Apparently, auto workers won't be completely satisfied until each and every last one of them is out of a job, collectively...
Ford Motor Co.'s rank-and-file union members rejected a concessions agreement, leaving the auto maker at risk to higher costs compared with competitors Chrysler Group LLC and General Motors Co.
[..]
Sealing the fate of the concessions was the "no vote" from UAW members at the auto maker's Dearborn Assembly Truck plant in Michigan and the Kentucky Truck plant. Dearborn workers voted 93% against the contract while 84% voted down the changes in Kentucky.
The Kentucky and Dearborn votes make it impossible for the remaining locals to pass the measure. The UAW needs a majority of the 41,000 voting members.
Workers disliked the company's demand for a wage freeze on entry level workers and the inability for the UAW to strike over the life of the contract. They question the need for more concessions as the auto maker's financial picture improves.
I won`t feel sorry for a single one of them when they are all out of work. Sadly I can`t say the same for the folks that thought they where buying blue chip stocks for their retirement when they invested in Ford. On the whole they are to old to start new careers but I still hope Ford puts them all on the street. My retirement funds went down the toilet and I am surviving I guess they will too.
Posted by: Bob Devine | November 01, 2009 at 06:36 PM
Talk about your purple koolade, the only auto manufacturer that didn't take government handouts and tries to make it on their own merits and their own workers screw them and themselves. I just wonder what these 80-90% of the workers think they are going to do to put bread on the table. I assume that only those union members who are working got to vote.
Posted by: Texas Canuck | November 01, 2009 at 06:53 PM
No sympathy here either...instruments of their own destruction.
Posted by: Chris! | November 01, 2009 at 07:17 PM
heh ... your headline was exactly what I thought when I heard the announcement on my last trip back from AR.
The union mentality is certainly "interesting" ...
And now I'm just starting to regret buying a new F250 this spring ... my final decision making point was that they WEREN'T part of ObamaMotors ... gah!
Posted by: pete in Midland | November 02, 2009 at 02:29 PM
So Ford's EEEVIL management had the courage and foresight to avoid government ownership through bailout money, was just starting to become profitable, was praised for having some very good new vehicles, and NOW Big Labor is going to ruin it all!
I'm really surprised that such a large share of Kentucky workers voted to reject. Kentucky is a right-to-work state with a strong work ethic and common sense. Dearborn doesn't surprise me at all.
Union dinosaurs never learn and are about to become extinct. A lot of workers will suffer as their jobs go away, but I'll bet the union bosses manage to feather their own nests enough so THEY don't suffer much.
Posted by: Monnie | November 02, 2009 at 05:46 PM
Unions won't die out until the Democratic party dies out. They keep each other in business. And by business I mean extortion and theft.
Posted by: bernie | November 04, 2009 at 04:31 PM
If Ford was becoming profitable BEFORE getting the concessions, Monnie, why will not getting in the future what they don't have now suddenly make them unprofitable? Just curious.
And since Ford recently announced a third-quarter profit of $1B, how do you define "just starting to become profitable" ? How much do they have to make to be officially profitable?
Posted by: finn | November 05, 2009 at 01:14 PM
Based on total sales and previous losses a lot more than a billion.
Posted by: Greg | November 05, 2009 at 02:32 PM