General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsHow VW's Chattanooga plant 'Maximizes Production' from Workers -- It's Brutal and Beyond Inhumane
Take a Look at How One Factory 'Maximizes Production' from Workers -- It's Brutal and Beyond Inhumane
VW's Chattanooga plant provides a window into productivity-maximizing management schemes.
One of VW’s core lean tactics is “workforce flexibility”: competitive pressure from temps or part-timers.
At the Chattanooga plant, permanent employees work alongside “temporary” workers, some of whom have actually worked there for years. Pitted against one another, both groups fear to speak up.
Workers are routinely pushed to their physical and emotional breaking points. From management’s point of view, this maximizes productivity.
“Every employee there busts their ass and is injured and is working through the pain because they don’t want their job taken by a temp,” Amanda says. “It is made clear to all of us that we are easy to replace.”
That’s lean production in a nutshell: ruthless efficiency, produced by a system of efficient ruthlessness. Workers are deliberately stretched to their limits, by a combination of competitive pressure, inadequate training, repetitive stress, and rotating shifts—so that the weakest links can be identified and eliminated.
http://www.alternet.org/labor/take-look-one-factory-maximizes-production-us-workers-2015-its-brutal-and-beyond-inhumane
= new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight:
NoneDon't highlight anything
5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Omaha Steve
(108,448 posts)K&R!
OS
RGinNJ
(1,041 posts)
rpannier
(24,848 posts)to tell you how it is necessary to be competitive
and to stop complaining
Hoyt
(54,770 posts)to Obama and his plan to sell us down the river.
I can't really comment on this lady's job other than her fellow workers voted against a union after some seedy threats by Tennessesse government officials. The South is kind of stupid like that.
But, the majority of our jobs must not be as bad as people act, although some certainly are.
ND-Dem
(4,571 posts)Hoyt
(54,770 posts)wealth and resources.
Now, many apparently don't give a damn about people living in squalor in other countries.
I think Woody would be quite concerned about people in other countries who view even the lower middle class here as 1%ers.
ND-Dem
(4,571 posts)up the world's wealth and resources for a very long time.
for example, the US military is a creature of the 1%, and it's the biggest single sucker of energy in the world.
that's to protect the global interests of the 1%.
but you blame average Joes -- unlike woody Guthrie, the communist. I think woody would laugh hysterically at your crocodile tears.
Hoyt
(54,770 posts)Last edited Sun Apr 19, 2015, 11:55 AM - Edit history (1)
In any event, I think most people here are mire concerned about themselves than folks in other countries. By and large, almost all if us are doing much better than peasants in China, Mexico,Vietnam, etc, and most seem commited to keeping it that way.
And most don't seem to realize that helping them will help us as well. Fortunately, Obama does.
ND-Dem
(4,571 posts)
bvar22
(39,909 posts)...with your enthusiastic support for Union Busting "Free Trade".
brentspeak
(18,290 posts)And wouldn't he begin his song "All You fascist anti-TPP Progressives Are Bound To Lose" first with a group hug from multinational CEOS and US Chamber of Commerce President Tom Donohue, and then boldly declare, "Well, we'll show these fascist progressives who are against the TPP what a couple of hillbillies can really do...!"
1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)the US' TPP Objectives includes establishing/protecting the right to collective bargaining.
bvar22
(39,909 posts)....and NAFTA was going to protect American jobs too!!!!
How many times do you need........
1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)ND-Dem
(4,571 posts)But perhaps the most glaring omission in Obama’s and Clinton’s speeches is that NAFTA already includes robust, skillfully crafted labor and environmental agreements. [4] The same type of agreements they supported in other trade pacts.
