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Posted on 10/31/2009 11:59:22 AM PDT by jazusamo
DETROIT -- Ford Motor Co.'s rank-and-file union members rejected a concessions agreement, leaving the auto maker at risk to higher costs compared with competitors Chrysler Group LLC and General Motors Co.
Although some locals are still voting through Sunday, the United Auto Workers national leadership has accepted the defeat, said three union sources who asked not to be identified since they don't officially speak for the UAW.
The leadership is now reviewing other options, these people said. UAW President Ron Gettelfinger told Dow Jones Newswires on Friday he will not continue bargaining or conduct a re-vote. Ford will now have to wait for any formal changes until 2011 when the current contract expires.
"This was a tough sell from the beginning," said Harley Shaiken, a professor at the University of California at Berkeley who specializes in labor issues. "Ford was caught in between of doing better and advertising that, and the UAW already giving Ford concessions."
He said both Ford and the UAW failed to clearly define the future so workers, already pinched by the economic recessions, decided to vote against more cuts.
"I think Ford is smart enough not to retaliate and move work away from plants," Mr. Shaiken said. "However, I suspect it will lightly influence Ford's investment decisions in the future."
Sealing the fate of the concessions was the "no vote" from UAW members at the auto maker's Dearborn Assembly Truck plant in Michigan and the Kentucky Truck plant. Dearborn workers voted 93% against the contract while 84% voted down the changes in Kentucky.
The Kentucky and Dearborn votes make it impossible for the remaining locals to pass the measure. The UAW needs a majority of the 41,000 voting members.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
Time for Ford to move everything south!
UAW members are too stupid to realize they may be putting themselves out of a job.
>>leaving the auto maker at risk to higher costs compared with competitors Chrysler Group LLC and General Motors Co
The UAW owns big chunks of GM and Chrysler. In a sane world, this would be a conflict of interest.
Ah the advantages of not going bankrupt. Union members vote for unsustainable pay and benefits and wonder why their companies go bankrupt.
It’s funny, people vote for Democrats and wonder why their taxes are going sky high ... It’s sort of like Democrats don’t come standard issue with brains.
Time for Ford to move everything south!
Yeppers.
Let the union workers apply at GM and Chrysler.
John Galt, the American auto buyer is going to get them in the end. Should Ford get lumped in with GM and Chrysler i hte American car buyers’ mind, it’s over for Ford too.
Yep, there are many parallels between Dems and union members.
Fire every single one of them
today !
If you buy a Ford you support the unions . The unions support Obama.
Can’t they just move to a right to work state?
Texas would be proud to welcome Ford and all it’s jobs.
They closed the Atlanta plant.
They closed the St. Louis plant.
Basically Ford is screwed.
I am un-sure about the right to work issue.
They are welcome here in Tennessee
Can’t they just move to a right to work state?
________________________________
Moving an auto plant is a major and expensive undertaking, you know
And even in a right to work state, they’d still have to deal with the UAW who already has exclusive bargaining agent status.
If they can push the UAW to strike, and are gutsy enough to bring in replacement workers, then they’ll be able to break the union. Michigan has a high unemployment rate, finding replacements wouldn’t be a problem.
But what’s really more likely, is that Ford will either move more of its manufacturing facilities to Mexico or China or go for Chapter 11 reorganization where they can get rid of the contract.
This is EXACTLY why people should not buy a Ford. There are plenty of cars made in the USA that the UAW does not lay a finger on. And face it...do you REALLY want to buy a car (or truck) from someone who hates his job, hates his company, hates America, and (probably) hates his family.
Also keep in mind that the truck (or SUV) that you buy will probably be the last one you ever buy, considering the EPA gas mileage laws on the books...so you may want to buy something from a company that has a chance of being around 10 or 15 years from now...unlike any company that has to answer to the UAW.
I think the UAW as a whole is trying to make Ford tank and then get our Commie in Chief to force another takeover.
They will then own all three US auto companies but they do not have the smarts nor the motivation to make them profitable.
I have been saving to purchase a Ford soon but will hold off until I see the results of this. If Ford gets turned over to the UAW I will be a permanent foreign auto buyer.
The new motto for the UAW...”Abandon hope all ye who enter here”.
To my understanding, they can’t.
Back in the Big 3 heyday, the management/leadership signed an agreement that allowed the UAW to organize any factory they built anywhere in the US.
So if Ford builds a new plant anywhere in the US, the union will follow.
Of course, the solution is to start building the plants in the right to work states, complete them - but not open them. Then close down all the union plants and fire the workers, thus purging the union from their mist... and then open the pre-built-but-not-yet-opened factories (that were built in the right-to-work states).
As such, the union wouldn’t be able to organize the new factories... and there would be no union workers anywhere in Ford to do so.
