I'm very glad to see that US workers finally start to make their voices heard on a meaningful scale!
And a little amused at the utter inability of managements to deal with a world in which "just boss the underlings around, because we can" isn't a viable tactic anymore.
It's giving me hope for the future of workers, I'm thinking of deeper effects strikes like this could have. Thousands of people going on strike, a lot of them likely for the first time. If these get results, thousands of people will know first hand the power of class-consciousness and collective action, without relying on voting or petitions but concrete action. It will inspire their views going forward and inspire other workers.
Very happy to see workers from different industries finally standing up for their rights and forcing the companies to the negotiating table, and winning.
Unions are awesome, and strikes work.
I used to truck drive for a while and if there is any industry that needs to stand up for themselves it is that on.
I worked for Warner and the CEOs slogan was " You make less now to make more later" super dumb.
That's fucked up. You should have been a teamster. Those boys have a pretty strong union.
I am a dues-paying member of IUPAT Painters Local 10 and will be till the day I die!
What is a Kentucky truck
Quick search says
Kentucky Truck is Ford's largest plant and one of the largest auto factories in America and the world
kentucky truck refers to the ford plant in kentucky that makes a number of trucks for ford, mostly their commercial fleet, that accounts for around half of ford’s revenue
the meaning here is that the kentucky truck plant has ceased operation as part of the strike
The largest truck plant Ford has. They manufactured everything from industrial diesel trucks to pickups. Now they're on strike, this promises to be a huge blow to Ford's quarterlies.
Kentucky Truck is one of the biggest Ford plants.
Is it? The Big 3 have made significant concessions at this point. There Is a certain level where a plant like that could move to Mexico. Dodge Ram has about half of its production in Mexico and their sales volume has not been impacted.
Just to keep the record straight, they are currently offering elimination of tiers, 3 years to the max wage level, 23% pay increase, COLA reinstatement. This puts their workers in a place to make $100k per year with no education at all after 3 years of work. Where else is that possible?
Those concessions don't apply to their EV factories, both existing and new, meaning they are worthless in 5-10 years when they phase ICE out. They want, and frankly deserve, long term guarantees.
I don't understand this mindset.
"The workers should be lucky they aren't getting fair compensation because they are uneducated half wits." "who cares that they have up more than what they are currently asking back in 2008?" "I mean their labor created record profits for the companies, and what they are asking for isn't even 10% of those profits, but the shareholders and executives deserve that 10% more!"
Ya no. It's about them getting a slice of the profits. Acting as workers are not deserving of greater amounts due to their labor is a joke. The 40% increase is low considering they generated $32 billion last year. They could demand immediate pay increases of $80k but are asking for $32k over the life of the contract.
Just because they work on assembly lines doesn’t make them “uneducated half wits” either. They are still jobs that require a level of skill to perform well. I’d like to see any “C” level Ford executive perform similar tasks for hours a day with the same levels of quality and skill.
I know. OP and people like him think that. But it doesn't matter! The number one benefactor in a companies success should always be the worker not some CEO or hedge fund manger.
Meanwhile the CxO ranks got 40% raises years ago.
And the workers took pay cuts earlier. A 40% increase is less impressive when you take a 15% cut first. (That's a 19% net increase, but this isn't based on actual numbers.)
Who gives a shit? Their comp has little to do with the rank and file. They are entirely unrelated. Farley could donate his entire comp package and it would result in a roughly $300 payment to UAW workers. UAW also gets profit sharing and a ratification bonus, meanwhile the rest of the salaried workforce - many of whom earn similar wages to UAW, will get fucked because they have actual performance metrics to hit that are being fucked by this.
I'd also add that as a reward for having the most UAW workers in the US, Ford also has had the highest structural cost and the worst quality for 2 years running, likely 3 as measured by recalls. So they do terrible work and still get the same bonus, entirely independent of their performance.
Who gives a shit?
Most workers in America give a shit. People deserve to be more than modern day wage slaves that spend their entire paycheck on necessities, never getting ahead or being able to save for retirement. If you think this us ok, you should re-evaluate whether you're actually for lifting people out of poverty or not.
Dodge Ram has about half of its production in Mexico and their sales volume has not been impacted.
To a certain degree. But I just want to give you a size of scope and realize it isn't just labor that effects where a company is located, but also the tax rate, the ability to get resources in and out, also the cost of extracting materials and having them shipped, and cooperation with local government(s).
But biggest problem a CEO has to face when moving to a new country is how the hell all that equipment gets there. You aren't talking about moving computer equipment, you are talking about hundreds of Press Wielding machines that are measured in tons and acres.
What you are talking about, moving hundreds of miles of electrical wiring, hundreds of tons of pinpoint accurate equipment, thousands of computer networking systems with their own unique operating system, and we haven't even gotten to power regulations, and labor yet.
