Actions Speak Louder Than Words

When it comes to a company and their loyalty to its employees, I have always felt that actions speak louder than words.

Remember this when it comes to your employer.

An example....

Fired Ford worker gets 30-year certificate Sat Jun 10, 12:01 PM ET

A former Ford Motor Co. employee fired in a downsizing move just before becoming eligible for a full pension says he's gotten a certificate honoring him for his years of service, calling it a "slap in the face."

Michael Stawasz, 49, lost his job as a transmission engineering technician in January about nine months short of his 30-year anniversary, the point when he would have been able to retire with full benefits, The Detroit News reported.

He and about two dozen others are suing Ford, accusing it of age discrimination and firing them to avoid paying full benefits.

Earlier this month, Stawasz got a package from Ford containing a certificate, a letter from Chairman and Chief Executive Bill Ford, and a gift catalog.

Ford said the anniversary package was meant to honor the recipients.

"People who may be in this situation had dedicated a lot of years to the company and, in accordance with company policy, they are eligible to receive an award in recognition for their service," Ford spokeswoman Marcey Evans said.

So much for ethics eh?

Bottom line, bottom line...

Do you buy Jap machines? How about Korean or Chineee machines? How about Jap inserts instead of Kenametal? or do you buy Chinee crap at HF and wallyworld or other products made other than those made by US people?

Do you drive a Jap car? and dont try to justify it by saying it was made in Ohio, the PROFITS GO BACK TO JAPAN.

If you do it much the same as telling your brother, your cuzzin, your Father or even someone not related to you that what ever it is that they make is crap and you would rather pay a foreigner to make products than a US citizen. Cuzzin Fredy, your fired, sis Sally, your fired.

Some day it will be your turn. Your customers will not call, and you eventually will call them and ask why. Thats when you learn that YOU WERE FIRED. They found someone else.

Lets make it a little closer to home. You have a 15 yr old Son who should get $10 for cutting your grass, becasue thats what it should be, but instead you pay a mexican or some other lanscaper $8. Sure, you saved 20% but the money went out of the family never to return. Had your Son earned that money it would have stayed within the family to be put to other uses.

Maybe the people of the US will wake up some day, but I doubt it will happen in time to prevent a slide into inflation and foreign ownership of to many of the assets of the USA.

You reap what you sow.

Yeah, but Gary. Had I kept my son to cut the grass and paid him the 10 bucks, he would have driven off in his honda, went to wallyworld, and bought himself an earing made in china.

Lets make it a little closer to home. You have a 15 yr old Son who should get $10 for cutting your grass, becasue thats what it should be, but instead you pay a mexican or some other lanscaper $8.

Click to expand...

Gary, Don't have any 15 year old kids with white
skin around here who will cut grass for any price, they would rather play video games
and get mommy to give them money.

I do have a Chevy Tahoe, purchased new and I
have a lot of Kenametal inserts. But sometimes
the only choice is a foreign country for an
item, find me a cordless drill that's not made in
China or Mexico and I will buy it. Funny thing
I am re-working parts that a customer had made
in China as we speak. He would rather pay me
75 cents to re-work the parts China sells him
for 25 cents, than pay me $1.50 to do them
right in the first place,,........Bob

Funny thing is everything in my driveway is made by American companies [GM] and assembled in Mexico or Canada mostly with forien parts! Although I don't own any, I know people who have plenty of Honda, Mercedeces, and Volvo stock so I would say the profit pretty much stays here with the scum bags that buy the stock. There the ones putting pressure on management for more earnings per share so the worker gets blamed that his measly wage and benifit package is whats killing the company, not the out of this world stock options or salaries that upper mgt and CEOs get!
American labor has taken a backslide in the last few decades. Sweatshops will be or are back with immigrant labor, and the gap between the working man and the neuvuorich will become uncrossable!
Theres no loyality anymore, workers have pockets full of promises with expired dates!
I hope Mr Stawasz and his friends clean house in there suit, for they had the ultimate insult.

When it comes to a company and their loyalty to its employees, I have always felt that actions speak louder than words.

You reap what you sow

My employer doesn't have to rake off a fortune to give me a Union mandated bloated guaranteed benefit pension. I get at best a 401K.

