Workers Rally Against Delphi Wage Cuts

AP via Yahoo! ^ | December 11, 2005 | AP

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

.... People have been forming unions since hunters and gathers started living in groups for better survival. A family is a union. People that gather together in his Name are forming a union.

I wonder if those union-haters consider that FR is a union of conservatives as well?

Just for the record, those are not unions - they might be groups or a gathering of like minded people, but not one of those examples is a Union.

A minister doesn't negotiate with God to change the rules. And no one has to pay to be a part of a church/

FreeRepublic is not a union - Jim Robinson owns the joint and we have no ability to tell him what to do or how.

[TXBSAFH]

With out a way to bargain effectively that may change. I do not trust congress or business. If both thought they could I hav no daoubt we would return to the gilded age.

See the overtime law overhaul a ferw years back. I know of two people who once got OT but after that law no more. They were given comp time. One had enough comp time to take this month off. He was turned down. And it is use it or lose it at the end of the year.

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

You may be right that some laws would get changed, but I see too many Jesse Jacksons and Al Sharptons who would step in and fight for workers rights.

I think Unions made some needed changes for safety in their early days - I just don't see them as needed now.

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

Can he not go to the Labor Board in his State and file a complaint?

[TXBSAFH]

No, he tried.

[TXBSAFH]

Keep in mind something my Grand father told me. He started in the labor gang of the plant and worked his way up to management. He had only 6 college hours but 4 US. patents to his name. He once said, "If you treat you workers fairly, pay them decently, and let them know it. You will have little if any problem from a union." See southwest airlines, the workers are well paid and well treated. The same with Anheuser Busch. MY brothers brohter in law is a union man there he makes good money and has good benefits. They would not dream of striking.

[Ninian Dryhope]

"You would you be quicker to let an experienced fry cook build your canr or an experienced Auto work make you fries.."

Any monkey can do assembly work. An experienced Auto worker is too lazy to get off his butt to make fries.

[Myrddin]

What I'm seeing here is that when employees want to force company owners to raise wages, they "rally" until they get their way. When the owners want customers to pay higher prices, the vote for higher tariffs.

Finish the progression of consequences. When customers refuse to pay the higher prices, the company revenues go in the dumper. The company must cut costs because there are no revenues to cover the costs. If the cost cutting effort fails, company goes out of business and competitors take the customers.

[TXBSAFH]

That has been the opinion of many in the auto industry for the past decaded. Their quality and sales are in the dumps. You do the math.

[N3WBI3]

Have you worked assembly? I swear folks at MS, IBM are saying the same thing right now for programmers... Any old person in India can do it and maybe of lawyers, MRI techs and the like... But Im sure whatever it is you do is special..

I swear sometimes I think the worst thing for Regan conservatism is the free traitors..

[WhyisaTexasgirlinPA]

I agree with your grandfather almost entirely:

"If you treat you workers fairly, pay them decently, and let them know it. You will have little if any problem from a union"

[TXBSAFH]

I swear sometimes I think the worst thing for Regan conservatism is the free traitors..

Agreed.

[TXBSAFH]

The problem ismany in business do not agree. The biggest problem my Grandfathers bosses had with his way of running the plant was when he quit. The production fell by 10% and it took 2 years to get it back up. He could tell you what every vessle and every valve was for and where it was.

[Myrddin]

And yes, I think that someone who remains loyal to a company for 30 years deserves to get yearly raises.

Time for a reality check. Companies have ZERO loyalty to workers. Workers are the means by which productive work is accomplished. When the worker isn't adding to the bottom line, the worker isn't needed.

That applies to college grads too. I worked on a contract for 18 months. 250 hours per month. Billed at $256/hour. The company made lots of money on labor. When the customer decided to shutdown, I got a layoff notice. That's the kind of "loyalty" offered to an employee with 13 years of very high revenue streams.

I dealt with the problem by chewing up paid time off. While staying afloat on my vacation hours, I tracked down over $3 million in new business. I took that business to a more competent party in my company and reversed the layoff condition. I have more work than I have hours to accomplish it. I solved that problem by hiring competent help. That is the only justification for jobs. They are created when the business can't meet customer demand fast enough with the available labor/tools at hand. Loyalty to the employee isn't the issue. If you have new opportunities on the horizon that could not be accessed without the skills of a current employee, you hedge your bets by keeping them on the staff. I prefer to keep a reserve fund to cover fallow work periods between death marches.

[7thson]

Someone b-slap me if I am way off base. I heard on the radio news about a week or so ago, that Iraqi forces are in need of military equipment, specifically armoured vehicles. Than I heard these auto plants are closing. Why can't the government, the unions, of the auto makers make a deal. Make armoured vehicles and sell them to Iraq. The plants stay open, people are employed, capitolism expands, Iraq has its vehciles. I know it sounds way too simple so there must be something wrong in this thinking?

[Myrddin]

Well, maybe if you didn't like your union, you should have let them know about it and get others to join YOUR union and complain and get changes made that way. See how it works? ;)

Collectivist thuggery (unions) have no respect for individual achievement. I prefer to negotiate my own compensation with my employer or customer. I know my capability exceeds most of the other people with whom I'm competing. Unions appeal to masses of people who aren't competitive as individuals. They choose to enrich themselves by threat, coercion, violence and vandalism. I personally observed all of those behaviors from CWA, IBEW and ORTT when I worked at PacBell. I was on the receiving end of vandalism to my personal car by the IBEW when they tried to force me to join and cough up the $60 initiation fee. I also had my home residence phone service cut off by an CWA steward who was angry about my resetting of options on a 212 modem. The jerk ignored requests to do it for months. It took me 10 seconds. Personally, I think he was too incompetent to do what was asked, but took great pleasure at calling his lackeys at the central office to clip my pair.

[Ninian Dryhope]

In my job, I have worked in GM assembly plants, including the one up at Shreveport, Louisiana and at the Ford River Rouge Plant in Michigan. In connection with my work, I have visited the GM plants in Arlington, TX and Mansfield, Ohio, the BMW plant in South Carolina, the Honda Plant in Lincoln, AL, the Ford plant in St. Louis, the DCX plants in St. Louis and Toledo, and the Nissan plants in Jackson, MS and Smyrna, TN.

[N3WBI3]

And in your opinion these people are trained monkeys? Im sorry you were not watching closely enough..

[expat_panama]

"When the owners want customers to pay higher prices, the vote for higher tariffs.   ...If the cost cutting effort fails, company goes out of business and competitors take the customers."

Everything's possible in our imaginations.  What happens in the world of actual money and jobs is that when protective taxes are cut, the prices go down while wages and employment go up.

[Ninian Dryhope]

What I wrote: "Any monkey CAN do assembly work."

What you claim I wrote: "these people ARE trained monkeys".

Either you are so stupid you are incapable of understanding a simple sentence or you are intellectually dishonest enough to twist another's words in order to make your point.

Assembly work is simple enough that a monkey could do it. The people doing the work are not trained monkeys, but the work they are doing is certainly not worth $27/hour. Being a fry cook is more difficult and it takes more skill and judgment. Thus a fry cook should be making more money than an automotive assembly worker.