TL:DR
If these companies could save money by moving to Mexico, they would have already tried.
Agreed that it would be gone if it was feasible. I worked for a small manufacturer and helped with quoting. It was three times less for us to send a product to Mexico for production.
Where the US is better is automation and complexity. In Mexico or was difficult to find the technical resources able to handle automated and complex projects. Mexico was better for any manually/ sinple assembly job, as they could just throw more people at it to ramp up production. Note that these are generalities that my specific team used.
record profits mean record contracts
solidarity with all workers forever
How do those boots taste?
Mexican vehicle plants are showing signs of worker solidarity with their US compatriots. They have unions that were not even voted in, thats leaders vote on contracts without membership votes. https://inthesetimes.com/article/uaw-strike-international-solidarity-mexico-brazil-union-labor
If this was the 1990s that might have worked, but today is different for Mexico. There are hundreds of factory's now and do you think Mexicans are going to want to work for a company that moved from America for not paying it's workers enough? Also one of Ford's main advertising points is that the cars are made in America, not very smart to destroy your advertising. Conditions are always changing in the world, it's best to keep an eye of them lest you get left behind.
You got a bit of brown on your nose
Hopefully we'll see that the possibility of skilled workers with no education can also take part. And that pay is stagent. In 1995.. 50k a year w benifits health care and retirement is now the new 80k - 100k a year. Even then take home and savings is less then it's ever been in 30 years.
Follow the math of rising cost and inflation , and the increase of CEO pays and you one can conclude, workers can be paid more and should match cost ans inflation increases. People with schooling should make more. True.
Many companies do pay more and they make their competition looks like hacks.
Market Basket is a unionized grocery chain in the northeast. In Saco Maine there is a market basket right near a super Walmart. Market Basket is awesome.. but I digress.
The Makret basket has 30 checkout isles and 1 cashier and 1 bagger per checkout. They are paid very well. That's 60 employees just in the check out. Their prices are the same and many times are less then Walmart. Walmart right across the way.. 5 minutes walk.., is 100% self checkout. Pays about half, Stores completly trashed, prices are not cheper, you gotta check your self out .. and its doubtful there's even 10 staffers in store.
In ending the older you get.. the more it seems absurd to pay the younger gen that much.. however follow the math.
https://www.in2013dollars.com/us/inflation/1996?amount=50000
50k in 1996 is worth 98k in today's numbers. Also remember a job back then..came with healthcare that covered you at 80 bucks a month. Retirement plans exisisted .. you'd even get bonus and go to company parties that were paid by owners.
What's that $100k a year adjusted to inflation compared to in your mind?
Too fucking right! Local 10 till I die!
A-ha ! sounds good ! Did they seize the means of production or what ?
That's a little too far for America, unfortunately.
It's way too far in any capitalist country. These shithead will send armies of cops if you do that.
The closest the U.S. has ever had to a socialist candidate becoming president, he was in prison at the time. And even then, he barely got any votes comparatively speaking.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eugene_V._Debs
And no, I don't count Bernie. He's not really a socialist. He's just to the left of everyone else in the Senate.
Looks like they just expanded their strike, so no... not yet.
I'm glad to see these workers getting what they want but don't we all know the cost of whatever they get will just be passed on to the consumer and further balloon the price of cars? If car prices get much higher you'll have to be a factory worker making 100k just to buy one.
So executive bonuses and salaries can keep skyrocketing with no consequence, but workers getting what they need is what you complain about?
Oh yeah because cars are selling close to cost and not at hyper inflated prices.
Come on, the current insane prices aren’t because it costs so much to pay workers that make them, it’s because people are willing to pay it. If people stopped paying insane prices for cars and they were rotting on lots, prices would go down- but people get their 6 year finance on their 85k 2024 whatever.
And very little of the recent explosion in car prices is from the manufacturers. It's the dealerships.
Just a few years ago NOBODY paid sticker price. That's still true, but now it's because the dealerships are charging 20-50 percent ABOVE stocker price
The workers shouldn't be the ones to suffer so that we have cheaper cars. The greed of the ownership class has to be contained.
The big automakers are already pricing themselves out of most consumers reach.
Hell at this point you’re not even buying a car, you’re buying a 7-10 year loan and getting a car as part of it. The car itself exists only as a means to sell the loan (and long-term service).
You never own the car any more, it runs closed source offline software that farms you for data. It is a rented tool for the neo digital feudal serf class. Ownership is only a right for citizens. Proprietary means ownership through a loss of agency. Once ownership rights are lost slavery follows. This is the true legacy of our time that people will talk about for hundreds of years.
This neocon "pass on the cost" lie is so pervasive it sounds convincing until you think about it for two seconds. If that were true, then I would just "pass on the cost" of my labor and charge my employer more for my wages. But that's not how the economy works. The shareholders and executives will just make a little less.
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