situations described in fortress_warren's post. I suspect that most people can understand the quota, and yes that quota was met. But I think the goal for most businesses is to utilize time most efficiently. If 100 pieces were produced in 4 hours, punch out and go home, or work for the next 4 hours in some sort of productive manner. It is the passing of the ID card and getting paid for 4 hours while sitting at home that really bugs people. And if you only need, say, 4 man hours to get the job done, why are they using 8 man hours? Why are people getting paid for not doing their job? Why can't they cut back the workforce if they're not needed? The phrase "honest day's pay for an honest day's work" is what it is all about, and such situations are certainly NOT what is happening there. The best businesses do not operate that way because it is just pure waste. And if you're not needed, you're laid off. You don't get to keep your job because you're entitled to get paid. I suspect that is the issue, and I admit I take issue with that as well. I don't doubt that the time spent working is hard, or that you don't get the job done. But the setup described is just nuts, and it shouldn't fly. And to those who say unions provided most of what we have today, again, we can all say thank you and appreciate what unions did. But it doesn't mean inefficient processes and employees deserve to keep a job because the rest of the world owes something to the workers. How long do we have to say "thank you" by agreeing to inefficient and immoral processes? Do we owe lifetime employment to all AT&T workers because they connected the country? Do we owe lifetime employment and full pay for half work to Microsoft employees because they built the software that keeps the world's computers running? No way. What applies elsewhere should apply to the UAW. It doesn't. It should. | ||
Fortress_warren Member Username: Fortress_warren Post Number: 205 Registered: 10-2006 |
I was a big part of getting that job done in 4 hours. I would come in 15 or 20 minutes early and ask the afternoon shift operator if anything was out of whack, got the hi-lo driver to find 6 tubs of stock and have those around the machine. And once I started, didn't stop for breaks or anything. Just run that mother. I watched the jobsetter adjusting it, figured out how to get it to cycle about 5 seconds quicker. Most people would be able to finish about 1 or 2 hours early, but you couldn't leave the plant except during lunch, 3am. So that was the target. 4 hours at that pace was about it, they would have to carry you out to do that for 8 hours straight. | ||
Cambrian Member Username: Cambrian Post Number: 323 Registered: 08-2006 |
We had guys like F-W at the ware house, they would come in an hour early, work on their own time off the clock and work through thier break times in the hopes of getting sent home early. I had no problems with them personally, runners, we called them. My issue was that management would put thier portraits on a pedestal as to how the rest of the shift should work. This was not attainable as not all of us had the same types of orders to fill at any given time of the night. When the whole shift worked like the runners did, the errors and customer send backs went through the ceiling! Not too mention coming in and working off the clock is not something anyone should be expected to do. | ||
Livernoisyard Member Username: Livernoisyard Post Number: 1773 Registered: 10-2004 |
Come on, Cambrian! Anybody who has worked in a manufacturing plant, union or not, knows that there are slackers who only work about 1/3 to 1/2 or so the standard, normal rate. The big difference: In a union shop, it's virtually impossible to can them once they've gotten past their "probationary" stages. | ||
Cambrian Member Username: Cambrian Post Number: 326 Registered: 08-2006 |
Quote: "Come on, Cambrian! Anybody who has worked in a manufacturing plant, union or not, knows that there are slackers who only work about 1/3 to 1/2 or so the standard, normal rate." Not too sure how that could be possible, when most production workers are tied to a process that dictates how fast they work. In the case of my sleezy bosses they took a guranteed production standard we had been using successfully for years and sped it up so the only way you could meet it was by becoming a "runner" forcing you to come in on your off time and work through break times. | ||
Oldredfordette Member Username: Oldredfordette Post Number: 806 Registered: 02-2004 |
We can all agree that in every workplace there are great workers and jerks. What's your point? This week is the busiest week of the year in my field, everyone on the floor is expected to be on hand to work, no exceptions and where is my boss? Hawaii! Does this make the entire management class useless oxygen suckers? Show me a lazy union worker and I'll show you a useless layer of management. Doesn't tell the whole picture. | ||
