Ford Commercial

[ranger boy]

"As far as what will happen to the 117 acres that make up the Hapeville assembly line, top developers say 80 of those acres are excellent for residential and mixed use development, 11Alive's Bill Liss reported. One developer is already planning to building 1,000 condos on property next to the plant."
http://www.11alive.com/news/news_article.aspx?storyid=75044

what a great view

 

[W4RLR]

since some will get mad at me....
know why ford chevy and others are leaving the northern assembly areas
UNIONS
alabam continually gains manufacting and assembly plants due to lower cost of living, lower taxes, less union OVERINFLUENCE.
MB, hyundia, toyota , nissan, funny foriegn guys find it cheaper to build here ( tn, al, ms)and we find it cheaper to build in mexico, whats wrong wit that statement

Robert, why would someone get mad at someone who speaks the truth? While I feel for the folks that are losing their jobs at Ford, there is enough blame between sorry management and outrageous union demands upon the company that have put it in the dire straits it is in now. The UAW has a "stick it to the company" mentality, and they can't figure out why their jobs are going to Mexico and China. When a guy with a high school education can pull down $50 an hour plus benefits for bolting cars together, and $3000 of of the cost of every GM and Ford vehicle goes to pay UAW pension benefits, it's no small wonder why Alabama, Mississippi, Texas, and South Carolina are getting the new vehicle assembly plants with lower wage scales and a different management / labor relationship. Even the Saturn plant, a UAW plant in Tennessee, operates under different rules than the rest of GM's plants. The adversarial relationship between labor and employer won't cut it in today's market. There will be companies out there where the employees and the management work together to put out a superior product at a lower price point, and they will be eating Detroit's lunch. Unless Bill Ford and his counterparts at GM can bring the union to the table and get them to see the light, just about all the U.S. auto manufacturing jobs for GM and Ford will be going overseas. Just my humble opinion. -popcorn

 

[whatabudro]

eating their lunch: hmm maybe paying some lady $32ish an hour to install a window crank is the problem.

 

[BJS]

I have no clue why they would move the equipement from GA to KY since the pant makes the now discontinued taurus. They might be moving some of the manpower.

I'll be surprised to see housing go up there because of it's proximity to the airport though it is slightly to the north of being directly in the path of the incoming airplanes.

 

[acjjkamp]

We had this happen a lot at Boeing, unfortunately it is cyclic. I do feel for the folks that don’t have a choice about job termination. a lot of the numbers will be attrition as posted earlier, but on brighter side, if there is one, a lot will get rehired later down the road or picked up somewhere else. Just my from someone who’s been there.

 

[Crumm]

just about all the U.S. auto manufacturing jobs for GM and Ford will be going overseas.

Along with the obvious problems there is another big problem with this. Back when I was a owner/operator I had a new 95' Freightliner and a new 99' Freightliner both built in Portland Oregon. The company I now work for just got three new 06' Freightliners that were built in Mexico . The quality of the Mexican trucks does not even compare to the US built units. What ever happened to Fords slogan "quality is job #1"? If they get them built out of the US the quality will be going down along with our jobs. Just my

 

[Hoss 350]

Just saw the latest "cover my ass" commercial from Mr. Ford. Guy should run for Senate. JMO.

Would love to be reading his mind why he's saying that crap, "(well, im basically firing 25,000 to 30,000 people, ruining their lives, closing factories and possibly causing permanent damage to their towns, but.....)"

Anyone else see it? -popcorn

Barrett

Or he could do like GM and give the employees gold-plated benefit packages in perpetuity, and NOT fire anyone, ever, until the company goes bankrupt. Then ALL the towns lose factories, and ALL the people lose their jobs...

Anybody ever read "Atlas Shrugged"? Gm sort of started to remind me of 20th Century Motors there for a while.

I wish to heck that the unions and the companies could find a happy medium. The Unions need to understand that their continuing demands for more and more put a strain on the companies, the net result of which is that instead of everybody having a job with decent benefits, a lot fewer have a job, but their benefits package is so good that the EMPLOYEE gets paid whenever he goes to the doctor. I pay copays and deductibles. Why do the unions think that their people shouldn't have to?

