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Dave & Terri

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oddly obsessed with big scoops on little Mustangs

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Originally posted by SteveLaRiviere:
One of the many reasons the developing world is eating our lunch. Blame it on the unions, if workers were easier to fire and replace they wouldn't act like that.

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I think that's an unfair finger to point. Union membership in the United States only accounts for less than 10% of the workforce, add that to the ongoing decimation of the manufacturing sector and the converse rise in the service sector and you're probably looking at less than 5% union membership by 2010.

I'm thinking it's probably more attributable to the Gen Y's (aka Echo boomers) who are now entering the workforce and their work ethic is quite different than previous generations, and for some unknown reason American business is tailoring to them rather than making them abide by the rules. Like it or not, there is a serious culture shift going on and the echo boomers are in control.

I agree with you about the massive shift in work ethic having spent a decent portion of my life supervising people, I've seen a tremendous change in worker attitude. {and that's an understatement!}

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Originally posted by SteveLaRiviere:
One of the many reasons the developing world is eating our lunch. Blame it on the unions, if workers were easier to fire and replace they wouldn't act like that.

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amen buddy!! and like you said we are just talking about this one (big union) plant, not the whole usa!!

I spend my days trying not to lose my current business to China. I have VERY little respect for people who spit in the face for thier employer while their jobs are in jeopardy.

Sorry if that is harsh. These people have no respect. I am emberassed to be from the same area as they are.

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Originally posted by senzstang:
I am not blaming this on unions. It is just sad that a plant that is fighting for existence has 25% no shows for work! We all know Ford is in a bad place. If my current employer was as bad a Ford, I would make sure I was at work early, leaving late, and billing for less hours than I was there!!!!!!

I spend my days trying not to lose my current business to China. I have VERY little respect for people who spit in the face for their employer while their jobs are in jeopardy.

Sorry if that is harsh. These people have no respect. I am embarrassed to be from the same area as they are.

Phil

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Unions are no help to the American Work Force anymore, but I don't think getting rid of them will solve these problems. Might solve some, but not these...

The American People are getting lazy, and they have no work ethics. That is where the problem lays.

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Originally posted by Ci8UUP:
Originally posted by senzstang:
I would make sure I was at work early, leaving late, and billing for less hours than I was there!!!!!!

That isn't too smart. Nothing wrong with being early and leaving late, but not getting paid for it isn't the right answer. You work, you expect to get paid; taking time off your card isn't going to save Ford, it might in a small shop but not in a corporation. Ford's problems go way deeper than labor rates.

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A little exageration for effect there. The point I was trying to make was simply that if your company is in as much trouble as Ford, slacking off is not the way to go.
You should be doing everything in your power to do your job well and help in anyway you can.

I was raised to work hard. I simply cannot understand this mentality.

Now we have a guy about 30 who just leaves and works when he wants making enough to pay for his benefits. Since our company is small it is hard to get enough experiance on the inspection CMM. They are all pretty new but him. Last week he didnt call or show up wed,thurs, he called friday and said he was sick. Today he left before lunch time. Without inspection we cant get first articles checked and parts finished off the CNC's. Since were small we cant pay enough to get someone with experiance in there.

Il admit Im not always on time BUT I dock my own hours we do have a 7 minute grace period but If im more then a couple minutes I take 15 minutes off. Im usually there before and after my time just like Phil I dont charge that extra 15 minutes when I leave seven minutes after the hour. I feel better about myself helping the company.

When I worked at the school we had a black women who would use the racial line all the time, but everything was documented and they nailed her.

What is this world coming too? global warming, poor ethics, down hill to me!!

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66 mustang V8 swap baby

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Originally posted by Ci8UUP:
We, American business and the American worker need to find common ground and quick.

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Too late. Americans aren't even willing to buy our own products, so who will?

The forces I mentioned a couple posts up have already decided that America is no longer the place to have anything of value manufactured. Our labor costs are too high, our work force too filled with a sense of entitlement, governmental restrictions border on the absurd, lawyers are too plentiful and eager to file papers on anything with potential of making a quick buck, medical and benefits costs are out of control, executive get paid bizarrely inflated stacks of money... need I go on?

Contrast that to foreign countries begging our corporations to build plants on their soil by offering fairly-educated workers willing to work for basically nothing for long hours in areas where nobody even knows about child labor laws or foolish things like OSHA or EPA {being sarcastic}, offering tax holidays of sometimes 20 years, sometimes forever, in fact some countries like Singapore, for example, will even give the land and pay for the construction of the plants to lure some of our high-tech industries!

There are three BILLION new workers entering the world's work force in this generation, 800,000 in China alone, and the vast majority of these people will have a higher education level than our high school grads, at least the dwindling amount of our kids we can persuade to stay in school long enough to get a high school diploma {check the stats on that some time, you will be shocked! Some parts of our country have more drop-outs than grads!}, and these workers in other lands are THRILLED for the chance to work 60-70 hours a week for less than $3.00/hr!

No, manufacturing is dead in the US, long before we in this generation will be. The US will be a service-based economy. Like I said before, our two main commercial entities will be fast food and weight loss clinics.

And I am still looking for work since graduating in 2004.

As people start losing their $20-30/hr jobs at GM or Ford and start selling China wares at Walmart for $8/hr you will stop seeing the Escalades and start seeing more people buying $8,000 Chinese made Crap-o-matics and any company that provides non-essentials like snowmobiles, jet-skis, hot-tubs, or vacation packages will dry up and blow away.

I sincerely believe hard times are coming. Retirement will become a thing of the past, 95% of Americans have as much financial sense as a 4 year old. We are living in the first generation of mankind whose children will end up worse off, standard-of-living-wise than they are.