Aiw Member Username: Aiw Post Number: 6011 Registered: 10-2003 |
When I was local Vice-president, I used to actually work about 2 hours a day out of 8. I would read 3 newspapers cover to cover, play card & gamble and smoke a pack of smokes a day, all inside the plant in non-smoking areas. Much like f-w, we used to have deals worked out to get the work done, and have the supervisors punch our cards out. That plant was so ineffcient and poorly run that it didn't surprise anyone when the doors shut. I'll admit it, I was the stereotypical lazy union guy that anti-union people hate. However we were only lazy because we were allowed to be. The entire shop was a product of poor management. | ||
Jams Member Username: Jams Post Number: 4235 Registered: 10-2003 |
However we were only lazy because we were allowed to be. Excellent! | ||
Cambrian Member Username: Cambrian Post Number: 328 Registered: 08-2006 |
What he meant was he had no work to do most of the time because the process he was given to use was ineffecient. | ||
Livernoisyard Member Username: Livernoisyard Post Number: 1774 Registered: 10-2004 |
"Not too sure how that could be possible, when most production workers are tied to a process that dictates how fast they work." Gee, I can name or visualize lots of scenarios which you conveniently find impossible. Maybe, for an assembly line. But what about doing some value-added functions at most Tier plants, say plating, heat treating, or magnifluxing? The humans essentially set their own pace. Even in an automated metal plating plant, if the humans cannot or won't load the racks fast enough, those racks enter the plating baths only partially filled. Anybody who has been or worked in Tier plants could easily add their own examples to my tiny list. | ||
Cambrian Member Username: Cambrian Post Number: 329 Registered: 08-2006 |
"Anybody who has been or worked in Tier plants could easily add their own examples to my tiny list." Well, management hates spending money to keep equipment working at the intended as designed rate. In my experience the darling runner's were given the best, newest and most well maintained equipment why the rest of us where given the crap that broke down frequently and / or worked at a much slower speed. Yet, of course we were all held to the same standard. | ||
Aiw Member Username: Aiw Post Number: 6012 Registered: 10-2003 |
Yeah, if they even fixed them at all... I worked in Shipping/Receiving, and we were almost always short on equipment. | ||
Fortress_warren Member Username: Fortress_warren Post Number: 208 Registered: 10-2006 |
Cambrian, how did they measure your production? So many pieces in the truck per hour? | ||
Livernoisyard Member Username: Livernoisyard Post Number: 1775 Registered: 10-2004 |
And many shift leads (foremen) are glorified line workers who have reached their pinnacles (their highest levels of inadequacy), according to the Peter Principle. Some QA folk and industrial engineers sometimes too fit this mold, but that's not the intent of the master industrial engineers or plant managers. Can you blame the latter when their foremen or QA staff fail to report any problems, especially when some of them are too stupid to even recognize problems until things break down? (Message edited by LivernoisYard on November 20, 2006) | ||
Cambrian Member Username: Cambrian Post Number: 330 Registered: 08-2006 |
We filled orders for restaurants. Some orders could have as much 300 cases in them covering two pallets. They had thier corporate IEs time all the bills out and assess so much time per case, and for changing aisles, wrapping pallets, and delivery to the loading dock. Last year they went into the system and started shaving shit to make us work faster. Lots of bills like our Old country buffets we'd go to slot and find it empty, we'd then have to go and find a high lo to drop in a pallet for us, this could take up to a half an hour depending on how busy he was, that half hour would count against us in this "new and improved" system. | ||
Steelworker Member Username: Steelworker Post Number: 800 Registered: 02-2004 |
Its funny you are all telling what im about to deal with in about 50 min. Machine not properly maintained and expectation to still produce. Foreman, I liked that comment. This thread stresses me out reminds me of work too much. Im expected to run certain amount of coils a day but if they assign me coils that are thin gauge im still expected to produce the same amount or if its cut in half or thirds. High expectation high production, thats why my company has been expanding and putting people out of business. | ||
Jams Member Username: Jams Post Number: 4237 Registered: 10-2003 |
