American Axle, UAW edge closer to contract deal

YES!!

The Union is going to accept the pay cut!

Batch 37 Pain is Good wrote:

The Union is going to accept the pay cut!

Boy all you anti union right to workers should be thrilled....

its about time!!!You union workers sure take long enough to get your heads out of your butts.Im sick of us non union shops having to cut our hours down and take unpaid days off so you guys can strike for weeks on end.Unions suck!

Union All The Way wrote:

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Boy all you anti union right to workers should be thrilled....

It is just the cold cruel hand of reality in this business

How dumb does that union look now? 8 weeks of strike pay and coming back to make an average of $23,000 a year less in wages. Brilliant!! Makes me want to join a union right now!!

Union All The Way wrote:

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Boy all you anti union right to workers should be thrilled....

You bet, watch out GM workers you are next, maybe you will think twice about striking over something stupid like not having a local contract.

RAB wrote:

How dumb does that union look now? 8 weeks of strike pay and coming back to make an average of $23,000 a year less in wages. Brilliant!! Makes me want to join a union right now!!

So you think WITHOUT a union the workers would have made out better???

RAB wrote:

How dumb does that union look now? 8 weeks of strike pay and coming back to make an average of $23,000 a year less in wages. Brilliant!! Makes me want to join a union right now!!

Actually for me it's over $30,000 a year. Pretty good deal, at least I have a job (sarcasm). 2 months on the picket line to deal with people like you RAB,$200 a week and the company and union working against me.

I'll tell you what, why don't some of you come on down to Three Rivers to work at American Axle after most of us leave. I keep seeing all the comments about working for $14 an hour and how that is good money. It is a good starting wage I agree, but that is the top wage from now on. Oh, I forgot to mention that when you do start your career with AAM you start at $10 an hour and work to $14 an hour over the next 5-6 years.

Lucky wrote:

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Actually for me it's over $30,000 a year. Pretty good deal, at least I have a job (sarcasm). 2 months on the picket line to deal with people like you RAB,$200 a week and the company and union working against me.
I'll tell you what, why don't some of you come on down to Three Rivers to work at American Axle after most of us leave. I keep seeing all the comments about working for $14 an hour and how that is good money. It is a good starting wage I agree, but that is the top wage from now on. Oh, I forgot to mention that when you do start your career with AAM you start at $10 an hour and work to $14 an hour over the next 5-6 years.

I am sure they will have no problem hiring your replacement when you leave. Considering $14 an hour is the going wage for unskilled production work in this state. Being we have more available workers than we do jobs they are qualified for it should easy. This is a free country if you do not like what is going on with the company you are free to leave. In a normal economy people are paid based on there skills and qualifications. If the work you do deserves the pay you were receiving you should be able to find a job doing the same thing making the same money. But we all know that this is not the case. If everyone was union the playing feild would be level again only inflation would be out of control and the dollar would devalue. It is simple Economics.

JIMMYK1978 wrote:

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I am sure they will have no problem hiring your replacement when you leave. Considering $14 an hour is the going wage for unskilled production work in this state. Being we have more available workers than we do jobs they are qualified for it should easy. This is a free country if you do not like what is going on with the company you are free to leave. In a normal economy people are paid based on there skills and qualifications. If the work you do deserves the pay you were receiving you should be able to find a job doing the same thing making the same money. But we all know that this is not the case. If everyone was union the playing feild would be level again only inflation would be out of control and the dollar would devalue. It is simple Economics.

Unskilled?? You never asked what he does.I have seen plenty of oeople who could not preform the "unskilled" job you are refering to. Almost every job takes a certain 'skill" right down to the hamburger flipper...be honest instead of insulting..
Can you be "fair". open minded???How would you feel taking a huge pay cut??? Be honest...Not looking for pitty....just plain old understanding....

JIMMYK1978 wrote:

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I am sure they will have no problem hiring your replacement when you leave. Considering $14 an hour is the going wage for unskilled production work in this state. Being we have more available workers than we do jobs they are qualified for it should easy. This is a free country if you do not like what is going on with the company you are free to leave. In a normal economy people are paid based on there skills and qualifications. If the work you do deserves the pay you were receiving you should be able to find a job doing the same thing making the same money. But we all know that this is not the case. If everyone was union the playing feild would be level again only inflation would be out of control and the dollar would devalue. It is simple Economics.

