I got a link to a video of a Ford plant in Brazil from a co-worker

bighart

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Mon Jan-05-09 09:48 AM
Original message

I got a link to a video of a Ford plant in Brazil from a co-worker

today and would like some feed back from someone with the UAW concerning the last line by the narrator when he says the UAW won't allow a plant like this built in the US. Here is the link.

http://info.detnews.com/video/index.cfm?id=1189

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doc03

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Mon Jan-05-09 11:36 AM
Response to Original message

1. I am not with the UAW but I wonder what

the wages are in Brazil for one thing. That looks like the concept Henry Ford used at the Dearborn Rouge complex. It was the largest industrial complex in the world at one time, it started with raw materials entering the plant to make the steel right through a finished auto coming out the other end.

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Ganja Ninja

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Mon Jan-05-09 12:16 PM
Response to Reply #1

3. It's what they aren't telling you in these videos.

Edited on Mon Jan-05-09 12:16 PM by Sentinel Chicken

How low the wages are and what the turnover rate is for employees. I'll bet very few people work there for more than 5 or 6 years before they're replaced by another one of those "young & eager to learn" Brazilian workers.

I suspect the UAW's problem with this type of plant would be in having non UAW assembly lines integrated with their own. If you're working in the same building you should be making the same wages and benefits.

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bighart

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Mon Jan-05-09 12:37 PM
Response to Reply #3

4. I understand the issue with union and non-union working in the same

plant for the same company, but if they are actually employed by someone else I don't understand why that would be as big an issue.

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bighart

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Mon Jan-05-09 12:40 PM
Response to Reply #3

5. I don't believe issues of wages really addresses the line by the narrator

that the UAW won't allow a plant like this to be built in the US. I can see where that might encourage Ford to build it in Brazil, but not how that would cause the UAW to oppose it being built in the US.

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SmileyRose

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Mon Jan-05-09 12:02 PM
Response to Original message

2. Union workers in Atlanta BEGGED for this kind of plant

Ford wanted more financial incentives from the State of GA than the Governor was willing to give for union jobs. Georgia negotiated with KIA instead for prime location near Atlanta for a new plant. Ford was also interested in a nice spot near Savannah's ports but could not get the financial incentives from Georgia. Union jobs moved out of Georgia and non-union car jobs moved in.

I can tell you blaming the loss of car jobs on union workers is bullshit.

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ogneopasno

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Mon Jan-05-09 12:48 PM
Response to Original message

6. The problem with supplier integration is that it becomes easy to transfer a lot of the higher-paying

work to lower-paid, nonunion supplier employees. It's a slippery slope. If Mr. DetNews had done his work, he would have included the UAW in his story, instead of making a propaganda piece.

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