After being elected into office, President Clinton renegotiated NAFTA to include agreements on labor and the environment. [5] The two side agreements balance concerns about national sovereignty with effective enforcement of basic labor and environmental standards. [5] They were key to winning over support for NAFTA in the Senate. [6] The North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation (NAALC), the side agreement on labor, marked the first time that reciprocal worker protections were included in a US free trade pact. [7]
http://www.law.illinois.edu/bljournal/post/2008/03/21/The-Existing-Labor-and-Environmental-Agreements-in-NAFTA
SusanCalvin
(6,592 posts)And I don't say whether it does or it doesn't, because I haven't looked in detail past my deal-breaker issue, which is that it places corporations above governments. That is so backwards.
Hoyt
(54,770 posts)have been in place for decades. And that only applies when a country, who is party to a trade agreement, tries to disadvantage a corporation doing business in their country in violation of the trade agreement.
There's a reason governments are willing to sign these trade agreements -- They want corporations to come to their country and provide jobs and other investments. The governments know that corporations will go elsewhere if there is not some assurance they won't be disadvantaged by governments.
For example, BMW wouldn't have opened a plant in rural South Carolina where there are not jobs otherwise, without some assurance some government official wouldn't discriminate against them and not other automakers.
God knows we need better, socially conscious managers and stockholders, but we'd be in a world of hurt without corporations. Most of us would still be living on dirt farms -- praying for good weather so we can eat whatever crops we can grow, and the outhouse won't get flooded -- had it not been for Ford and other corporations.
SusanCalvin
(6,592 posts)in my simple-minded way, it's not just lawsuits against unequal treatment within a country, it's lawsuits against enforcing such things as environmental regulations.
If countries aren't, for example, allowed to establish and enforce their own environmental regulations, we're in a race to the bottom. (Of course, aren't we already.)
What I believe I understand of it so far (and of previous trade agreements) is that countries are not allowed to stand in the way of profit, for whatever reason.
Minor amount of research turned up:
http://www.citizen.org/documents/Fancy1.pdf
http://fpif.org/nafta-20-model-corporate-rule/
https://www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/212/45381.html
Hoyt
(54,770 posts)companies have to comply.
What they can't do is pass laws that disadvantage a foreign company over domestic companies by violating a trade agreement.. Well actually the could discriminate and the law would still stand, but the foreign company MIGHT have a case for actual damages..
For example, a foreign company is given a property tax exemption to build a big plant in a rural area, after they build the plant some xenaphobe council taxes them anyway. To me the company has grounds for damages.
SusanCalvin
(6,592 posts)But I don't think that's all that's going on with these agreements.
(Oops, meant to reply to you, not myself.)
1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)that allows a corporation couldn't bring suit under the agreement because a nation-state has tax laws, thereby negatively effecting profits?
This is what you are saying.
Hoyt's example/explanation is much closer to what is likely in the TPP.
SusanCalvin
(6,592 posts)But I don't understand what you are saying, except that you agree with Hoyt. So I'll just go with that.
1StrongBlackMan
(31,849 posts)the "corporate derision of nation-state sovereignty over loss profits" arguments/claims are simplistic and over-blown.
And I suspect, intentionally, so.
rhett o rick
(55,981 posts)People do give a damn about people living in squalor but forcing us to live in squalor won't help those in other countries. NAFTA, we were told, would increase the standard of living for Mexicans, but that was a corporate lie. The 1% got the benefit of the cheap labor and the workers got shit.
Marr
(20,317 posts)Scootaloo
(25,699 posts)The american poor. Since they're not "as poor" as say, some shoeless starving kid in Somalia, they must have it pretty good, and have no reason to complain?
Hoyt
(54,770 posts)I think my record on the poor is clear including minimum wage increases, education, health care, welfare, taxing the hell out of corporations and wealthy to provide funds for all that, etc.
brush
(61,033 posts)it's a shame that they did, now they have to compete with temps to keep their job.
It they had a union management would not be able to get away with that.
Guess some people have to learn the hard way.
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)I have zero sympathy for them. Zero.
pampango
(24,692 posts)Taft-Hartley was passed by a republican congress over Truman's veto. No progressive country has anything like it.
I would rather we pattern ourselves after those countries that trade a lot with the rest of the world (rich and poor) and have strong unions and healthy middle classes. They aren't "competitive" by lowering their wages.
