Posted on 12/10/2012 2:32:21 AM PST by equaviator
DETROIT (WJBK) - Two years ago Fox 2 Problem Solver Rob Wolchek got a tip from someone inside Chrysler's Jefferson North Assembly plant about what some workers were doing at the park on their lunch break.
For several days our TV crews followed some of these workers.
Play the video above to see what these guys were doing before they went back to work in the factory in 2010.
When we showed the video to executives from Chrysler they were embarrassed. The company had just been bailed out by the government and president Obama stood on the floor of the very same plant just a few months earlier. Obama said he believed in the workers and that he believed in Chrysler.
Chrysler was trying to remake its image and the activity in video we recorded certainly didn't fit the "Imported from Detroit" campaign.
Chrysler suspended two workers and fired thirteen others.
Their cases ended up in arbitration and the arbitrator sided with the fired workers. They came back to work this week.
And now this statement from the auto maker:
"Chrysler Group LLC acknowledges the reinstatement of a number of employees from the Jefferson North assembly plant who were discharged from the company in September 2010 after appearing in a local TV station's story about their off-duty conduct."
While the company does not agree with the ultimate decision of the arbitrator, we respect the grievance procedure process as outlined in the collective bargaining agreement and our relationship with the UAW. Unfortunately, the company was put in a very difficult position because of the way the story was investigated and ultimately revealed to the public. These employees from Jefferson North have been off work for more than two years. The time has come to put this situation behind us and resume our focus on building quality products that will firmly establish Chrysler Group's position in the marketplace."
Obama will be in Michigan to visit workers in Redford Township but will not be visiting Chrysler's Jefferson North plant. Still, no worries.
About seven years ago...I had a chance to go to a Audi factory in Bavaria. As I walked through the factory...things moved in a mechanical fashion and I got the impression that these workers absolutely tuned into doing the job right...the first time around. It’s a general insult if a QC guy finds anything wrong with your work. Boozing during the day or showing up doped up? Doesn’t happen. There’s a fair amount of peer pressure to deliver the best product possible.
I think the Chrysler crew have proven that they don’t have what it takes to be on the team. I’d suggest they go elsewhere.
“I think the Chrysler crew have proven that they don’t have what it takes to be on the team. I’d suggest they go elsewhere.”
I think it’s time for Chrysler and all it’s union workers to be boycotted to death for shoddy products and crappy work ethics that the unions protect.
There is not much in the article to indicate what happened with the arbitrator. The arbitrator is allegedly an outside consultant, usually with some legal background, who is selected by mutual agreement of the company and the goonion.
The arbitrator has to agree to hear the case after several steps of the grievance procedure have been exhausted.
It would be interesting to know if the arbitrator awarded back pay or not. If not, it indicates that he/she found the goonion trash culpable. The arbitrator may have viewed the company’s initial action as a “rush to judgement”.
Usually what happens in the case of alcohol and/or drug use is that the goonion prevails on the company to allow the noble workers to dry themselves out on a medical leave. In this day and age, they probably normally require random drug or alcohol tests for the culprits as a condition of continued employment as well as some period of “probation” wherein the noble workers can be fired if they’re found to be in violation. Usually such a transaction might require the trade off of a number of grievances which have been written on behalf of other noble workers who are usually just too glad to contribute their grievances to stand in solidarity with their brother mens.
What normally happens is the human refuse continue to drug and drink and the goonion continues to fight for their rights to party.
There is a noble afl-cio industrial worker from Michigan who posts here all the time and knows everything who probably can provide details that the article leaves out. Note that the afl-cio includes UAW Local 6000 which is one of the biggest if not the biggest “representative” of the noble State workers, but it is an industrial union and those are noble workers.
“Note that the afl-cio includes UAW Local 6000 which is one of the biggest if not the biggest “representative” of the noble State workers, but it is an industrial union and those are noble workers.”
Right-to-work is a far nobler endeavor.
Another reason to stay away from Chrysler union built products. This is just one more little step in the slow death spiral of a union dominated industry.
Taxpayers are funding the Unions, which is funneling the dues right back to the DNC.
Union Contracts make it nearly impossible to fire any of the "Brothers" or "Sisters", and they are the cancer infecting the Public Sector now, with solid (D) voting and super-funding (D) candidates....basically, the Union Membership votes themselves immunity from firing, layoffs, constant raises and Benfit increases, etc., ALL on the backs of Taxpayers.
Repeal Davis-Bacon, OUTLAW Unions in the Public Sector, and subject Unions to a $2300 max contribution to Candidates, just like individuals. (I support the same rule for Corporations, too)
At the moment Chevrolet and Crysler products are not allowed to be parked in my garage. Only Ford. My next vehicles will be 100% American nonunion made Toyota, Nissan or Honda. I vote with my feet and my money.
The only American car I’d buy is Ford.
AUW must be a part of Chrysler's renowned “designed obsolescence” equation.
The UAW builds Ford also.
UAW
I can't speak for other industries here in MI, but this is a problem w/ the Big-3 Union types. I got to see it 1st hand when a good friend of my better half shows up one Sat morning and said feed me. I asked why, and a "worker" still toasted from Friday night gave her grief including the f-bomb, and as an engineer on launch rather than file a greiveance because it would have gone nowhere, left the building. I have read that the Big-3's productivity is not all that bad, it is these 5% or so with these issues that are tilting it in Toy's and Honda's favor.
The question begs, as contract employee's (non-line) continue to populate the plants, will the Unions as a means of survival after this coming Tuesday make the hard behaviorial changes in how they run "their business" if you will, and not enable this high-school parking lot stoner type behavior as they have for eons.
That is the million dollar question. Another industry eons ago that I was in you got 3 tries @ going away for a month in the hills of VT to a facility and if you came in again after that non-sober, you were fired period. But this was non-union.
It is interesting that via George Will warning of GM's Bankruptcy in 04' I believe, he was not only spot on about legacy medical cost, but look @ the organizations that fostered it. I.E. Gov't and Unions, look @ Detroit and our Entitlements @ the Federal Level. Ironically at the state level, many Governors including Snyder are dealing with it ( Ergo the teachers new retirement options here in MI, the 401k is to good to say no too). At the federal level? Not so much, America decided to vote for a bartender who said Drinks on the House one more Time! Rather than face the hard choices they must make and step away from the enablers and get fiscally sober...
Obama’s Communist Method.
Unions also produce parts for virtually every car on the market.
When I was in the AFL-CIO our primary job was for Cadillac but we also made parts for Toyota which were shipped down south.
That is true but I try not to buy a car assembled by a Union.
Did they get two years back pay as well?
“Are they re-instated WITH back pay?”
The UAW have some high-powered attorneys just a couple miles up the road from that plant. In fact, it’s their flagship specialty.
They’ve probably been involved in those cases since Day One with back-pay being on the list of grievences. I’ll bet they were asking for missed holiday pay as well. Whether or not they won any of that, I have no idea but I’m sure we’ll learn more about it in the near future.
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