What was happening at Ford HQ this morning?

[XR8320]

Heap of people out the front of HQ this morning with cars parked up on grassy area and flags as well, think they read EFU???

[GTP-814]

was it the press release for teh 50th BD model

[Sorted]

EFU - some Union Strike maybe

[Brazen]

Please be release of new RTV, please be release of new RTV.... One can dream.

[JPFS1]

EBA related strike.

[Fordman1]

Originally Posted by JPFS1

EBA related strike.

Trades

[Iggypoppin']

Just saw, the workers are protesting to get more pay and apprenticeships. Ford told the media that the strike would not affect production.
Investment in our youth by putting on new apprentices is something they should definetly do.

[Bossxr8]

Originally Posted by XR8320

Heap of people out the front of HQ this morning with cars parked up on grassy area and flags as well, think they read EFU???

Electrical trades union-ETU.

The AMWU Metals division were also involved.

[DJR-351]

http://www.geelongadvertiser.com.au/...1401_news.html

Hundreds of Ford Geelong maintenance staff in fight for better pay

Alex Oates

May 8th, 2010

HUNDREDS of angry maintenance workers at Ford's Geelong and Broadmeadows production plants will go on strike on Monday.

About 350 staff from the Manufacturers Trades Union will form a picket line at Ford's North Geelong plant at 7am, demanding a larger pay rise from the motor giant.

"The tradesmen believe it was appropriate the company offer them something better than 1.3 per cent," Australian Manufacturers Workers Union Victoria state secretary Steve Dargavel said.

"There's three issues, the first is the trades training, the second is the security of employment contracting issues and the third topic is the company's made a very low pay-increase offer, lower than most other companies offering metal trades in Geelong."

"In addition to that, the union has been pressing for the company to engage more apprentices and to resolve some problems with the companies contracting clause and general security issues."

Mr Dargavel said the strike was not brought about by Ford's recent announcement of a $13 million profit.

"Regardless of the company's reported figures, the cost of living still goes up, interest rates go up, tobacco, alcohol, petrol, housing, food that's all going up so if the employees were to accept the company's offer as it stands they would be effectively taking away a cut because the cost of living and increases across Australia is greater than the company has offered to pay," he said. "It's difficult to understand why highly skilled trades people are getting a lower paying pay increase at Ford in comparison to any company in the area.

"We don't pitch wage claims on how huge the company's profits are, it's very much pitched on need and we think they should not be subsidising the company by having their wage cut."

Mr Dargavel said the MTU had previous campaigned for better commitment to training practices at Ford. "A lot of the employees complain about not having enough tradesmen and a skills shortage justifying the use and abuse of guest workers and the union has been trying to employ more trades people," he said.

Ford Australia public affairs manager Sinead McAlary said "operations would work as normal", despite the strike.

"We'd prefer they wouldn't take action but we have systems in place so we can work around it and ensure production goes ahead."

[TUF_302]

Come on Ford, do the right thing and work with your employees, this is the kind of publicity Ford doesn't need!

[Elks]

Originally Posted by Bossxr8

-ETU.

.

I'm sure the F U was right

[GrimmReaper09]

I think Ford has to be one of the better behaved manufacturers when it comes to looking after it's workers.

[Luke Plaizier]

It's a difficult situation isn't it.

Somewhere in a Ford boardroom across the globe...."I hear that the Australian workers are striking again. What should we do about it?"

"We should move our manufacturing to somewhere that we only have to pay the workers $2 an hour and bypass the whole problem....."


The fix? Not so easy in the short term to solve this one, because I can appreciate both sides of the fence. But long term, in my opinion, Australia should have some sort of Fair Trade Agreement system whereby companies that wish to import goods into Australia must be able to prove that they paid their workers according to Australian award wage law. That would go some way to stopping everyone from jumping ship out of Australia and into developing countries.

How on earth can Ford Australia compete with Ford China or Ford Thailand - over there those places don't have to conform to Australian Award Wage Law? It's a no-brainer to relocate to there if it means bypassing laws that add to production costs. We've already lost the assembly of Focus to an off-shore factory......


Lukeyson

[KW XRT]

shivers with 13 million profit that is sad telstra paid some clown from america that.I'f i wasn't trying to buy a house I'd be ordering my new terratory.

[jpd80]

Originally Posted by Luke Plaizier

The fix? Not so easy in the short term to solve this one, because I can appreciate both sides of the fence. But long term, in my opinion, Australia should have some sort of Fair Trade Agreement system whereby companies that wish to import goods into Australia must be able to prove that they paid their workers according to Australian award wage law. That would go some way to stopping everyone from jumping ship out of Australia and into developing countries.

How on earth can Ford Australia compete with Ford China or Ford Thailand - over there those places don't have to conform to Australian Award Wage Law? It's a no-brainer to relocate to there if it means bypassing laws that add to production costs. We've already lost the assembly of Focus to an off-shore factory......


Lukeyson

Market pressure,
How many consumers would want to pay an extra of $6,000 or more
for cars just to keep worker parity between Thailand or Korea and here?

And bypassing labor laws is the least of their concerns, try bypassing taxes and environmental policies..
I'm wondering with Thailand on the verge of civil war just how safe Toyota/Mazda/Ford's long term plans there really are...