Apparently you did not read my whole response. The replacement workers WILL be paid $10 an hour, NOT $14 an hour. I highly doubt you or anyone you know could come in and learn any job in AAM in less than 2-3 weeks and be proficient. It takes most people months to get up to rate and quality is always number 1.

Also, yes I do have the skills and training to retain my wages with a new employer.

I really wish some of you people would put your money where your mouth is and come work for AAM in Three Rivers.

Thank you for letting me vent.

Union All The Way wrote:

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Unskilled?? You never asked what he does.I have seen plenty of oeople who could not preform the "unskilled" job you are refering to. Almost every job takes a certain 'skill" right down to the hamburger flipper...be honest instead of insulting..
Can you be "fair". open minded???How would you feel taking a huge pay cut??? Be honest...Not looking for pitty....just plain old understanding....

I've worked in the 3-Rivers plant. Most of the jobs there CAN be filled rather quickly by general laborers. And as a business owner, I also know the cost of benefits. Those workers should feel very fortunate that they have things like vacation pay, sick days, and insurance (for the record, WWMT just reported that 1 in 9 people in Michigan are not insured).
I doubt that many of the shop workers at AAM (or any other automotive plant) have done anything to make themselves more of an asset to employers. They've all been too content with their cushy pay and union attitudes. The time has come for the unions to realize that we are not in the same economy we were 50 years ago. When large companies are going bankrupt and closing because of increased costs and competition, these people on the picket lines are being foolishly playing Russian Roulette with their jobs.

Union All The Way wrote:

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Unskilled?? You never asked what he does.I have seen plenty of oeople who could not preform the "unskilled" job you are refering to. Almost every job takes a certain 'skill" right down to the hamburger flipper...be honest instead of insulting..
Can you be "fair". open minded???How would you feel taking a huge pay cut??? Be honest...Not looking for pitty....just plain old understanding....

Wow, you must really think that your job is special, I'm glad you included hamburger flipper as a skilled trade, so now we know the level of competence we are dealing with. The jobs at AA are so difficult their white collar empoyees were doing them with no training while they were on strike in order to keep the Toyota contract. Push button A before B, I am so confused.

Union All The Way wrote:

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Unskilled?? You never asked what he does.I have seen plenty of oeople who could not preform the "unskilled" job you are refering to. Almost every job takes a certain 'skill" right down to the hamburger flipper...be honest instead of insulting..
Can you be "fair". open minded???How would you feel taking a huge pay cut??? Be honest...Not looking for pitty....just plain old understanding....

Yes I said unskilled. I believe that AAM makes the same clssification. It is called "Skilled Trades". On the job training of 3 weeks does not classify a skill. Most skills require years of training and continued education. As for open minded, I believe you have confused who is not being open minded. I am not new to the Union, I have lived with it all my life as I have family members that are UAW. As for a having to take a huge pay cut I do not worry about that. I am paid a fair wage for the work that I do based on my skills and education. If I do not like what is going on with the company that I work for, I can find another company that will pay me the same or more than I am currently making. Let me pose this question if it takes a skill to flip a burger should fast food employees be paid $28 per hour? It takes the same amount of training just a different type of work. No formal education required. If you want to make more invest in your human capital.

I have a suggestion. With the buydowns the wage cuts really won’t take effect for 3 years. It looks AAM employees have some time to make a decision. You could leave and find other work, learn a skilled trade or get an education, just take the wage cut and be upset about it, or you could figure out a way to make your current job more valuable. If I was consulting with the employees at AAM I would suggest you get together and put together a contract and agree to vote out the union in exchange for a profit sharing system that includes a long term bonus, like 5 years. With the union gone the company will have the ability to get rid of the employees that are lazy. Let’s face it; we both know that there are good employees and bad employees at AAM, unfortunately for the good employees their pay is based on average productivity, so the bad ones are dragging their wage down. Instead of simply replacing the bad employees, I would suggest you look into how the factory can operate without these employees. You are the ones that are on the factory floor and witness first hand how the factory flows, I am sure you would be able to come up with several different ways of doing things to become more efficient. Someone in Mexico may be able to perform tasks, but you should be able to work smarter than them and produce goods more efficiently. If this works AAM can implement these changes at their other factories and gain more efficiency. Yes I can see the comments coming that then they will shut down your plant because that is the union mentality. AAM will not want to shut down a plant that is continually improving, coming up with new ways to become efficient across the world, etc. shutting down that plant would be called killing the golden goose. AAM then becomes more profitable, and employees get profit sharing, long term bonus, etc. The us against them mentality will never get you anywhere, a company that is making a ton of extra money is a lot more likely to give better wages to employees than one that is loosing money.