"Right-to-work" states don't break unions and mistreat workers in order to be 'competitive'. They do it to enrich the 1%. Don't give them too much credit.
BlancheSplanchnik
(20,219 posts)
BlueJazz
(25,348 posts)They LOVE to make it sound like it could be great for the workers.
The average person would think "mmm ...workforce flexibility”: That sounds nice! 
Must mean the workers can be more Flexible with their hours and maybe even with their workdays!
No..It means what all those fucking "Cute Ass" terms mean = Ramming a 2x4 up the poor workers ass. 
arcane1
(38,613 posts)hifiguy
(33,688 posts)"business schools" is an abomination unto Dog. Were I emperor for a day I would shutter every business school in the country after giving the accountants their own department. We need accountants, we sure as shit do not need "financial engineers" marketing "wizards" and manipulative HR sadists.
NBachers
(19,187 posts)This is the corporate plan for the human race.
SamKnause
(14,707 posts)Thanks for posting.
I have worked at several companies like this.
I have been sprayed with spittle by raging co-workers.
I have had objects thrown at me.
I was trapped in a machine because the supervisors ordered
the electrician to disconnect the safety curtains. (They were slowing down the lines)
I was trapped in a machine because the computer head malfunctioned.
The faulty computer head was removed and placed on another workers machine.
The companies are given notice before OSHA inspections.
They hide every piece of faulty equipment, install safe guards on machines, paint and clean up in general.
When OSHA leaves it is business as usual.
The safety guards come off, the faulty equipment gets reinstalled and the lines fire up.
I saw a lady have 2 of her fingers severed because the man who was training her
was upset that she had more seniority than his wife.
I was strong, very strong and independent.
After working at company after company, they broke me.
I have been disabled for 7 years.
My life has drastically changed.
I will live in poverty for the remainder of my life.
P.S. Two of the companies had unions. Things like this do happen in union shops.
The power of unions in this country have been weakened considerably.
This country NEEDS STRONG unions that represent the needs
of the workers, not the corporations !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh well, life sucks and then you die.
I am actually looking forward to that.
edgineered
(2,101 posts)hang in there. Your being here helps to make the world a better place.
SamKnause
(14,707 posts)Depaysement
(1,835 posts)At its logical and idealistic core.
brush
(61,033 posts)There are now only 5 or 6 big banks that have consolidated the financial sector whereas not so long ago there were hundreds of banks — same with media companies. Now there are only 3 or 4.
And with every merger jobs are shed wholesale because of course there is no need for duplication and the remaining workers have to take on more for the much larger company.
If unfettered capitalism is allowed, with weaker and weaker regulation thanks to the repugs, to play itself out, there will eventually be only one big bank and one media corporation that have managed to gobble up all the others and then we are really screwed as the remaining corporations will then turn on each other for growth.
There always has to be growth.
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)And they are doing all they can every day to bring the plan to fruition.
ND-Dem
(4,571 posts)SamKnause
(14,707 posts)
Dustlawyer
(10,536 posts)suddenly you hit a spot and start back up. It's your state of mind, decide what it is you need to do to get back up and bust your ass to do it!
SamKnause
(14,707 posts)You can only be knocked down so many times.
Dustlawyer
(10,536 posts)or a special person who will fight with/for you! Circumstance change, nothing is static, so I hope that things start going your way soon! Best of luck!
SamKnause
(14,707 posts)Motivation ???
I had ample motivation.
I am not sure you understand the situation.
Do you suffer from panic attacks ???
Do you suffer from agoraphobia ???
Do you have panic attacks when you leave your house to go to work ?
Do you suffer from agoraphobia because the thought of leaving
your house terrifies you.
Have you ever worked in a factory that was so hot your legs got 2nd degree burns ?
Maybe you did not intend to be condescending, but you come off that way.
I was strong.
I was very strong !!!
I was bull headed.
I was a fighter.
