The only hope i feel for the future of this country is workers unionizing. Its the only leverage the poor and middle class have. We need more unions.
At this point it’s a race to see whether the workers will band together before the magats go full fascist. This decade is about to get really interesting.
I don’t want interesting, I want a decent life, preferably not in slavery to the rich… Is it time to move to Sweden?
Idk… recently I read about a guy that actually moved from there to America…I was perplexed 🤔.
Grass is always greener to some people.
I have two philosophies in life.
- Love where you live despite the flaws
- It’s easier to fight from inside the belly of the beast than outside it
Same thing happening here. 20% of people voted for the fascists last election. Now they’re trying to pass a law forcing teachers, doctors, nurses, etc. to report illegal immigrants to the authorities.
Also, massive cuts to welfare, scrapped environmental goals. The list is expanding
Maybe workers should have more power to influence government decisions as opposed to the current situation where the people with money have the most influence in government?
Deleted comment
“Ford’s Kentucky Truck plant builds the Ford F-Series Super Duty, Ford Expedition and Lincoln Navigator SUVs. The plant is one of the largest auto factories in the world and accounts for $25 billion a year in revenue, according to Ford which issued a statement shortly after the walkout.”
Fain wasn’t bluffing, they’re hitting them where it hurts. Go UAW!
It’s gonna take everyone being on strike I think. Ford doesn’t give a single fuck as they’ve made clear through years and years of abuse towards its workers.
I would love to see a few go bankrupt over this. Considering last time car companies were at risk they got a bailout, I’m sure the government will quash the strikes if they start to hurt.
I believe it’s become much more apparent to people including law makers that we can afford to live without these companies. So many startups for electric cars these days could take over those plants and offer better pay (hopefully). We should’ve moved past these shit companies as a world back when that bailout happened, maybe we learned our lesson and can do it this time.
Unfortunately I don’t think any of the new electric car manufacturers are unionized. So a lot of these people would lose union gigs and end up with less pay/benefits at a non-union shop. Sire they could unionized again but that’s it’s own battle just to get back to where they started.
New companies don’t usually treat their people shitty while starting up. Otherwise they’d never make it in the first place. I think it’s later down the road when the greed kicks in and workers start getting screwed. So at least for a few years it should be win/win even without a union.
That’s not true. Start ups tend to take advantage of people’s hopes and dream of working for a start up. Not sure what the big deal is with start ups. Here’s the first article I found from a quick google search https://sifted.eu/articles/mental-health-workplace
A data set of 133 europeans isn’t much to base anything on. I do believe there are plenty of startups that are shitty to work for due to the reasons outlined in the article. How many are like that is hard to say.
A data set of 133 is better than your data set of 0.
Good.
Maybe the managers should pull themselves up by the bootstraps and run the plant on their own.
Love to see it, stay strong!
In Ford’s defense - everyone in the plant that actually works for a living and doesn’t just play fantasy football all day - is on strike so it’s not surprising their management is paralyzed by indecision for weeks on end.
Strike YeS HAHAHA YES
This guys head looks like a fish
Ford thinks they can weather this since they needed to cut output anyway.
I think they have been intentionally making a bad offer so the union strikes and thus production is cut while they blame it on the union to stockholders.
That’s the play but it is has expiration date, hopefully strikers will out last these brain dead lEaDERShIP
They just make a reasonable offer then. Most strikers cannot afford to last much longer - the union pays less than minimum wage for carrying signs (I haven’t checked this strike, but that is typical)
I’m not sure what this particular contract looks like but UAW is huge. Likely with a lot of money in their strike fund. I’d suspect they’re getting something like 60+% of whatever their pay was.
Ford thinks they can weather this since they needed to cut output anyway.
I’m seeing double here. 4 krusties!
While I sympathize with the workers wanting more money, I’m not looking forward to new vehicles being more unattainable than they already are.
Hey, buddy. I got some news for you.
Businesses charge what people are willing to pay. Full stop. Not what products cost to produce.
They’re not selling below the production cost. Full stop.
Right. They’re selling as high above the production cost as people are willing to pay.
It’s called ‘maximizing profit.’
Majority of inflation is largely greedflation, i.e. corporate profit driven not in anyway compensational towards wage costs. Hell even the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics agrees.
I expect so, but most corporations aren’t going to roll back and make less money than they do now. I read that the UAW workers want to make $100,000 a year after 4 years on the job. I don’t see how that can make vehicles any more affordable.
Something something McDonald’s Whoppers…
Corporations will do whatever they need to maximize profit.
If people had higher standards, businesses would have to meet those standards in order to stay in business.
I don’t see how that can make vehicles any more affordable.
That’s because you’re not paying attention to the people who are making too much profit. They’re having a fat payday because vehicles are expensive and employees are paid peanuts. There’s plenty of room for vehicles to go down in price and employees to get paid more if the people making profit made less profit.
