UAW Hermosillo

[Maverickman74]

people wrongly assume that assembly line work is easy . when Ford went to the now traditional assembly line method he was plagued by employee turnover resulting in high training costs and quality issues.

In January 1914, Henry Ford started paying his auto workers a remarkable $5 a day. Doubling the average wage helped ensure a stable workforce and likely boosted sales since the workers could now afford to buy the cars they were making. It laid the foundation for an economy driven by consumer demand.

As of Jul 19, 2023, the average hourly pay for an UAW in the United States is $18.54 an hour.

Never worked for a OEM but I have welded, stamped, grinded, molded, assembled, and even tightened mustard jar lids on more assembly lines than I can remember. I worked temp jobs alot in my early 20s, it allowed me to travel. Some were considered hard, but the hardest was the mustard factory. Woebers Mustard in Springfield Ohio behind the bowling alley on Bechtle. The line had about 6 or 7 stations on it. I often had the lid tightener spot. The machine put the lid on but didnt give it a twist torque. So you had to do that at about a 1.5 second pace. The machine could mess up the lid requiring you to fix it about once every few hundred times. But if your hand slipped and didnt fix it quick or worse yet kept spitting em out with the lid off. You've got 20 open mustard jars spitting out at you by the time hit the line stop button. They end up on the floor often. I HATE MUSTARD!!! That line was getting phased out by new equipment while I was their. I imagine it was a godsend to the full timers there.

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[Larrythelunatic]

I don't understand the point of Unions in this modern age.

They are NOT good for the worker.
They are NOT good for the employer.

Why should the employee with 40 years of experience take home the same pay as the employee with 4 days of experience? Yet that's how it works. Same job, same pay.

I work in a major unionized manufacturing plant here in the good old USA. You're probably thinking the guy with 40 years will make more because he "worked up the ladder" to a higher classification over those 40 years. Nope.

The 18 year old in entry level makes $30/hr his first day on the job. The guy with 40 years worked up to plant foreman and gets $33. The foreman is asked to do extra duty and says what the hell for? I'm making $3 more than the kid BEFORE Taxes are deducted.
B.S.

There could be a long answer to this, describing benefits, etc.
But let’s leave it at this…….
If that senior guy has been there for 40 years, he’s likely seen 10+ negotiated contracts, each one a bit better, from both points of view, than the last.
The company stays in business, and stays profitable.
The employee gets a better contract, including higher pay and better benefits. If not, he could have moved on to a better, non-union job, if he could find one.
I shall not let this devolve into a dispute. Please just recognize that that 40 year employee made the choices he made for a reason.

 

[krg]

Does anyone know if the upcoming UAW/Ford talks will affect the Maverick plant in Hermosillo, Mexico?

no it won't...they are not a union shop nor will they be union shop

 

[smoreho2]

people wrongly assume that assembly line work is easy . when Ford went to the now traditional assembly line method he was plagued by employee turnover resulting in high training costs and quality issues.

In January 1914, Henry Ford started paying his auto workers a remarkable $5 a day. Doubling the average wage helped ensure a stable workforce and likely boosted sales since the workers could now afford to buy the cars they were making. It laid the foundation for an economy driven by consumer demand.

As of Jul 19, 2023, the average hourly pay for an UAW in the United States is $18.54 an hour.

$5 per day in 1914 is the equivalent of $19.06 per hour today!!

 

[whizwart]

I'd rather have unions than not. While I believe they have been used at times to exclude people that had the skills and they just didn't like, not to mention some of the corruption issues, pretty much the only reason we have any sort of safety regulations, workers comp, or time off is unions. Compare two similar industries, film and video games (I realize this isn't exactly an example most will resonant with, but its the one I know) . Both are creatively driven fields with high workloads, but the film industry is the one that has consistent health benefits and working practices. Some of the working conditions and practices in the video game industry would make the most hardened blue collar worker wince. Unpaid overtime, minimal benefits, 16 hour work days in-office sometimes 7 days a week, no clear grievance policies, and if you get laid off or fired, even if they still use all your work, they can keep your name out to the credits which makes proving you were on a project very hard. Don't get me wrong, plenty of techbros suck, but a lot of frontline people in the industry get ground to dust because the companies have all the power.

 

[JayBoegs]

I don't understand the point of Unions in this modern age.

They are NOT good for the worker.
They are NOT good for the employer.

Why should the employee with 40 years of experience take home the same pay as the employee with 4 days of experience? Yet that's how it works. Same job, same pay.

I work in a major unionized manufacturing plant here in the good old USA. You're probably thinking the guy with 40 years will make more because he "worked up the ladder" to a higher classification over those 40 years. Nope.

The 18 year old in entry level makes $30/hr his first day on the job. The guy with 40 years worked up to plant foreman and gets $33. The foreman is asked to do extra duty and says what the hell for? I'm making $3 more than the kid BEFORE Taxes are deducted.
B.S.