YOU CAN ONLY BE KNOCKED DOWN SO MANY TIMES !!!
Exactly what fight are you referring to ???
AuntPatsy
(9,904 posts)
SamKnause
(14,707 posts)AuntPatsy
(9,904 posts)At a time..
SamKnause
(14,707 posts)
tazkcmo
(7,419 posts)You are not alone. There are people that care. About YOU.
SamKnause
(14,707 posts)SusanCalvin
(6,592 posts)But I am grateful you posted your story. People need to be reminded that this garbage happens, too often.
SamKnause
(14,707 posts)
daredtowork
(3,732 posts)SamKnause
(14,707 posts)You have my permission to use it in any way you see fit.
I left many things out.
I worked in a factory that was so hot I received second degree burns on my legs.
The last factory I worked at cut the workforce to the bone.
I operated 4 machines, I was the only one on my shift responsible for putting data into a computer
that printed tickets to six printers for loads on pallets, and was responsible for testing products.
The equipment was old and outdated.
A supervisor called maintenance to my work area to repair two of the machines
I was operating.
They were each malfunctioning once every minute.
The maintenance man told the supervisor the company would not allow him
to order new parts.
He said the machines were junk and needed to be replaced.
My supervisor said, "Do the best you can".
How do you do your job when the machines do not operate ???
I worked in a factory where rebar (steel rods) that did not pass safety inspections
for the U.S. were shipped to Puerto Rico.
One of the companies I worked for was so stressful many, and I mean many people
were on anti depressants.
I don't think a lot of people know how rough it is out there.
daredtowork
(3,732 posts)I had one job where I carried a pager that went off at 2am every night - the problem was always the same: it was just procedure to call me to reboot this particular computer. It took about an hour. The pager was supposed to be passed around a team of people on a weekly basis but since it caused so much loss of sleep, everyone found a way to leave it with the low person on the totem pole (me). After months of stressed out sleep-deprivation, I quit. I'm not sure I would have made the same decision had I been allowed to sleep on a regular basis.
Luckily I only had a job that actively endangered my health once, and it lasted for less than a year: but because of that I know that there are workplaces that try to push their workers in inhuman ways because the managers aren't able to push back on whatever pressure they are under.
heaven05
(18,124 posts)and is incontrovertible. Thanks.
SamKnause
(14,707 posts)KT2000
(21,959 posts)chaotic sleep cycles is a prescription for death.
former9thward
(33,424 posts)I worked at a steel mill in Chicago for 14 years. We worked 7 days of days, then 7 days of midnights and then 7 days of afternoons. We got 5 days off a month which was a mini vacation. No one complained. And guess what? I am not dead. It is not a great schedule but one that is necessary to keep 24/7 steel mills operating.
KT2000
(21,959 posts)have seen it take the toll on older workers.
ND-Dem
(4,571 posts)Recently, the BLS reported that the proportion of full-time wage and salary workers employed working alternative shifts now sits at 14.8%. This figure is supported by a poll conducted by the National Sleep Foundation (NSF) in 2005, which found 14% of Americans work shifts.
While there has been a slight drop in the number of white Americans working these hours - from 16.2% in 1997 to 13.7% in 2004 - the proportion of black, Asian and Latino Americans working alternative shifts has remained largely the same. In May 2004, the percentages for these groups were 20.8%, 15.7% and 16%, respectively.
At first glance, it appears as though the main factor connecting shift workers is that they work different hours to the typical "9-to-5" routine. However, multiple studies report that there is something else that connects bar staff, long-distance truck drivers, nurses and police officers - an increased risk for certain diseases....
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/288310.php
and guess what else? that schedule is not "necessary" at all, except for the profit needs of capital.
Sherman A1
(38,958 posts)Indeed it is as you have pointed out. 
former9thward
(33,424 posts)All steel mills use it whether represented by the United Steelworkers Union or not.
ND-Dem
(4,571 posts)former9thward
(33,424 posts)I'll just leave it at that...
