Ford reaches tentative UAW contract.
Who would of thunk? How would you like to get a $9000 ratification bonus on top of your raise along with no healthcare cost increases or changes in coverage? And $3500 if you're a temp? Anyone w...
Forum Discussion
danrclem wrote:
Not all UAW workers get the big pay and benefits. I retired about 2 1/2 years ago from a supplier and we were UAW. I would bet money that when wages and benefits were totaled up that we didn't make half of what the big 3 do and that would be before their last contract. The UAW puts the big 3 in the spotlight to make them look good and they don't care what most of the suppliers make. They just wanted our money and we got very little in return.
The last contract negotiations that I went through were a joke. They would shift things around a little and offer us the same contract over and over. That happened several times and then the last one that passed the local president wrote a threatening letter about what would happen if we didn't take this offer. The company hired quite a few people right before the last vote and offered a sign on bonus and it passed. The new workers weren't officially in the union but they were allowed to vote.
The local said that they had to make us vote on every proposal which is a lie. UAW international didn't back us at all and even though most of us wanted to strike (up to the president's threatening letter) we weren't allowed to. The local and UAW international is in the pocket of the company that I worked for.
Screw the UAW and the horse that they rode in on!
I used to work for a large and diverse company with quite a few plants in the U.S., some of which were unionized. They took pride in the fact that their union contracts were worth less than the pay packages for the non-union plants. I believe that it was illegal for them to come out and say it but if the workforce voted in a union they not only got to pay union dues but had to do it with less income. The companies are required to negotiate in good faith but when negotiations start the current pay package goes out the window and the union has to fight for every penny and the starting point is zero dollars. But, when you listened to organizers you got the impression that they always got the hourly people at least a 50% raise.