That comment by AIW reminded me of an incident when I was a Millwright in a steelmill. At the start of the shift I received my assignment for the night (I worked midnights), and my helper and I completed our assignment in less then 2 hours. Not willing to rock the boat, we found a place to remain out of sight, at least until lunch, if not until the end of the shift. It was one of the rare nights the foreman actually checked on the department's progress of repairs. He found us in our hideaway away from the completed jobsite. He called me "The laziest worker he had ever seen!" I replied "Hell yes, and you'd like to have 12 of me." "What do you mean by that?" (expletives deleted) was his response. I told him "You give me a job. I get it done as quickly as possible, so I can go sit on my ass as soon as possible. I do it the right way, so I don't have to fix it again. What pisses you off is instead of making a 2 hour job into an 8 hour job, I do it in 2 hours which requires you to do more work to find me another job." He checked out the work, found it had been done well, and tried to make my life a living hell from that day on. Never was able to make a charge stick. I did find it amusing the Union offered me a Stewardship the same week the company offered me training to become a Foreman. | ||
Fury13 Member Username: Fury13 Post Number: 1224 Registered: 10-2003 |
"It always drives me nuts when someone talks about loving america and wanting our economy to do better but they don't even drive an american car. how many jobs in this country, white collar and blue collar, are related to the auto-industry?" Why should I buy a new American car? There is not a single US-branded model in my price range (under $16,000) that has sufficient cargo space for me, has good build quality, and still achieves 30-plus mpg in real-world city driving. Yet, the Japanese makers offer such vehicles. It is our continued dependence on one industry -- a domestic auto industry that can't keep pace with the innovations and quality from overseas (yes, STILL!) -- that is the reason for the current state of our economy in Michigan. The Detroit area should have made efforts to diversify its economy decades ago. But no, we hitched our buggy to one anachronistic pony -- the domestic auto industry. We made the Big Three our god and are now paying the price for it, especially because of the escalating health care and pension costs. Those costs, of course, have been and are being borne at the instigation of the unions. That said, I do believe that unions are necessary. If the unions didn't exist, management would run roughshod over the workers (simply because there would be no check or balance via the union). The problem is, the adversarial relationship that naturally exists between unions and management (because each side is trying to achieve the maximum benefit for itself) discourages finding a reasonable middle ground. Despite the unions, the economy will improve when the domestic automakers' PRODUCT improves (as in more fuel efficiency and higher build quality) and when we can become less dependent on every little ripple in the auto industry. | ||
Jerome81 Member Username: Jerome81 Post Number: 1189 Registered: 11-2003 |
Steelworker's post is a good one. Sure there is balance between over working and under, but the kind of go go that his company has is why they are cleaning up. The company is only as good as the workers. I have some friends in banking, and they slave their asses off. I'm not gonna pretend like I can do their job, but I'm also not saying I should be paid the same amount they get paid. If they want to slave and make good money to do it, that is fine. I don't want to do that. I don't think it makes me lazy, it just means I'm willing to accept less compensation because I choose not to work that hard. Most folks would understand that. But if I were to say I deserve to get paid 3x as much because my friends get paid that much, that wouldn't be right. I don't do the time/effort, I don't get paid as much. But if your business is one that can attract slaves and pay them well enough to do that, you will clean up. JP Morgan does. Sounds like Steelworker's company does too. All tradeoffs. | ||
Livernoisyard Member Username: Livernoisyard Post Number: 1776 Registered: 10-2004 |
A bit OT: The Chinese are running their own auto show this week, and there was some talk today on WJR about a Chinese vehicle which drives like a low-priced Cadillac with an expected sticker price of $10,000. When and If that vehicle hits the US market, say bye bye for some US brands. From what I heard, it's not another Yugo! Does anyone have any info about this vehicle? | ||
Cambrian Member Username: Cambrian Post Number: 334 Registered: 08-2006 |
Sounds like that Cherry motors car, He was the same guy that tried to get Yugo going back in '87. If it is a success that will be the final nail in our coffin. They shoulda seen that coming back in '92 when they created NAFTA. I think there will be role reversal where the US is no longer the economic super power, it will be Brazil, India and China, and we'll be the third world country. That's right, you'll see Chinese film crews coming over here filming the american slums of Farmington Hills asking thier country men to adopt a poor unfortunate american kid for the mere cost of a cup a coffee. | ||