ND-Dem
(4,571 posts)
treestar
(82,383 posts)although some types of factories might have to keep going all night.
Hospitals have to keep going all night.
ND-Dem
(4,571 posts)steel plants don't have to run all night; they could run multiple shits during the day with more plant, for example, and get the same amount of product.
it just wouldn't be as efficient for capital. but maybe it wouldn't be *so* different, as workers would be better rested & happier, therefore more productive.
that's not the only possibility either.
Art_from_Ark
(27,247 posts)In a factory where the work was very demanding. Seven days straight of the 4-to-midnight shift, then a couple of days off, 3 days of 8am to 4pm, one day off, 3 more days 8am to 4pm, one day off, then 7 straight nights of the grueling midnight-to-8 shift. The four days off after that last shift were spent mainly trying to get back on a daytime schedule.
And nearly everyone complained. The turnover rate was 98% in a year. Management, which had regular Monday-Friday hours, blamed the high tunover rate on everything but the grueling swing shift.
1939
(1,683 posts)But provide a pay differential for the 4-12 and a larger one for the 12-8. You bid on a shift by seniority. Some guys spent their whole career on the midnight shift because they liked the pay differential.
Art_from_Ark
(27,247 posts)It was a Michigan-based company that had set up a factory in Arkansas, where they were paying $5/hour, half the going rate in Michigan at the time. We were always being told "You should be glad you have a job during a recession!!!!" And all the managers were from Michigan-- it was almost impossible for a local Arkansas worker to advance beyond shift supervisor.
1939
(1,683 posts)Michigan just loves to exploit the workers in low wage third world countries like Arkansas!
Art_from_Ark
(27,247 posts)Although from what I heard, Daisy wasn't a bad place to work for. Cass Hough, the guy who got Daisy to move to Rogers, Arkansas in 1958, became a sort of local hero there, and at one time the local library and tennis courts were named after him.
malthaussen
(18,404 posts)But not for the pay differential, which was just gravy. No, the good thing about the midnight shift is that there are no suits from management coming around to hassle you. I imagine it differs from place to place, but the night shift always seemed to be just as productive as the other shifts while having a much more relaxed pace.
-- Mal
treestar
(82,383 posts)Did people with seniority get to keep the day shift?
Art_from_Ark
(27,247 posts)Shift supervisors might have worked just one shift, though.
treestar
(82,383 posts)another friend who was a nurse stayed on the midnight shift permanently.
That's the thing, everyone can't have the day shift, so would you have preferred committing to the night shift or swing shift to avoid the difficulties, or preferred the shift change to have some weeks when you aren't on a shift like the night shift? And was that an option?
What I do would never allow it, but if it did, I'd probably dig the night shift.
I wonder if keeping one shift is an option there. Sounds like it is not from the article.
former9thward
(33,424 posts)before the steel mill. I did prefer the straight shift. But I understood the need the steel mill production process to have a rotating shift. And so did the rest of the union members.
heaven05
(18,124 posts)are you still at that steel mill? Are you doing the same schedule?.....no sympathy for people who are really hurting. 
former9thward
(33,424 posts)Click my profile and you would see I am not there anymore. I sympathize with people who don't like it but sometimes things can't be changed and you need to ask yourself if you should be doing something else. I would never work at a job where I was "really hurting".
heaven05
(18,124 posts)...
ND-Dem
(4,571 posts)protection and low wages working alongside older workers with union contracts and benefits.
dog eat fucking dog.
liberal_at_heart
(12,081 posts)
Skittles
(169,626 posts)Politicalboi
(15,189 posts)VW's might not be safe with these working conditions.
arcane1
(38,613 posts)I think I'm going to do that
BeanMusical
(4,389 posts) MannyGoldstein
(34,589 posts)Isn't this the plant that VW is demanding become unionized so workers can have representation in decisions?
