Gm Worker Strike

[misterp]

Steve, are you familiar with Six Sigma methodology? Kind of seems that way...

 

I have studied SS and Lean principles for about a decade. This is something that Toyota "understands" and is a MAJOR reason that they have been so successful.

Yes very familiar. I worked for Dell for 4 years, and during my time there I was indoctrinated because Toyota went all Dell throughout their company and I was tapped as a technical resource for workstation deployment & software management. If I had the money I would attend their management training school, when the original Toyota company president died (can't remember his name) he requested that the company always run a school to teach the Toyota Way to anyone, and I believe it's in Tennessee but anyways if you can afford to pay the tuition (which is the same exact cost Toyota pays to educate their internal managers in the program) you're welcome to attend Toyota's management school, it's open to everyone. Plus I also worked for Microsoft (2 years) and live/breathe Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF).

 

Philosophies like this are why these companies are so successful.

 

Mr. P.

[jasonm]

Yep. The assemblies are sent to the assembly plant for final assembly. (sounds redundant, I know ) Everthing is scheduled as far as color, options, ect, that are to be assembled on a given day. All the workers do is snap, ans bolt it together. Everything is pre built, pre painted, and pre loaded. No real "skill" involved.

 

Watch the video that was posted on this site earlier (much earlier).

 

http://www.silveradoss.com/videos/FT-PlantTour.wmv

 

It's the plant tour of the Oshawa plant... I second the 'skill' remark. Doesn't appear to be terribly difficult. Scan a tag, make sure it's going on the right undercarriage.... $27/hour, big freakin' benefits, sick/holiday pay.

 

Want to scare 'em? Make them start up their own business. Lose money, then lose more money, have everyone think you're loaded, get calls in the middle of the evenings/weekends. Vacation... what vacation?

 

Sounds like I'm complaining, but it's the path I CHOSE. It's because I can't sit still. I worked side by side (when I had nothing else to do) with a union operation... Long story short, they needed some drywall guys (not my specialty, but I can handle it) to help them hurry up a project, as it was falling behind (AmericInn hotel). These union drywallers would hang the top sheets (easy ones -- no outlets, or boxes to cut around), and then let us hang the bottom sheets. Then, after 2.5 hours of work, they'd have a break... then, another 1.5 hours til lunch, then sometime in the afternoon, another break. They'd hang around 25 - 30 sheets in their 8-hour work day.... we'd average 40 in ours. Then, we got 'fined' at the end of the week $150 because we weren't union, and $50 for not throwing away our waste. We came back from lunch one day, and one of the kids that didn't have any qualified skills was put to the task of getting rid of our junk... Then, we were charged $50, for less than an hours worth of work.

 

Betcha you know where we weren't the next week.

 

We even hired a guy who decided to get out of the union as a carpenter. He said he made $25 an hour for the union, but he had union dues to pay, etc..., so he figured he'd be worth around $20 any way. Seemed high, but he had big recommendations. So, we put him to work: First job, was to install a door for someone. He couldn't do it alone, as he was 'kind of the door holder'.... His words. He didn't even make the first week.

 

Sorry to the union guys, but I haven't seen anything good out of the unions for the last 30 years or better.

 

Anyone remember the number to Truckmaster driving school?

[misterp]

...Anyone remember the number to Truckmaster driving school?

[sswake]

I wasn't going to reply on this but felt the need to. I work in the communications industry with a union job. I agree that unions are good and bad. I do not know anything about vehicle assembly but with my job and most others in the company that I work for, it is a skilled trade. Some of my job requires some simple task but for the most part it is technical and requires alot of customer interface. The union I'm in for the most part wants good things for the company as well as the workers. It wants the company to deploy more technology into the field which will be a better product for the customer,more profit for the company, better job security for it's workers,etc.etc. you get the picture. It also helps me keep good health benifits for my family. When it comes time for our collective barginning they do not ask for huge raises and better benifits but only to hopefully to keep what we have already. I also do know that part of that process is to start out asking for alot because the company starts out trying to take away everything and in the end they always agree to keep the current agreement with usually a 4% raise over 5 years. I think that is about fair. On the down side they do have to represent some employees that do not deserve thier job. I think that management should watch its workers closer and get rid of the ones not doing their job but seems like that never happens and the good workers always get nailed on some minor something and get made an example of. It is also fustrating when the company is always trying to find ways to short change its workers when, in my company's case, it gives it's retiring ceo $187 million in severance pay with ungodly benifits. I think this is the product of it being a union company. Toyota's newest plant is being built about 10 miles from my home I just may try to get a job for them. Good jobs, good pay with good benifits with no union and no hassles. Sorry for the long post but I needed to speak my mind.

[SilveradoEsEs]

Lets not forget the added cost to both the corporate side and the individual employee due to escalating health care costs. People always want to get caught up in the "$ per hour" argument and forget that a hefty chunk of their hourly pay as well as company profits goes toward health care expenses. More of these costs are being passed to the individual. While watching a video of the Presidential Mashup on Yahoo a week or so ago, one of the candidates stated that health care costs to employees have gone up 87% in the last 6 years. 87%!?!?!?!?!?!?