My employer has no incentive to dump me short of vestment because I have nothing to vest. Hence I am safe from what Ford did to this guy.

Whatsmore, since we don't have a Union where I work to gum up the works we'll probably be in business for many many years to come.

Gene

I'll probablly lose a star or two for this one but all I can say is, Aww poor little baby won't be getting his age 50 retirement and may actually have to work some more years like the rest of us.

In all reality, all I can say is that it sounds like both sides are greedy as all hell. That of course was a lousy move by ford to do to that guy but age 50 retirement with full pension!!!! Come on!! I'll bet you that the union who negotiated those deals back in the 1960's also negotiated cost of living increases in that guys pension. However did they negotiate a length of living increase into the pension plan as a whole? Probablly not!!! I mean when those contracts were written the average lifespan was 10 years less then it is now, so why not let the company ask for an average of 5-10 years extra of employment? With social security not paying now till 63, I think that it would only be fair for Ford's pension plan to follow suit.

One thing that I really hate is paying into social security knowing darn well at the rate it is going it won't be there for me. When the program was first written for every one taking out there were forty paying in. Today the number is 3paying in 1 taking out. When the baby boomer retire the number is said to move closer to 1 to 1. Face it guys age fifty retirement is a thing of the past. I wouldn't be supprised if I'd be lucky if I can retire at age 70!

Adam

Gene and Adam It appears you two have distaste for unions, thats your right. It's obvious that one of you is highly educated and the other is on his way. For people of the blue coller ranks a union job is considered top of the line and also end of the line. I'm a union man and proud of it, my union job put food on my table and clothes on my children.
No offence Adam, but your too young IMHO to judge here!
Gene, this guy with the suit against Ford,that you don't like, how many kids does he have? Is he a veteren?, a hero? disabled? Is he a volunteer fire-fighter? you don't see many white collars there, messes up the fingernails! what do you have against us? By salary standards we're not even middle class, give us a break or do you want the mexicans to take the rest of the "upper lower income workers" jobs!!

Steve

welcome to the real world Mr ford employee.

So are we forced to buy american, no matter the price or quality? American car makers make some damn good stuff, but they still have their problems. American cars were so bad[compared to imports] in the 70's and 80's they never deserved the business back. Now they worked themselves into the same hole. building gas guzzlers] that they were in in 1978, with the same results. The union workers are some of the most productive workers on the planet, unfortunately they are building crap I don't want. They should have weaned themsleves off the suv teat years ago.
telling everyone to 'buy american' or if they listened, would result in a soviet lifestyle for all of us, high prices, low supply, poverty.
Free markets are our only hope of relative wealth, but capitalism has its victims. Today it is the UAW workers.

Keithg,
your opinion of the auto's built in the time period you stated is just that YOUR BIASED OPINION. There were many good dependable cars made.

Now as for free markets...EXACTLY WHAT DO YOU MAKE?? so I can call it CRAP and hopefully help put YOU out of a JOB.

Maybe paying your kid to do something that he should be doing anyway is what has created the economic doom you say we're headed for, Gary.

Steve, maybe a younger opinion is just what is needed. And frankly who cares whether or not he's a "hero" or a fireman or a scoutmaster for that matter? Would that make him more deserving of a pension than a coworker that put in his time like everyone else only to go home and watch TV every night for 30 years?

Also, and I'm not directing this at anyone specific, what's with the union worker's exaggerated sense of importance? The "hey man, I built America" attitude makes me sick.

ah gary, such intelligent rebuttal, how can one not be convinced?

Sorry guys; I have only had very bad experiences with unions. I worked in a pharmacutical plant that was unionized. The union membership voted in a new contract. The contract also allowed the company to fire the bottom ten percent of the work force. Thirty days later the company hired new people to replace the fired employees. The new hires received fifteen percent less wages, forever. Union brotherhood just warms my heart.

When I was an Ironworker; my retirement and pension were carried by the union. When we all got pink slips in the eighties; my union executive comittee canceled all of our pensions and seniority. They deemed that even though I paid my union dues, I was no longer worthy of their protection. My pension was used for other things.