I'm seriously confused.
awoke_in_2003
(34,582 posts)because they know it won't happen. If it does they will make "corrections " and open another plant elsewhere. We think Germans are more enlightened than us, and they probably are, but corporations know no nationality. Profit at all cost.
brush
(61,033 posts)an official our of the governor's office intervened with threats of job loss and the workforce, against their best interests, narrowly voted down the union.
VW itself wanted a union as the Germans have found in their own country, strong unions bring more productive workforces and higher morale.
So you can't really fault the parent company for this.
awoke_in_2003
(34,582 posts)Now that this story is out, let's see if the parent company does anything about it
VanillaRhapsody
(21,115 posts)stacked 10 to a room stacked like cord wood....with 1 bathroom for 150 people....36 hour shifts (with head down naps so you can work that long)....1 day off a year...for Christmas of course...they want us lining up outside the prison gates that surround the factories waiting to get in to replace anyone that falters...
procon
(15,805 posts)Coal mines, logging, steel and textile mills built a monopoly of cheap housing and overpriced company stores for workers and their family members who all worked for the company. If not for the unions, like the Tennessee William's ballad said, we'd all still 'owe our souls to the company store'. Now that the GOP has destroyed the unions for the oligarchs, they are eager to usher in those good ole days again.
VanillaRhapsody
(21,115 posts)
Fumesucker
(45,851 posts)procon
(15,805 posts)ND-Dem
(4,571 posts)heaven05
(18,124 posts)
awoke_in_2003
(34,582 posts)"If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever."
In 1984, the tormentor was the government. In our Brave New World, the tormentor is big business- they are the one running EVERYTHING
daredtowork
(3,732 posts)I just read an article about how business unite - often under the leadership of big developers - to declare whole areas of cities "Business Improvement Districts". Once they do that, then they can hire private police and lobby local government for laws that "improve business" in that area instead of regarding it as public space.
http://www.thestreetspirit.org/block-by-block-a-bid-by-merchants-to-seize-the-public-commons-and-erode-the-rights-of-the-poor/
Some updates on the results:
http://www.thestreetspirit.org/democracy-under-attack-on-the-streets-of-berkeley/
http://www.thestreetspirit.org/why-criminalizing-poverty-sells-in-berkeley/
http://www.thestreetspirit.org/berkeleys-sweeping-anti-homeless-legislation/
PowerToThePeople
(9,610 posts)Disreputable management teams have co-opted an engineering term for their own purposes to make it sound legitimate. Poor treatment of workers and strenuous work conditions are not a theory of Lean Production.
Moostache
(10,983 posts)I am a certified Lean Green Belt and you are 100% correct - abusing workers and creating hazardous conditions are the exact OPPOSITE of Lean manufacturing. Lean comes from a GM initiative in post-WWII Japan that became known as the "Toyota Way". Its a theory based on REDUCING the movements and necessary steps of a process to the most efficient form, NOT reducing the workforce to the fewest possible bodies in a line.
Chinese and Southeastern Asian sweatshop conditions are about as far from Lean Manufacturing as it gets.
I collaborate with line workers to help design work stations and process steps that make their lives easier and more efficient - eliminating unnecessary walking to get parts or equipment, bringing work to the employee or technician instead of having them walk or lift it themselves, utilizing robotics to eliminate repetitive motions instead of forcing workers to develop things like repetitive stress injuries or carpal tunnel syndrome. I know some places do this, but the point is not to say that is OK, just to point out that its not synonymous with "Lean".
PowerToThePeople
(9,610 posts)Have worked both as a design engineer and manufacturing engineer in various manufacturing environments. Fairly familiar with Lean concepts/practices and have debated getting the six sigma certs, but have not pulled the trigger as of yet.
tammywammy
(26,582 posts)
Budgies Revenge
(216 posts)Just because someone calls a system "Lean" doesn't mean it has anything to do with actual Lean principles.
