Taking everything you can just because you can, doesn't mean you should... If there was still enough for all, fine but there isn't, and the soup lines are getting longer by the day, just look around you, have you seen or heard of the tent city's that are popping up all over the place..??? They weren't around so much 10, 20 years ago... Now they are everywhere, at least they are around here...

 

There isn't enough money or work for everyone?

What's the driving force (in your opinion) behind the uptick in tent cities up there in Canada? is nobody hiring, or the rich are hoarding all the money so there isn't any left to earn?

I noticed the Canadian union made a deal with Ford without too much fuss. The offer here appears to be even better, but still not good enough I guess.

 

since you live in the western part of Canada you may not know it first hand, but here in the states, rust belt started going bad in the 70s and things have been changing fast since WTO, NAFTA, etc came into being. Asking anyone who grew up in the mid west how 70s-present are in the steel and auto industry towns and they can tell you what’s what. all my uncles were hard working union for life guys and they all lost their jobs, no amount of organizing or striking could save it. The same will happen to what remains of UAW jobs here too as more and more countries can do a good enough job for a fraction of the labor cost.

your “better days” were the time when the rest of the world was still rebuilding from WWII. The moment Asia was able to industrialize in the 70s jobs started flowing out.

 

Bottom line is dollars and greed. Look around your home in the last 5 decades or more everything keeps going up.
Union strikes things must go up too cover it. Longshoremen, truckers, bakeries, rail, etc,etc.
Everything you touch has gone up due to a union strike, jobs leave this country due to cheaper wages due to a strike here.
They feel entiled to more money so strike not realizing they are the cause of job loss and moving out of country.
More, More, More, they try to get more it costs all of us more to live.
It has to stop sometime, O my gosh someone has more than me, give me my share, don't I deserve just because.

 

You talk a lot of crap about nobody is "worth" 398X more than others. I've got news for you - you're WRONG. You are worth what you can earn. Just because you suck doesn't mean I should take a pay cut or be paid less than what my skills are worth in a free market.

I have a personal experience to share - my neighbors have a beautiful 3 year old girl. She has spina bifida. Before she was born it was detected and diagnosed. A team of specialist doctors and their nurses travel this country - their specialty is surgery on unborn babies. Yep - at 5 months they pulled that baby from Mom's womb, operated on her spine, installed a shunt and repaired a big portion of the birth defect and then put her back into the womb, to be delivered 3 1/2 months later. They warned the parents that she would probably not walk unassisted, she would likely have other development issues. The surgery took 22 hours and was performed by two guys and that team of nurses. Guess what - that beautiful little girl can RUN, she is growing as expected and the shunt they installed has enough slack in it that she won't require replacement surgery until she is 6 or 7 years old. She will require a catheter for urination for her whole life because of the nerve damage that was done but otherwise all other bodily systems are working normally at this time.

I guarantee those two guys make 300X more than the nurses working in my small town hospital. They fly all over the country in their own private jet performing surgeries. Ask the nurses - they will tell you they are very extraordinary doctors. Are you going to tell me that those two surgeons are not worth more than someone with a PA title? How many people in the world have the skillset to perform as they do? Who are you (or anyone else) to judge what their worth is?

Just because you and others don't value what a CEO does doesn't mean your valuation is accurate or has merit. Capitalism works both ways - you can't want just the benefits and not play by the rules. If the company doesn't perform the CEO is out - even when it may not be a direct result of their operational strategy. Professional sports teams fire coaches all the time - and the fans will say "the coach was great - it's the cheap owners who won't pay XX dollars for players." Yet the coach is fired because the coach is accountable for the performance of the team - period. The coach knew that going in. CEOs know this too. I am fortunate enough to have climbed into a higher level management position in a large company. It has taken me 30+ years to get into my position. I regularly interact with the C-level executives and I can tell you - they are all younger than me, some by a large margin. I can also tell you they are all better educated, they have unreal drive, they all have very real skills and they are absolutely performing at a level I am not capable of. I routinely receive emails from them at 1:00 AM and on weekends, holidays, etc. They are extremely driven and work is always very near the front of their minds. I KNOW that I am not capable of performing the duties of our CEO. How much he makes is none of my business. I want him to do well - because he doesn't do well unless the company does well - and when the company does well my team and I do well.

I am compensated fairly and my team of engineers are compensated fairly. We all are eligible for bonus money - when the company meets its performance goals. I've had the privilege of sitting with the CEO, CFO, COO, etc. and working on the salaried peoples compensation plans. It is an arduous task and the C-level executives take it very seriously. You have to remember - they have to get expenditures like compensation approved by the Board of Directors. They have to convince them on capital expenditures, salaries, etc. as the operating budget is created - and then they have to ensure the company is viable and grows while working within that budget. It is hard work and yet it is not visible to the "average joe" who is working within the company. All they see is a guy in a suit who makes too much money - and they have ZERO idea what is involved in his every work day. I can promise you this - I work way more hours than an assembly line worker - and I have 19 people to look after too.