Of course, that’d cost a pretty penny, which Ford can’t afford right now... and the Obamanation would probably nationalize Ford for even trying.
So, I figure Ford will just continue to move it’s factories to Mexico until there are no more UAW workers in Ford factories. After that, who knows?
Fire them.
Yep, we’ll welcome Ford down here with open arms. We already have Toyota, Mercedes, Nissan, BMW, and soon to be Volkswagon. Those UAW members will eventually be eating dirt when they all lose their jobs.
Stupid is what stupid does!
Amazing how stupid and greedy people can be. And those same folks will wonder what hit them when more plants shut down.
FORD chose to weather the storm without government help - but put themselves in a very tight financial footing. But even now, FORD is in better shape than the government-owned GM, and even Chrysler who can’t seem to get dealers re-stocked with inventory (I know of at least one large Chrysler lot that has 3 new minivans, about 20 new RAM trucks, 4 Chargers, and a lot filled with used cars so they would have SOMETHING to sell. They laid off a large part of their sales force - and still have no idea when new inventory is going to come.
But FORD has well-stocked lots, and are not even giving giant rebates to move vehicles. They are trying to keep the company afloat. And the Union members are going to suck the bones dry - until there are no jobs at all.
And I would wager that 99.995% of those union members who voted down this agreement (approved by union leadership) are 0bama-loyalists. I guess they figure they can drive FORD into the hands of the feds as well, thus securing their jobs AND their previous benefits and agreements...
I can think of no other reasoning possible.
Why make concessions when Obama will simply bail you out?
Yep, I’m sure that’s what a lot of them are thinking but there’ll be a day come that the goose will run out of eggs, I think that day is closer than most of them think.
My BIL was a career economist at GM. He said many people don’t realize that the a-holes running the unions are moderates compared to many of the rank and file. They were ready to go on strike at the drop of a hat, and with the strike benefits they had, who could blame them?
There is going be to an empty modern truck plant in Shreveport in a couple of years that Ford can use.
They are going for a trifecta now. There is absolutely no downside for the union. They believe they are too big to fail and if they bankrupt Ford they will end up with a piece of the action. Don Corleone couldn't have come up with a better scam.
I called this one back when the government took over the other Car companies.
Effectively the Unions control the big three automakers now.
And to think I had my eye on the new 2010 Ford Taurus. Absolutely beautiful car.
Also welcome in Oklahoma.
Brilliant, union goons! Bankrupt Ford, too!
I think Ford WILL move to a more work friendly state and restablish a marginal union environment.
You tell’em union thug ash holes! Don’t let them push you around. We all know the recession is over because Dear Leader told us.
BUMP to you both!
I believe they’d probably like to but from what a poster said above they may not be able to, I wish they would though.
Ford will now have to wait for any formal changes until 2011 when the current contract expires.
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For me, it's either a foreign built Ford or a transplant. I don't want Americans to lose their jobs, but I've had it with the UAW!
“I think Ford is smart enough not to retaliate and move work away from plants,” Mr. Shaiken said. “However, I suspect it will lightly influence Ford’s investment decisions in the future.”
hmm
Who are you talking about here?
“Who are you talking about here?”
Union workers - read some of their literature if you doubt me.
Hmm is right, looks like the prof from Bezerkley’s politics is showing, it’s really not about retaliating with Ford, it’s about survival.
Oh puhleeze! I personally know hundreds of union workers that don't hate their job, their companies, America and CERTAINLY not their families. Give it a break.
They’ve done it before. Why should now be any different?
“Oh puhleeze! I personally know hundreds of union workers that don’t hate their job, their companies, America and CERTAINLY not their families. Give it a break.”
Nice try. You guys cannot have it both ways. You elect leadership that empowers the DEMOCRATS (who do HATE this country), you bring entire industry and an entire state to its knees, and you guys had to be BRIBED by FDR to support the war effort.
We are not that dumb anymore to think that all you want is good jobs and good pay. There are plenty of ways to get that, starting in Marysville, and then going south, where people work with a smile on their face, and do what’s expected of them.
Go back to Gus Hall and his buddies, we don’t need you here.
Didn't seem to make much of a difference at the Kentucky plant.
I suppose they could move further south to Mexico.
Maybe they want some of that government hand out. Or they want Obama to be their boss man!
Wow! What an arguement. You win. I concede. All 41,000 of the voters here hate their jobs, hate their company, hate America and (probably) hate their families. Yea buddy.
Oh, and by the way, I work on the Mississippi Gulf Coast and am in management for a non-union company.
Go back to Gus Hall and his buddies, we don’t need you here.
Well, at least you didn't bring up Hitler or the Nazis.
Yawn.
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