Keep in mind, they will still be making more money than you can ever hope to achieve.
Imagine thinking the automotive industry actively looks for areas to cut the fat and somehow simultaneously you manage to completely ignore the fact dealerships still exist
What are you talking about?
Try to avoid playing leap-frog with yourself and just say your stance in a direct manner.
Starting off with ‘imagine’ just tells me you’re smug, but not correct.
They aren’t built to be affordable, consumption now is on debt trapping and managing infinite payments (car, house, hell you can take a loan out for a pizza). Shits fucked and it’s fucked whether or not a worker is making an actual wage but I know I’d rather see someone not fully strugglging while doing manual labor for already overpriced cars. i.e. stop criticizing workers for wanting something better with such lib takes that “oh no this will harm my consumptuion that’s already harmed under capital”.
I think the companies already charge whatever they can get away with. They are always going to charge the maximum price they can without losing more money in lost sales.
The workers getting a pay rise would increase the minimum cost they could charge but they already charge the maximum which is what the market will bear. To not do the latter would mean these companies are willingly leaving money on the table
The workers getting a pay rise would increase the minimum cost they could charge but they already charge the maximum which is what the market will bear.
No it wouldn’t. They would simply make very slightly less profit. Christ. Thatcher really did a number on y’all
That’s what I said
The minimum cost they could charge is the amount it cost them to make it which would go up but they charge the maximum which is the price that generates the most profit without sacrificing sales therefore a pay rise would mean the company would just have to eat the cost and make less profit
If Ford wanted to avoid a strike, they could have simply made a new counteroffer yesterday.
UAW factories don’t make affordable economy cars anyway. In fact, the Big 3 abandoned that segment altogether in favor of higher margin trucks and SUVs. They didn’t choose to strike at the plants that build the Wrangler and Bronco randomly. Chinese EVs are slowly taking over Europe because they offer more car for less money. Our steep tariffs are the only thing preventing a Chinese takeover of the US market that would dwarf the Japanese invasion of the 80s.
how many cars are you planning to buy this year
Damn guess the US better start investing in public transport then.
This particular plant is making premium SUVs and pickups, by the sound of it, so already luxury vehicles. It’s not like they’re making economy cars.
Did you learn economics 101 from your teevee?
I don’t understand why you get downvoted. How can people not know that a rise in production cost gets passed through to the customer.
When unions are involved you aren’t allowed to point out things like that.
Greedy workers and greedy CEOs unite to raise auto prices. Lovely.
How are the workers greedy? Specifically.
They conflate needs with wants.
Rather than spending less, they want to make more.
It’s about quality, not quantity.
That said, it’s not fair for workers to get shafted while owners get richer. I believe they all should be making less money so those who have less can have more, but I’ll settle for workers at least getting proportional compensation.
Why do you think they can spend less when the inflation increased by a great margin?
How about those shareholders spend less for a change and don’t demand a perpetual 30% yearly increase, huh?
Why do you think they can spend less when the inflation increased by a great margin?
Because they’re not going to die if they spend less money. What do you think makes it impossible for them to spend less money?
I already knew making any criticism of uaw or workers would bring down votes. I won’t bother any further with replies beyond saying greedy people asking for 40% pay raise and lazy people asking for 4 day work week are specific examples. CEO’s giving themselves massive pay raises are also greedy. Both sets are assholes and consumers pay the price.
The 40% is mostly too make up the concessions the workers made to keep the companies afflot in 2008. The 40% is over the life of the contract. The 40% wouldn’t even reach 10% of the projected profits for the companies over that time. 4 day work week is proven to be more productive than the 5 day work week, even more so for physically demanding jobs.
You are uninformed.
“Greed is good” - Ronald Reagan
“No not that way” reactionaries when workers ask to be paid fairly
I already knew making any criticism of uaw or workers
Right, but is this because you’re a based freedom fighter or because you’re wrong? Hrm.
Saying they’re lazy because they want a 4-day work week does raise an eyebrow, to be clear.
Even if that wasn’t complete nonsense, it would be a good thing. The world needs to stop making and driving ICE vehicles. High prices are a great deterrent.
this take kinda ignores the large number of people and places that do not have that option. it’s not up to consumers to stop driving. infrastructure has to come first in more than just major cities.
This is true, but I also think a rise in auto prices will present a problem that more infrastructure can fix? Like, it’s a pressure that public transit can release. You’d probably want a gradual change if that was the angle, though. Hm.
If people aren’t forced, those locations would never get public transport.
And the people living on the country side aren’t exactly too poor to buy a more expensive car.
I was about to rant about how important it is for things to change and people being inconvenienced doesn’t matter. But let’s be real. It’s already too late.