http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/journal...e/11736540.htm

[QUOTE]GE union rejects wage concessions

130 Fort Wayne jobs to move to Mexico

By Sherry Slater

The Journal Gazette

Local General Electric Co. union members on Tuesday rejected a proposal that would have cut wages for jobs now averaging $19 an hour to $14 an hour in an effort to keep 130 jobs from moving to Mexico.

Tom Jewel, business agent for International Union of Electronic Workers-Communications Workers of America Local 901, wouldn

 

What also pisses me off is I know there were old-timers preaching "solidarity" and voted it down... and the city loses 130 $30,000 jobs and that's probably 130 families that will have to sell their homes to make ends meet.

 

this is the first i have heard of this story. As a union member here in WI , i am suprised i have not heard about it yet at work.

I guess i have pretty mixed feelings about what i think should have been done. A big part of me says that they should have taken the pay cut to at least keep the 100+ jobs ... but then another part of me (the part that has seen how alot jobs get thrown to mexico anyways) thinks that they might have made the right decision by taking that gamble and go the route of saying no they wont take the pay cut. Cause most likely the business had already had plans of getting rid of the jobs in a year anyways, and were just looking to save some payroll cash in that meantime.

So i guess its really hard for me to make a decision on what should have been done, simply becuase i have seen alot of jobs get bargained to stay and then a year or two later they just send them to mexico anyways.

 

Just plain stupid. Who in their right mind votes to be fired? Why not vote for the pay cut and take the extra time to find a different job while you still have your benefits?

Morons.

Don't even get me started about the UAW.

Damnit, too late!

When the average american autoworker makes over $90k a year, why do you think the American car companies continue to lose marketshare to the imports? American car companies have great technology and great ideas but unfortunately they can not afford to build a competitive product because the combination of labor costs and the ridiculous benefits that they pay to their workers and the unbelievable retirement that they pay. How much longer can they afford to do this? Not much....

 

I work at a visteon plant here in metro detroit.

We're about to get the shaft too.

 

Even if GE fully intended to ship the business to Mexico in 2007, why not take those two years to:

A) Find a new job with a salary and benefits more comparable to your old job
B) Build up your savings so you can take the inevitible layoff a bit better
C) Work with management and engineering to come up with ways to build your product more economically.

Upper management tends to consist of beancounters who only see dollars and cents. If the workers turned things around and reduce the cost per unit, the beancounters would possibly nix shipping the work to Mexico. In every situation like this I've seen (two directly and about a dozen from the sidelines) the union leadership turned the issue into a confrontation; and I hate to say it but labor will always lose in a confrontation. It may not be this contract, but if not it'll be the next one. Management and the Mexican manufacturing economy invariably "win".

 

Your whole company is screwed.

 

Not all the jobs went overseas right ? Only 130.

It may be case of voting in favor of redundancies if the mindset was:

"I wont get fired, it will be the other guy."

 

Chalk it up to another black eye toward organized Unions which in my opinion are worthless.

I work for GE in their Consumer Finance unit and unfortunately its all about the bottom line. Especially if they can go down to Mexico with less cost and build a brand new plant taking full advantage of quality advances that go with it.

I just wish workers in this country just opened their eyes and got their shiet together to be more innovative do what they can to improve the job. too many people walking around thinking they are entitled to a job instead of working to earn it every day.

 

i was thinking about this too... i could totally see this being a factor in the matter.

I know first hand that the majority of the "old timers" only care about themselves and their retirement. I have been working in GE's union for 5 years now, and a good 75% of the plant is people with 25yrs and over. And i know damn well that if the situation arose where the company asked for a vote to take a pay cut or layoff ... most likely the layoff would happen cause the majority of the people there would not be affected. The high seniority guys just want there time in and their pension/retirement, and could care less what happens after they are gone. Thats just my opinion though i guess from my experiences...