Fury13 Member Username: Fury13 Post Number: 1225 Registered: 10-2003 |
As long as the Chinese car is a good product, bring it on. I assume it will be a high-mpg vehicle; good, that's what we need. The American automakers will have to adjust and counter with similar vehicles, that's all. There may be some pain associated with that, but.. oh well. | ||
Cambrian Member Username: Cambrian Post Number: 335 Registered: 08-2006 |
I think that is our problem Fury 13....Does Japan say "bring it on" when another country's product tries to cut into their market, or Germany's or Britain's? We are too disloyal to our own country, I'm not talking about consumer's either, the companies set the pace by whole heartedly embracing NAFTA. | ||
Livernoisyard Member Username: Livernoisyard Post Number: 1777 Registered: 10-2004 |
US consumers did not make Wal-Mart the market leader (and bankrupt K-Mart in the process) by their buying 100% US products. K-Mart was no slouch in that regard either. | ||
Patrick Member Username: Patrick Post Number: 3677 Registered: 10-2003 |
Unions in Michigan are losing strength and influence quite rapidly. Sure, you will get those folks refusing to change views. Will unions die alongside manufacturing in Michigan? | ||
_sj_ Member Username: _sj_ Post Number: 1595 Registered: 12-2003 |
Some Stats: The Big Three account for 4% of the GDP of this country. The GDP is ~12 Trillion. The Big Three employee 2 Million People. The Auto industry effects 6.7 Million Jobs. Number of Jobs in US ~146 Million. The GDP has increased for the past couple years. | ||
Livernoisyard Member Username: Livernoisyard Post Number: 1779 Registered: 10-2004 |
Don't lose sight of this simple fact: One of the Big Three is a German company. | ||
Fortress_warren Member Username: Fortress_warren Post Number: 212 Registered: 10-2006 |
The Chinese cars aren't ready for prime time. They still have a lot to learn. They'll reverse engineer Japanese cars and eventually figure it out. Then, look out. They already are importing motorcycles, the engines have weird failures, like the head of the intake valve falling off. That's Malcolm Bricklin doing the Chery. Remember the Bricklin in 74? Gull wing doors, have to have gull wing doors, like Delorean. Cambrian, I worked IE at Ford, if they had production tie ups because they didn't have enought hi-lo's, they bought more. Can you point that out to management? Seems like a no-brainer. | ||
Cambrian Member Username: Cambrian Post Number: 340 Registered: 08-2006 |
There was no bottom up communication at the warehouse. They assumed we were all too stupid to know what we were talking about. Suggestions would get laughed off, phone calls to upper management would not get returned. | ||
Fortress_warren Member Username: Fortress_warren Post Number: 213 Registered: 10-2006 |
There must be someone in floor management that could point this out. He's getting dinged too. How do the runners, guys like me, get first dibs on the hi-lo? | ||
Cambrian Member Username: Cambrian Post Number: 342 Registered: 08-2006 |
The hi lo's were only one example out of many examples as to why that warehouse was poorly run. I made many suggestions for improvement, the runners would be my biggest critics because they benefitted from the management favoritism the most, and my suggestions where to improve things over all. But yes on the really busy nights the runners had to wait for hi lo drops like the rest of us schmucks, boy would they complain too. It really angered them once they were not coming first. That management team was notoriously over educated and trained to get the most out that warehouse with the least investment. A very unsafe place to work too. I have friends that still work there that told me of a chilling story where a driver got run over by another driver last month who did not take adequate time to defrost his windows. He flattened him right out and did not even know it. One of my old coworkers discovered the body. The steward said the rush rush directives put out by mgt were to blame. | ||
_sj_ Member Username: _sj_ Post Number: 1597 Registered: 12-2003 |
and how many people believe that BS. | ||
Fortress_warren Member Username: Fortress_warren Post Number: 219 Registered: 10-2006 |
If I have any options, I won't work for idiots. That's why I like having options in life. Hate feeling trapped. Ford had people getting killed, but it was weird things, flat bed truck overloaded with steel coils collapsing the scale and crushing two guys standing there. Three guys shovelling the heat treat slag out of the oil pit, hi-lo hits the co2 cylinders that are there for the next time the quench oil catches fire. CO2, heavier than air, floods the pit, all three died. That kind of thing. Lots safer in the offices, biggest danger is breaking the copier glass while sitting on it, photocopying your ass. |