Completely disagree. My union, Local 700, is great. Some unions are very weak. Weak unions suck. It's on the members to demand what they want and deserve. I know in my industry the employers would steal every penny of salary paid if they could. In the US, wage theft IS bigger than ALL property theft and burglary combined.

 

[Darnon]

Although I've seen articles that's it's becoming more common for US auto factories to have non-union temp workers on the line with a provisional period in which they might become official unionized employees (or, y'know, claim at-will employment and ditch them just before they would have to). Also some of the new contracts are doing the union 'f*** you, got mine' trick of setting it so employees after such-and-such date don't get as good of benefits. The Teamsters unions that represented NY thruway toll workers had tiers like that.

 

[Esteban88]

UAW needs to organize the Cybertruck plant in Austin. Line workers only make around $20/hr which has contributed to the severe shortage of affordable housing. Especially since Tesla received major tax breaks and incentives to locate there. Workers at UAW plants make enough money to be able to purchase the car they are assembling. Not so with Tesla.

 

[Grumpa]

UAW needs to organize the Cybertruck plant in Austin. Line workers only make around $20/hr which has contributed to the severe shortage of affordable housing. Especially since Tesla received major tax breaks and incentives to locate there. Workers at UAW plants make enough money to be able to purchase the car they are assembling. Not so with Tesla.

I am not particularly fond of unions. Because of their greed and management's greed too many jobs have been transferred to other countries. My wife was a GE employee and lost her job many years ago because of closures. My brother worked for a major bread company in NY and lost his job because the owner couldn't make a profit. He was also a shop steward and had to go to bat for a relative who was a thief. Regrettably, we live in a world full of avarice on both sides of the fence!

 

[fossil]

But if your hand slipped and didnt fix it quick or worse yet kept spitting em out with the lid off. You've got 20 open mustard jars spitting out at you by the time hit the line stop button. They end up on the floor often. I HATE MUSTARD!!!

LOL

 

[B2000]

Since we've gone slightly OT I worked in a plant that made aluminum siding back in the 70s. Two guys stacked it and put 20 in a box. If you were the guy sitting with your back to the machine and lost concentration you had a piece of aluminum siding shooting past you right about where your left hand was. We were next to the line where the siding was painted and it was hot hot hot. I'm pretty sure I did have to join the union to get the job- don't think today they would allow the working conditions. But it paid well- allowed me to buy my used 1969 Mustang. Beautiful car but full of rust as it turned out.

 

[gwrace14651]

In my almost 50 years of employment in the IT space I have never worked for a union driven company. I have been paid fairly, had great benefits and never needed a union to intercede on my behalf. I did however grow up in a family where unions existed and impacted our lives. My dad was a part of the Teamster union for 35 years. He was a long haul semi truck driver. Strikes and forced time off brought financial hardship often at very little benefit and sometimes no financial return. The only one benefiting was the union with the dues and corruption. And that is just my two cents.

 

[grumpyunk]

Unions have good and bad points. I do not care for their political contributions, which were taken from workers for years with no other option. Union officials can abuse their positions, as I saw the local's Prez take his GF/'secretary' to HI for a meeting in February(from Cleveland...) Her presence was not necessary in the least. I have seen/heard of work assignments being given to 'friends' and the ugly, dirty, nasty tasks given to those who were not on the 'friends' list. I did not like regimentation nor watching other employees sit on their arse and do nothing, while I worked hard to cover for them and no one cared.
As a rule, foolishly perhaps, I never had fear of a layoff, but knew some who should have been let go a long time ago as they did not contribute to the workload, but increased it due to obstinacy.
Doncha love it? no.

 

[GPSMan]

Needed them in 1920.
Don't need them in 2020.

In my almost 50 years of employment in the IT space I have never worked for a union driven company. I have been paid fairly, had great benefits and never needed a union to intercede on my behalf. I did however grow up in a family where unions existed and impacted our lives. My dad was a part of the Teamster union for 35 years. He was a long haul semi truck driver. Strikes and forced time off brought financial hardship often at very little benefit and sometimes no financial return. The only one benefiting was the union with the dues and corruption. And that is just my two cents.

I know, right?

Strike for 2 weeks, the union MAY give you $10 a day of "food money".

Two weeks, no salary, you lost $2000 assuming you made $1000 a week.

Your "demands" were met and you got your 3% raise. Congratulations.

3% on top of $52,000 is $1560.

Genius!

 

[SLINGSHOT]

Unions lifted the bottom of society and into the middle class. Vacations, health insurance, sick leave, pensions and child labor laws are just a tiny list of what union members fought for, and some died for. Do you think that companies sat down and drew up a list of things to shower on their employees?
Want to know what the two strongest unions are in this country? AMA and the BAR. Next strongest . . . the United States Chamber of Commerce.

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