Initech
(107,460 posts)I've dealt with horrible bosses and supervisors, and it's horrible. We need a revolution in this country. 
people willingly vote for this crap. The communist threat is dead so the rich have no reason to treat their workers well anymore. Temp agencies are nothing more than labor pimps. This is our non unionized "right to work" "at will" paradise the GOP promised us.
hfojvt
(37,573 posts)without actually working there, but it sounds somewhat like the plant where I last worked (way back from 1998 to 2001 off and on). I worked there as a temp for three years. There were lots of temps who had been there a long time, and were trying to become non-temps. Myself included. I applied there three or four times without even getting an interview.
Did this put lots of pressure on the non-temps?
Ha! Double Ha! and as if.
Having worked on the swing shift with them, I counted many of them as friends and found them to be very knowledgeable about the machines there, but by and large they were a bunch of slackers.
One legendary story was of a guy who was asked a member of this touring group "so what do you do around here?" and his answer was "as little as possible". The hilarious part of the story was - it turns out he was talking to the new plant manager.
The other hilarious part was that - nothing happened to him. At no time in the three years I was there did I ever see or hear of a long termer getting fired and then getting replaced by a temp. They did hire some temps - I can think of at least two, (and a third that they started to hire, but then found he lied on his application) but they hired other people as well when they did hiring.
The work was generally pretty slack, although the swing shifts were brutal, especially on my co-workers. There were also ways to get hurt. One lady did get badly injured and some wondered if she would ever recover. The plant was getting ready to adapt to new ergonomics rules - when suddenly Bush got elected and they didn't have to. Most of the workers treated the word "ergonomics" as a joke.
I'd probably still be there if they had hired me. I didn't think the work was bad. It made me angry to be a temp for so many years, but otherwise ...
Yet it could be described just like that VW plant.
Trillo
(9,154 posts)Mostly republicans, I think.
Lots of bosses work like this VW plant, though not all of them. I wonder why the news is trying to make this manufacturer out like they have some kind of specialized technique imported from an exotic land. Being mean and having slaves is as old as humans, nothing new about it.
forthemiddle
(1,459 posts)And they were on the swing shift. Every contract period the company would try and negotiate set shifts because they had trouble recruiting due to the swing shift model. Every contract the union refused to budge on this issue.
Apparently there were to many "long timers" there that were afraid of not getting on 1st shift, and they also didn't want to lose the shift differential pay, that the union refused to negotiate that.
It is still that way to this day. The lab area of the factory is not union, so they have set shifts, and that is the most applied for area.
Go figure.....
DBoon
(24,749 posts)Not much has changed in over 150 years.
whereisjustice
(2,941 posts)employees in a viscous fight for survival.
rjsquirrel
(4,762 posts)Viscous survival that is!
BlueinOhio
(238 posts)Remember that VW is Nazi. They were invited into our country after WWll to help with the unamerican activities. That in its self was unamerican including the committee. The committee filled with republicans. There was several so called american companies that were there in germany and served the enemy. GM did not want their ball bearings plant destroyed yet it was making tanks. Coke a cola was not permitted to send cola and that is were the Fanta came from. Not to mention families that made money and built companies from nazi money. They needed to have their money and assets confiscated.
treestar
(82,383 posts)One girl said they yelled at her all day. What kind of peer pressure?
They can't violate federal laws about working conditions. Report them. Tennessee is very red and might not have a good set of those in addition.
Inadequate training would be stupid for the manufacturer - that would cost them, not save them, money.
People tend to want rotating shifts rather than commit to a night shift all the time - so is that really done purposely to abuse them?
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)It would NEVER fly in Germany or Western Europe.
madokie
(51,076 posts)our 2014 focus was union built in Wayne Indiana. 72 percent of everything in the car is Union made, thats damn near 3/4ths of it. Most of what wasn't was made in either Canada or Mexico.
TNNurse
(7,494 posts)He lobbied hard for this. He was previously mayor of Chattanooga.
Remember this when you see him big touted as such a big deal on foreign affairs and on the interview shows acting like a good guy.
He is not.
Plucketeer
(12,882 posts)these conditions are a real plus for the quality of the product they turn out, 