 

They also gave a few examples of how health care costs are crushing our ability to compete in the global economy. Some of the things that were mentioned were that due to health care costs in the U.S., a GM vehicle built inside our borders costs 14% more than the same vehicle built in Canada. Another example was that $1500 of the price tag of *EVERY* GM vehicle built in the states goes for health care while the health care cost per vehicle for Toyota is $150 per vehicle.

 

I don't work for a Union company nor am I affiliated with the auto industry. Wages are just one slice of the bigger pie.

[ShortBus]

I too was going to stay out of the "discussion" and really have no idea what goes on in the automotive world union wise. However growing up as an only child with a father that worked for the telephone company i learned quickly the meaning of the word strike. Seeing someone who had no say in the matter, who was quiet happy with his job be told not to go to work, but to walk a picket line every F'IN 3 YEARS cause they wanted a new contract pissed me off. I didn't grow up with the proverbial silver spoon and that union didn't do a damn thing for my father or our family.

 

Currently my wife is unemployed. she was wrongfully terminated from AT&T for some BS. She had union employees as sales reps. All they had to do when her boss told her, by corperate guidlines to write them up, was to decline to sign the document. Them a union rep would represent them at a "hearing". She wrote up an employee for 3 years 47 times and was never terminated for anything from theft to discrimination yet the union stood by him. He's still a piece of crap yet employed due to the union.

 

Just my 2 cents, rant off.

[BOB47]

 

 

Troy-based Delphi offered unions a base wage of $9 an hour shortly after it filed for bankruptcy protection in October 2005.

 

In the pact negotiated with Delphi and GM, the UAW managed to keep three more plants open than Delphi had initially proposed. It also got a series of options for longtime workers that include a $35,000 annual payment for three years to production workers whose wages will be cut. Skilled trade wages will remain unchanged under the pact.

 

 

 

 

Notice that the UNION negotiated (came to a compromise) these things. Without the union those people would have had to take $9.00 an hour or lose their jobs. Could you live on that? Doesn't that give you some idea of what these companies will do if the unions are gone?

[ShortBus]

9 dollars an hour is 360 bucks a week before taxes. seems better then the 147 bucks a week you get on strike pay if you walk a picket line 3 times a week.

 

"do you want fries with that?"

[BOB47]

Currently my wife is unemployed. she was wrongfully terminated from AT&T for some BS. She had union employees as sales reps. All they had to do when her boss told her, by corperate guidlines to write them up, was to decline to sign the document. Them a union rep would represent them at a "hearing". She wrote up an employee for 3 years 47 times and was never terminated for anything from theft to discrimination yet the union stood by him. He's still a piece of crap yet employed due to the union.

 

Just my 2 cents, rant off.

 

If your wife was respresented by a union, she would not have been wrongfully terminated. Just a thought.

[ShortBus]

salary employess are exempt from unions.

[BOB47]

salary employess are exempt from unions.

 

 

Why is that? Point being--if she could have had a union behind her she would not have been unfairly terminated. Non-union workers can be dismissed because of anything. You can go in and do a great job day after day for years and if the bosses one day decide they don't like the color of your hair or whatever, you're gone. Period. No recourse.

[ShortBus]

the union does not represent management. She was a manager of 3 retail stores for 8 years. She failed to report a claim that an employee was stealing due to the fact she heard it 3rd party from another employee who had a history of not liking a person. Bottom line to me in my oppinion, and thats all it is is my oppinion, is that the union only is a safe harbour to ppl that all ready don't deserve to have the jobs they have.

 

Can ppl benefit from a union? yes they can. Can ppl be screwed based on the union? yes they can. It just offers ppl that don't deserve the right to have the job the ability to bitch with leverage while the ppl that carry them get hosed whenever something doesn't go the way of the whining minority.

[zanis520]

ya hopefully they wont be on strike long, and the General will come back better than ever

[Bigdogx]

Lets not forget the added cost to both the corporate side and the individual employee due to escalating health care costs. People always want to get caught up in the "$ per hour" argument and forget that a hefty chunk of their hourly pay as well as company profits goes toward health care expenses. More of these costs are being passed to the individual. While watching a video of the Presidential Mashup on Yahoo a week or so ago, one of the candidates stated that health care costs to employees have gone up 87% in the last 6 years. 87%!?!?!?!?!?!?

 

They also gave a few examples of how health care costs are crushing our ability to compete in the global economy. Some of the things that were mentioned were that due to health care costs in the U.S., a GM vehicle built inside our borders costs 14% more than the same vehicle built in Canada. Another example was that $1500 of the price tag of *EVERY* GM vehicle built in the states goes for health care while the health care cost per vehicle for Toyota is $150 per vehicle.

 

I don't work for a Union company nor am I affiliated with the auto industry. Wages are just one slice of the bigger pie.

 

Your right the total cost per line worker for gm was about 65-75 an hour, there was a chart done about 2 years ago that was floating around the net comparing gm to toyota and the cost difference is huge between the two.

 

Found the chart..

http://www.npr.org/news/specials/gmvstoyota/

Edited September 25, 2007 by Bigdogx (see edit history)

[Fireman31]

ya hopefully they wont be on strike long, and the General will come back better than ever

 

I agree, you guys have already laid pretty much everything on the table here........all I can say is that I would NOT buy a new GM vehicle over the next several months due to this strike. Quality and workmanship will most likely be compromised due to disgruntled workers..............