Why aren't people complaining about NIKE paying MILLIONS of dollars to an athlete to wear their free shoes? Trust me - that cost is buried in the price of their products. I see it in my own company - there is a whole section of the budget - it's called marketing. Why should Michael Jordan have been paid more by NIKE than the NBA paid him? Why was he paid millions at all - he was just playing a game. But, because of capitalism - he was paid what he was WORTH at the time. He was the greatest - and his compensation reflected it. He's a billionaire because he is smart and planned for his life when he would no longer be the greatest. Why should a union worker be any different? Why can't they plan for their own retirement, just like 99% of other workers in the USA? If Ford were to agree to pay them $98,000 per year for a 4 day work week and they can't figure out how to live and retire on that they deserve to sleep in the street and starve. I know plenty of people who do not make $98,000 and do not have as generous a benefit plan. Cry me a river UAW - the non-union Japanese auto workers here in the USA are well compensated and make better quality products - and they have to plan for their retirement themselves - just like me and the vast majority of working Americans.

Here's the real difference - a union worker wants to dictate what they are worth to the company - without having any responsibility for the profitability. All of the rest of us are compensated what our positions are worth as determined by a free market. If I leave my position and apply for a like position at another company the compensation and benefits package will be very similar. Why? Because that is what the free market has determined my skillset to be worth. Can you tell me with a straight face that someone who has the skillset to install tail lights in a truck is going to make $98,000 in the free market doing a similar task anywhere else? It's ridiculous.

Oh, one other thing - the United States is not a "democracy" - which is why capitalism has thrived so well here. The degradation we are seeing today in almost everything is tracking right along the country's acceptance and growing embracement of socialism. The US government is one of the 3 oldest continuously operating governments in the world. It has lasted so long because earlier generations owned their own lives and saw the opportunity here that is available literally nowhere else on the planet. Read about how Michael Dell, Diane Hendricks, Marian Ilitch, Jeff Bezos, Tim Draper, Naveen Jain, etc. got their start and became billionaires. I promise you - the average person is not willing or able to do what those people did to earn their money. Now people here simply stare at their iPhone, drink $5 cups of coffee and complain how Jeff Bezos has too much money - and think they are somehow entitled to what others have worked hard to achieve.

It's embarrassing...

 

Who owns Ford?

Technically speaking, I own a piece of Ford, I do have a few shares.

 

shareholders own ford, unless they buy them all back, so ultimately if the shareholders don’t like what a new deal from ford to the union is, they sell and drop the fords equity.

 

nice rant. I don’t count other people’s money if THEY earned and aren’t just part of a hostage taking club that encourages sub par membership. It’s kinda criminal in a way.

 

I planned to answer all your questions with one word, but then I saw it in the last sentence. Entitled. Sums it up well.
I think the union would be better received if they didn't push so far and fight for well beyond fair compared to other jobs and workers. It's not just them, it's our society. Definitely shifting. Here's one... School "lunches" used to be lunches purchased if you didn't bring your own. That's somehow now morphed into providing 2 and sometimes 3 free meals a day in school districts, and many provide them year round now. How are those kids going to grow up and know how to buy or prepare meals? They won't since they only know they are entitled to free meals every day.
In the end, the UAW will get significant increases, and several years down the road they will break even and begin to gain from this agreement. But they could have started with realistic demands and maybe avoided a strike altogether, like some of the other unions have done.

 

Entitled Billionaire class does sum it all up nicely.

I own shares in Ford, too. I still support the Union. Ironically, the Union also owns Ford stock.

 

Who's fault is that? Parents don't want to teach kids good habits and enforce it and it is easier to get the school to provide meals.

 

As long as the shares make money, why would anyone not want to own it?

 

Great rant.

Why is everyone here missing the point that I agree that some jobs are worth more than others even a LOT more. BUT, at some point, just like everyone's opinion here some jobs reach their MAX $$$ worth, and some jobs ARE overpaid... Like in the opinion of most if not all on here... These "unskilled" jobs are over paid, Well the same thing is true with CEO salaries, they too are overpaid.... The degradation to the N. American way of life is the direct result of CEOs sucking HUGE $$$ out of the company, & company after company sending jobs away to cheaper places to build what should be done here, who did that...??? The CEOs that's who. It really IS that simple, we are heading back to the 14th century way of life NOT because of the unions, but because of decisions these CEOs are making.

 

The lastest Ford offer looks pretty good, to me. If Fain can keep his ego out of the negotiations, that may be a contract the Union can get behind.

 

And as I ask, why don't YOU step up and do the CEO job for half the money? Enough of people like that and the price will drop. If I get a good quality CEO for 1 million, why would I pay 2 million? Oh, wait. When people get there, they ask for 3 million and forget their ideas they had BEFORE they worked themselves up there.

As CEO, my job is to make decisions for what is best for the books. If he/she cannot do it, they need to step aside before they're fired.

Maybe improve the skills so that you can not be irrelevant in the world and not just the small factory floor?