Michigan UAW Not Keeping Up on Current Events

The UAW's never ending war upon its employers is erupting again in another battle near Detroit where UAW local members recently voted on a tentative agreement. The agreement included compensation concessions and the promise of an infusion of new work at the Sterling Heights axle plant that would add up to 100 jobs. The UAW local voted overwhelmingly against the agreement.

Ford Motor is the only member of the domestic Big 3 that did not accept taxpayer money in the federal bailout. Since that time Ford has been forced to continue to operate with labor agreements that put it at a disadvantage with the other two companies who emerged from bankruptcy with deals more competitive with foreign owned manufacturers.

Ford, who feels it must cut costs to compete, is now considering moving the promised new work under the agreement to a southern non-union shop in North Carolina. Along with that move, Ford is considering moving additional work to other plants as well.

Here is a current events newsflash for belligerent UAW members.

Those yellow vans hitting the state line every day are filled with furniture, clothes, and children's bikes, and they represent the lifeblood and future of this state. If you are too stupid to notice that having a job for less money is better than having no job at all, perhaps you are too obtuse to hold down a job to begin with. Maybe Jennifer Granholm can spend a few grand to retrain you in either the hospitality or custodial industries, and then we will see just how you like making concessions.

You may bitch and moan about how horribly you have been treated by your employers, but the fact is that you make a lot more money than the average person in this state, have a far superior benefits package, and retire with a pension far better than most of the rest of us could ever hope to attain. From my vantage point that does not look like horrible treatment.

So, go ahead and vote your conscience and see what happens. I for one hope you change your mind and accept the contract in a proposed re-vote do over. But, if you don't, I would like to see Ford move as much work as possible away from your plant. Michigan is better off with a healthy domestic automobile industry, even if a majority of that industry is located out of state, than it is to be dependent on a critical patient that barely survives on taxpayer funded life support.

We'll see just how tough, proud, and smart you look standing in line outside the Michigan Works! office.