Wow !! So after the last eight weeks of collecting a small strike fund they are finally going to settle. Oh, an accept the new wage agreement. Way to go you must be proud of your accomplishments.

Chip wrote:

...I would suggest you get together and put together a contract and agree to vote out the union in exchange for a profit sharing system that includes a long term bonus, like 5 years. With the union gone the company will have the ability to get rid of the employees that are lazy. Let’s face it; we both know that there are good employees and bad employees at AAM, unfortunately for the good employees their pay is based on average productivity, so the bad ones are dragging their wage down. Instead of simply replacing the bad employees, I would suggest you look into how the factory can operate without these employees...... AAM then becomes more profitable, and employees get profit sharing, long term bonus, etc. The us against them mentality will never get you anywhere, a company that is making a ton of extra money is a lot more likely to give better wages to employees than one that is loosing money.

You hit the nail right on the head! My small company doesn't literally have "profit sharing" but we give our employees bonuses whenever we can afford it. This is done to thank, reward, and (hopefully) retain our employees. The unions don't realize that it is a company's best interest to retain it's good employees while at the same time it harms a company to keep worthless and lazy ones.

It's time the union population takes a long, hard look at what they are doing to jobs in America. It's not helping everyone to force industry to pay inflated wages and benefits to the point that it makes financial sense for companies to send jobs overseas. Whose side are they REALLY on, anyway???

Union All The Way wrote:

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So you think WITHOUT a union the workers would have made out better???

If your calling that deal an accomplishment then your out of your mind. If they weren't in a union then I'd say no, this deal would'nt have happened because they wouldn't have been out striking in the first place!! They would have been doing their jobs and not been out the money they are out now, how stupid can you be to think otherwise!!??

JIMMYK1978 wrote:

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I am sure they will have no problem hiring your replacement when you leave. Considering $14 an hour is the going wage for unskilled production work in this state. Being we have more available workers than we do jobs they are qualified for it should easy. This is a free country if you do not like what is going on with the company you are free to leave. In a normal economy people are paid based on there skills and qualifications. If the work you do deserves the pay you were receiving you should be able to find a job doing the same thing making the same money. But we all know that this is not the case. If everyone was union the playing feild would be level again only inflation would be out of control and the dollar would devalue. It is simple Economics.

Your griping about $14 an hour not being fit for a human being? At the manufacturing plant I work at the top wage for the average operator is about $11.50 after a couple of years. It's a non union shop, used to be union back in the late eightes but they went on strike, were replaced, an then the the whole striking union along with the replacement workers voted to keep or disolve the union and the vote even from the union folks was overwhelmingly to disolve it as their union leaders were corrupt and not into helping there own people so they voted to at least come back and have a job. The pay is not all that great for these folks but they have excellent insurance, paid vacations, a great 401K plan and generally treated well. Our company has been doing better every year since the union was put down and nobody, except for a few die hard old timers regrets it. So to say that $14 an hour isn't a good wage is slapping the folks in our plant who don't even make that. I'm a salary worker and have no problem knowing that the people on the floor building the parts are the ones that are the heartbeat of any company, union or non but the union doesn't gurantee eternal happines and the company has alot more flexibility to do things in a more responsible fashion to insure long term survival and that means keeping the union out. If the union ever tried to reform our company would simply close the doors and move all work to our Mexico plants. People are smart enough to have job securtiy as opposed to being in a union and trying to corner the company every chance they get with ridiculous demands and threats.