Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Tennessee auto workers reject union

No I love paying 50% of your salary for never touching a new car. It is what makes American vehicles so competitive with Japanese makes. Thank you UAW for making Detroit what it is today.

Be back in a minute.. going to 'F' myself as requested".

Are you finished yet?

The problem is the bast$rds will be back...... wish we could run ever one of them that voted for the union out of the state....

And you idiot that are bragging about retiring at 55 with 1/2 your salary.... thanks for screwing up the auto industry...

good for those workers. i just hope the company appreciates it and takes care of them.

Well if it was like that from the start of the industrial revolution their probably wouldn't have ever been a union started in this country.

Congratulations! You are now getting paid to do nothing. Great job if you can get it. BTW, where does that money come from? The company you USED to work for, you say? Where do they get it ? You don't give a chit, you say as long as the checks keep coming.

Here's the reality. You've got a sweet deal, retired at 55, you can grab another job for tens years and stash some cash. You might live to be 85 or 90. That means your former employer will pay you for not working as long or longer than they paid you to work!

The company can handle a few of you - the first few. After all, the first few probably only make up 2% of the total budget. Up fees by 2% and its covered. Painless, right?

What happens after 20 or 30 years of this? The 2% becomes 20%+. Raise fees 20% and consumers stop buying, jobs are lost, companies shrink or go under. Look at Detroit, look at the Steel Industry, look at Mining. To stay in business, companies automate. Machines don't get pensions, don't need healthcare, vision, or Medicare supplemental coverage.

What can't be automated gets shipped out to places that aren't suffocating under this burden. Then there goes some great paying jobs. Between Auto, mining, and steel, we are talking the loss of millions in the past 30 years. The Steel industry couldn't be saved because no outside company would buy the pensions obligation, and without it, no sale would be allowed.

But you guys enjoy that sweet life you have - getting paid for not working. Really, it's a great thing for you. The Europeans have for 100 years picked their trades based on what kind of retirement they expect rather than what opportunity they could take advantage of. You guys are on the leading edge of the future for America. Wave your flag and shout it from the mountaintops - It's great to get paid not to work!!

But while your at it, please explain how BMW, Mercedes, Toyota, Kia, Hyundai, Toyota and others have flourished with non-union shops and the Big Three out of Detriot have foundered? I know that people in LaGrange Georgia, Montgomery AL, And Spartanburg SC, are glad to have the those good paying jobs.

I'll never understand the mindset of people who want to send good paying jobs out of America.

Toyota has a large manufacturing plant in Central Kentucky.

It's a major, major contributor to Central Kentucky's economy.

It's hard to imagine the impact it would have if it closed.

Im a proud union member, Journeymen Electrician w/ nuclear structural welder certs. My whole family was UAW, they were the 1st ones to tell you with was f'd up like a soup sandwich. There is a huge difference in unions Public sector, private (trade) unions, and The UAW megaunion. Im not a fan of public sector unions at all, the uaw is To bloated to help anyone. But Trade unions I still see as a viable option due to the increase in training opportunities, retirements, and competitive final cost to the customer in commericial and industrial settings.

My retirement is phenomenal, and its ALL mine, im in control of it. 16.18/hr + time and a half and double time, all going into a Fidelity account that is under my control in my name. Sure I have to pay 4% union dues + monthly dues to the international, but for the benefits I can choke it down. Yes there are rediculous liberals I have to deal with on a daily basis, but I've turned it into a game of making their heads explode. Its not hard, you just have to be better at your job than the libs' are, and there 3 other guys in this area that have nuclear certs for welding, and we all got NRA stickers on our trucks ;-).

I guess what im saying is, I dont have any problem using them for financial gain.

I don't have a problem with all unions.

I do have an issue with the UAW and labor laws that allow and encourage collusion and racketeering.

Good for VW in TN. I hope the workers accept VW's help in organizing their own labor representation.

Most of you'all are pretty funny. It's all those dam unions faults. Has nothing to do with CEOs getting 800, 900, times what an average employee gets per year instead of the 40 times as much they got 50 or 60 years ago when companies made good money and workers made a good living. Like the song says they run the company broke, take their 40 million $ BONUS and jet out of town. A bunch of sheeple that can't become slaves fast enough.

Now, what country are you from?

Unions are communist....

you will never fix america as long as they are here.those jobs would still be availalbe in our industry if our stupid greedy people wouldn't have invited them all to build here.if they were all still imports we be way better off.if the germans woulda came this country to sell vw's there selves instead of letting greedy americans do it for them in the 60's they woulda got laugh out of the country. same with toyota,i'd like to seen the look on ww2 vets when a slant eye tried to sell them a car.

That one just north of you, you may have heard about it. Anyway, my pension is a union pension, I paid into, its fully funded and conservatively doled out by elected members of our union. When I left, trade rate was ~$40/hr, medical, dental, insurance for sickness etc. 4 10 hour shifts a week and 8 weeks off plus another 40-80 hrs banked hours to take every contract year, I didn't do much O/T but those that do run $110k-120k/year. The shares in the company continue to climb in value, and yes I have been a shareholder. The company would gladly pay us $50.00 an hour with no benefits but that's not a good deal.
You need to be at the top of your game to get into and stay in this workplace, production and safety are everything for my past employer.

Exactly!!

And only 1/2 your ability to spell it looks like too.

I work with trade unions all the time. Everyday in fact. I've been in several. They do nothing for me that I can't get equal or better on my own. Not to say the guys that are in them aren't hard working guys, but most if not all of the have had full gallon jugs of Obama Kool-Aid. They really don't need the union to do what they do for them, but the union's have them convinced they can't do better on their own.

The public sector unions are just about less than useless. Working on state jobs nearly all my career has shown that over and over and over. The guys/gals that are in them at first are usually hard working like the trade guys, then about a year in they "learn" what they DON'T have to do, and flip the switch to 2 hour lunches and 5 hour work days.

Think this influenced the vote?

"In Chattanooga, the union faced stern opposition from Republican politicians. Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee was the most vocal opponent, saying that he was told that VW would build a new midsized SUV in Chattanooga if workers rejected the union. That was later denied by a VW executive. Other politicians threatened to cut off state incentives for the plant to expand if the union was approved."

That's not a union problem that's a company/supervision problem. Those in our shop that did that were disciplined to correct the behaviour and if that didn't work they were shown the door.

I've looked into non union, 30-35% less pay, 80% less benefits. Insurance sucks as well. It would be worse than that if there were no trade unions, They keep wages up. I see a lot of jobs for electricians with my skills non union, and they want to pay half or less than half what I make now. those shops are charging the same amount an hour for me work as the union shops are, and I'd not even be getting a retirement in most cases.