Brazilian Ford Assembly

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What kind of comment can anyone add? The UAW would lose thousands of jobs while Ford would run in the black and the unemployment in Michigan would increase and taxes would have to pay for the increased unemployment yet there would be fewer workers to pay those taxes...etc, etc.
Either the UAW takes huge cuts in pay/benifits (along with management) or they need to wake up to the reality that automation is here to stay as seen in many other, albeit smaller, industries.

Interesting

It looks like Honda at Marysville Ohio

Why do they have contractors or suppliers making sub assemblies right there in the plant? Is it because of union? Is it because of lower wages? I don't think either. Those suppliers are making a profit or they wouldn't be doing it. Why isn't Ford doing it with their employs and making that profit. I guess they just can't brake the thought of contracting work out to someone else ???

It said Ford would love to build this type of plant in the US, but the UAW wont allow it. I think unions have outlived their usefullness. The have done screwed the pooch, killed the goose that laid the golden egg, etc.

The big shots in the unions have always been parasites, sucking the $$'s out of their rank and file, and spending those dollars on crooked poloticians that the rank and file probably wouldn't normally support.

I have a good friend who is a firefighter, union, is active in the union. He is a big hunter and shooter, yet his union gives money to, and tells them to vote for the most abundant, Anti-gun, Anti-hunting, idiots.

That to me is what is wrong with the system.


Gene

I don't know whether you realize it or not, but frames for Ford's truck products--from the Explorer to the F-150's to who-knows-what-else--are built by subcontractors. Magna (from Canada), Dana,and Tower Automotive [formerly AOSmith] produce these frames at such places as Elizabethtown and Bowling Green, KY...and Tower used to produce them at plants in Granite City,IL and Corydon,IN.

Main difference is that the subcontractors's assembly lines are off Ford premises. And Dana and Tower plants have (or had) UAW contracts as well; it's just that, where the wages at Ford average $29 an hour [wages only], the UAW workers at Tower and Dana make $10-15 an hour less.

And Tower has a frame-making facility inside the Nissan plant in Mississippi plant where the Nissan Titan pickup truck is built.

So it's not as if the American manufacturers are strangers, even within American borders, to building vehicles with subcontractors, or with subcontractors inside their own plants. The video is a bit misleading, as the UAW representing Dana or Tower employees is the same UAW that represents Ford workers...and the UAW gets the same percentage contribution to the International union from the Dana and Tower workers as from the Ford workers, so it's not as if the UAW is going to object to UAW workers from subcontractors working under the same roof with UAW workers from Ford.

That's really a pretty standard way of operating for a large manufacturer. Each company has "core competencies" which are things they do best, and if they can find someone that can do a job cheaper than they can, they do it. The difference here is that instead of the subcontractor having to build their own facilities, the auto company leases space inside their factory to the subcontractor. It's a win-win for both companies.

The Big three automakers should fall on their face... they are the victims to their own success. That success being helping China Lobbying in support of NAFTA... China has been the biggest player in NAFTA making an agreement with Mexico to build larger ports, open plants to relabel/retag and repackage their products and ship them across the border to the USA tax/tariff/ and import free. As far as unions go think about how involved the Mafia is with them and with the Democratic party and how involved China has been in assisting both of these parties because the union is Pro-Communist.... I have researched this at first in support of Unions working in the Manufacturing sector but the deeper I dug the sicker I got... now China wants I35 to be turned into a super NAFTA highway staight to Detroits Door and the Big THree are supporting it as well..... Splitting the United States in Half at the border I35 is a six lane highway built under the CLintons at our expense all the way to the Panama Canal... Deeper and bigger harbors in Mexico a super highway that splits the USA sounds like an invasion plan to me with China using Corporate and Criminal Greed against us to destroy our manufacturing base. FOrd can build where they want in this country without UWA approval under subsidary companies that prohibit Unions,,,, the Union is no excuse. NAFTA has taken everyone's jobs so there is no homes with income enough to buy the big three's product... hats off to them for success.... but taxpayers have already paid the price for their greed and we should not anymore.

...When I worked on the Tower production line building the U-152 frames for the Ford Explorer, most of the welding was done by robots just like those seen in the video. The humans simply fed parts into the production line, or made tack welds to allow the partial assemblies to continue to the robotic weld stations, and made the visual quality inspections...as the robots could lay down some pretty nice welds, but they couldn't tell if the weld was running out of the seam or not.

The assmebly line machinery was designed by Ford engineers, and Ford actually retained ownership rights to the tooling for one of the frame lines at Tower that became obsolete when a new model came out. So it's not like Ford is doing things THAT much differently here in the states; they just haven't integrated the subcontractors into the plants yet. But having subcontractors--even subcontractors with UAW workers--do the work? That part's old news.

This is a very interesting subject. Those who want to blame the unions tell me why while I was in our Walmart store yesterday I noticed the potato chip man putting the chips on the shelves. Then I noticed the bread man doing the same.In another aisle the soft drink rep was putting the bottles on the shelves. I asked each one of these why and they all said Walmart demands this so they dont have to hire as many associates. Hmm seems to me Walmart dont have a union could this practice be a wave of future retailing, that is forcing your supplier to stock the shelves?

Union or not, WAL-MART is gonna do that.

Think about it a second.

Most of these route guys, like my brother who works for Lance, are paid based upon their volume of sales. WAL-MART is a tough store to get shelf space in, in the first place. But if you don't have product on the shelf, you can't sell it. And if WAL-MART chooses not to have an associate stock the shelves, guess who has to do it?

The guy who gets paid based upon his sales volume.

That's why my brother is now working 7 days a week instead of five, for about the same money he made a few years ago when he worked 5 days...before he got WAL-MART added to his route.

Not blaming WAL-MART, because that's just good business practice for them.

Seems like more and more people think that good business practice is evil (or greedy).

Gosh, that's what I'm used to seeing.

Don't know about the supermarkets, but all the conveinence stores the bread/milk/soda/chip guys stock the shelves. The staff will restock the coolers if they run low.

For that matter, WalMart probably does just what the convenience stores do -- it's sold effectively on consignment. The bread guy comes in, counts up how many loaves are missing, that's what the store's charged for. While he's there he takes the stale loaves and restock. Most, if not all, the inventory in convenience stores are owned by the distributors; the store is only responsible for it. And that includes the gasoline in the tanks.

And in some states the union will assess a politician contribution from paycheck to support the unions selected candidate without permission from the union member or others represented in plant by union contract despite Beck decision 1984. A few states required prior written authorization by the union member before campaighn contributions can be taken out of paycheck- Union lobbiests at federal level trying to stop this as noticably less 'volantary' contributions in those states. RN

Most food store have the vendors stocking product on the shelves sooo wally world is not alone on this one.

Watched that a while ago, noticed it was a jab at the UAW but they didn't tell what the Braziains got paid or what their benefits are.

Ford has at least one plant like that in Mexico, maybe two. State of the art, robots, clean, slick, fast. It's the wave of the future. It does away with a lot of menial, boring tasks that humans complain about. The robots don't get sick very often and have no choice but to show up for work on time. Deere does the same thing. Is that what you were getting at???