This continuing movement towards entitlement in all parts of our society will eventually cause all of the innovators and companies to close doors, just like in the book "atlas Shrugged", only, instead of the great minds getting together and hiding out to create a bold, new, ownership society (where you actually EARN what you get, instead of being ENTITILED to it) once the present society collapsed, in this day and age, I think they will just go to Mexico or India.

There are plenty of jobs out there, and as much as it would hurt for me to lose my job, I certainly would not expect the company to hold onto me if my division was not making them the money they needed to keep operating. It is a Catch-22 for the Ford guys. Keep them on, go bankrupt, and EVERYBODY loses their job. OR, fire the people working in the areas of your company with the least return on overhead, and keep the rest of them in a job.

OR, (and this will never happen, but who knows?) PAY the employees a salary COMMENSURATE with what they are doing (generally a high-school educated, mildly skilled or no skill needed type position) and give them decent benefits that require copays and deductibles, so that they keep some of the burden of the health care expense (a cost that is rightfully theirs to bear) and take some burden off of the company. There are guys on the assembly lines at GM running the levers on a stamp machine making more than most 10-year college graduates make, getting the best benefits I've ever seen doing a job you could LITERALLY train a monkey to do.

I feel bad for the people that are losing their jobs, but their efforts to be "taken care of" have backfired. They made their bed, through their Union, now let them sleep in it. Maybe in a few years, they will take their job back happily, only under more reasonable terms from the company.

I know a lot of people will see me as an absolute jerk for what I just said, but you cannot have a Utopia. We all need to pay our way, and if we are not doing so, then none of us need to be suprised when the pink slip arrives in our mailbox. And yes, you can be in a position where you can work your BUTT off and still not pay your own way. If the total amount of product you produce in a day does not exceed the cost of having you there, then you have failed to pay your own way. The auto industry in America has seen a big influx of this sort of situation, where Ford is actually losing money in the processing of a lot of it's essentail parts. Parts where they make a profit make up for only so much of that before they are losing money.

I applaud the Ford CEO for his decision. I am sure he did not make it with a light heart, and I know I would have trouble sleeping after I did it, but i could only find comfort int eh fact that in doing so, I had safeguarded ten times the jobs that I just cut.

Now, to the CEO's making obscene salaries, that is another story, and another situation where I think they will soon find themselves replaced by people (or gorups of people) that can do the same job, and take less money, so I am pretty sure that these huge salaries will go away soon, as soon as the corporations realize that they are not getting 15 million a year in utility out of one guy.

 

[whatabudro]

Let me buy you a beer.

 

[Hoss 350]

eating their lunch: hmm maybe paying some lady $32ish an hour to install a window crank is the problem.

Period. End of story.

These ladies and gentlemen had a chance to choose whether they wanted to get paid a reasonable salary and get decent benefits, or whether they get paid a very large salary and get gold-plated benefits. Through their unions, they chose the latter, and are now reaping the rewards of that choice. Do not feel sorry for them. It is the story of any situation where the people get to vote for themselves extravagant gifts and entitlements. Who in their right mind would not vote for a pay raise for themself? It is too far in the future for most of these high-school educated people to think ahead and see that in doing so, they have guaranteed their own layoff. So they continue to threaten strike, and push the union for more, better benefits when in all actuality, they truly do not deserve it, since, as I stated before, you could almost train a monkey to do a lot of the jobs, and then act suprised when they are no longer a profitable venture for the corporation, and are dismissed.

I don't understand the thought process that blames Ford for all of this????

 

[W4RLR]

I have no clue why they would move the equipement from GA to KY since the pant makes the now discontinued taurus. They might be moving some of the manpower.

I'll be surprised to see housing go up there because of it's proximity to the airport though it is slightly to the north of being directly in the path of the incoming airplanes.

The Hapeville (Atlanta) plant is ancient, the Taurus is obsolete and has no replacement that can be put on the line. Not only that, but the plant is adjacent to Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, and I'll bet the powers that be are salivating over the prospect of getting the property for aviation related uses. The plant has outlived its usefulness just like the GM plants in Doraville and Jonesboro. Turn off the lights and shut the gates. The party's over.