The same problems happened at the glass worker's union and the so-called brotherhood of electrical workers. Some people were more equal than others. Both of my parents were lifelong union members. Two years ago their union dropped them into insolvency. Funny how the union just got richer, and the union officers got big pay raises to go along with their bonuses. My parents are barely able to walk. Should they go out and get a job? The feds now provide them with seventy percent of their old benefits. The union just keeps sending out monthly magazines and trys to tell Mom and Pap how to vote. Those evil corporations must be stopped.

Union members should learn to not talk out of both sides of their mouths. I am never going to see a penny of consideration from any of the theiving unions I was forced to work under. All my pension money was deemed better suited for someone else. Last month my non union company deemed that we no longer needed a pension fund. My pension was cancelled. As of August; I will no longer have a 401K match either. There is a lot of squealing because most of us are going to roll our money somewhere else. I can not tell any difference in my situation, except I have no union dues to pay. I know I am going to work until I die. Those are just the breaks. Actions do speak louder than words.

keithg, you make a good case for selective memory. Since you dug into the 'way back' machine, how about digging a little deeper and not forgiving Japan for the absolute junk they built in the '50's?
Don't want to go back that far? Okay, how about the cars you mentioned of the '70's? Please, name a Japanese car that had high quality back then. If you do, where are they now? I recall them being nothing more than Super 90 motor bikes with four wheeels. They came at a perfect time though... we hadn't yet nailed them for 'dumping' so they were dirt cheap and the price of gas was at record highs. The vehicles themselves self-destructed in record time... rusted away and become rattle-traps soon after you drove them out of the showroom. They also had as much style as a used soap bar
I can't get word of it down here in 'Import Central', but are you aware that Toyota just recalled about 1,000,000 vehicles because the steering wheels might fail? Are you aware the largest and most expensive safety related recall in all automotive history was the Takata seatbelt recall in which many top Japanese brands were involved? Do you know who one manufacturer blamed for the failure of those seatbelts? YOU, the 'sloppy American' for jamming the cheap, plastic components with french fries!
Don't look now, Bucky but Toyota, Nissan, Lexus and many other Japanese branded vehicles are also behemoths with huge thirst!
Let he who is without sin...

Wow ! Out of the pan and into the fire! Like I said, everyone is entitled to there opinions and I'm Not going to argue against yours! As we all gain our experiences were tempered by the various work climates were exposed to. I had real bad experiences in non-union construction, getting into the Operating Engineers was the best career move I could ever make and have never regreted it! I'm sorry Charlie, that things didn't go well for you. Strength in unions must be territorial around large metropoloton areas. As far as your pension, if you worked the origional 10 yrs and later it was reduced to 5 yrs I'm not sure when, you should have "vested" those years of service ,to be collected at retirement. If the unions still there the moneys there on paper, I believe the law is called erissa or something close to that. IMO, I'd talk to a laywer
As far as a younger opinion I hope Adam didn't take offence by my saying he's too young! He's very smart and talanted but hasn't been in the work force long enough IMHO to feel the burn and anxiety a job can really put on you.
I'm sorry Marc that those of us that think that we built America make you sick, BECAUSE WE DID BUILD ALOT OF IT!!! We also defended it then and now. And we join fire depts so when something goes wrong at YOUR house we'll come and help! Sorry you don't like veterens either! My time was Nam, my sons time is the Gulf, his friends and my friends died so you can "get sick" at what others say . I love this country, I don't particulary like the way it's run, but thats my right I was there to defend it! Enjoy your your fredom .
Steve

While I'm impressed you totally didn't fly off the handle I think you got more out of my comment than what was actually written. For that reason I don't feel a need to defend myself against your claim I "don't like veterans". If you could expain why you think unions are so great fire away.

Ahhh yes, everyone else is an idiot, american cars are the best, all consumers are morons or victims of fraud perpetrated by foreigners. Could it be that the market rules, and customers have voted with their feet? The american car industry is dying of self inflicted wounds. bad business practices and lousy product development have caught up with GM and Ford, Chrysler barely qualifies as American anymore.
Notice I haven't blamed the unions. Keep shaking your fist, I'm sure someone in the bar will buy you a drink