Cut Ford employees health care, wages and retirement

[Erika]

Per Dr. Michael (weiner) Savage, to keep Ford competitive. Talk the middle class into settling for less is the conservative answer. Cut their standard of living and teach them to be grateful for crumbs. Not one word said against extravagant CEO's remuneration packages.

[Jim Sagle]

1. Whaddya, some kinda red?

[MadMaddie]

2. The CEO packages will be the death of American Companies

they treat employees like shit, they cut corners we are rapidly approaching the turn of the early 1900's in America....where workers had no rights....

[TheFarseer]

3. That sounds like something he'd say

He's right a good amount of the time. If he wasn't so crazy about the war on terror, he'd sound alot more sane to people here, kind of like a racist homophobic Lou Dobbs (OK, so it would take alot for him to be sane, but you see my point).

[Erika]

4. His remarks were made today

I wonder why the conservatives hold so much contempt for the working class. It's like the GOP views the working class as parasites.

[BlackVelvetElvis]

5. I find this very ironic

to what Henry Ford first embodied.
He wished for his employees to be able to afford a Ford automobile.
Then he raised wages way above the average- $5 a day, more than double the wages of the average worker in 1914.

[kcass1954]

6. Heard this from a Ford manager today...

Vehicle Remarketing sales meeting in Vegas last week. Some of this may be new, and some is included in previously announced cuts.

16 manufacturing plants to be closed
60 of 94 Ford Credit US branch offices to close
1/3 reduction in personnel, to include at least 70-80,000 UAW workers

All to take place by 3/1/07.

Employees over 50 w/ 10 years service will get early retirement package offering. Over 50 w/ less than 10 years will get some sort of employment buyout. Buyouts to be offered in mid-December with 45-day acceptance period. At approximately the same time, Ford will announce which auto auctions they will pull out of. (This is where it all affects me - I work the Ford account at an auction. Part of me says, screw 'em, they shot themselves in the foot - part of me says, shit, I really like my job.)

The bottom line (as it was told to me) is that Ford is being strangled by the unions, and $1900 of each vehicle price is due to union contracts - they can't be competitive with the Toyotas and Hondas of the world because they've got that extra $$$ added to their prices.

At which time I rolled my eyes and semi-tuned out.

No acknowledgment that they make a shitty product.
No acknowledgment that their "American-made" vehicle was made with parts made outside the US, or might have been assembled outside the US.
No acknowledgment that they may have made some crappy marketing and product line decisions.
No acknowledgment that they're way behind the ball in new technology.
No acknowledgment that management gets the same or better benefits than the union workers, or that management gets those benefits BECAUSE of the union workers of years ago.
No acknowledgment that a national health care plan with everyone covered would go a long way toward reducing that extra $1900 in price.

[BlackVelvetElvis]

8. Good post.

Ford (and all American auto companies) seemed to be all about the short term gain than about the long term vision.
So, this is the propaganda that they are feeding the workers? It's only the foreign companies/workers fault?
Critical thinking skills are very important in today's world. Don't accept what the man tells you.

[noonwitch]

9. Not all their products are "shitty"

I love my 2005 Focus. It gets good mileage, it rides very well, and is a good car. I especially have been liking the heated seats this cold, cold week.

Ford should never have made William Clay Ford their CEO. He couldn't run the Lions, how could he run a company like that?

The other big mistake they are making is with hybrids-they only make one or two models and they are not the small, affordable cars like mine. I would consider buying a hybrid if the price was the same as my gas-only fueled Focus. The only hybrid I know of off-hand is the Escape, which is a SUV, and I have no need for a vehicle that large.

But I am a loyal Ford customer from a loyal Ford family. My grandpa worked there, two of my uncles also worked there. One of those uncles gives me an X plan once in a while, too, which helps me stay loyal.

[LiberalFighter]

7. It's the American Dream to live the good life

If it's okay for corporate hacks then it's okay for the grunts.