# Beware Of Ford Trucks



## prevish gang (Mar 19, 2006)

We had a story on our local news tonight about the Ford truck plant that is closing in Norfolk Va. The workers are upset because for is spending multiple millions of dollars to upgrade a Mexican plant where they will be taking the trucks instead of keeping the jobs here in the US. One of the workers on tv tonight said that truck quality is in direct corelation to plant moral and that plant moral is at an all time low. They said that for quality you might want another brand right now. I guess no one cares what happens to Ford since Ford hasn't been taking care of them. They were recommending Toyotas since they are built in the country. (Sad stuff) How many recalls do you see coming down the pike? (And here my husband was thinking about getting one) Something to think about although I hate to see an American auto maker go under.


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## johnp (Mar 15, 2004)

It only takes a couple of disgruntled workers to really mess up a company. Lets hope nobody gets killed because somebody wanted to cost Ford more bad press.

John


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## biga (Apr 17, 2006)

It is sad that the "American" automakers build most of their vehicles in Mexico and Canada now (thank you NAFTA) and the "Foreign" companies are making many of their vehicles in the US. And there are still a lot of people that will "only buy American" while they drive a car build in Mexico.


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## Highlander96 (Mar 1, 2005)

'Screatching my head" as we are getting ready to take the DW's 2004 EXPLODER back for another transmission problem..........









This time they say they are going to replace the tranny...........









Happy Outbacking!

Tim


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## Grunt0311 (Aug 23, 2005)

Hmmm, cant imagine why Ford would want to close the plant with workers like that







. I hope it was just some hot head mouthing off, and not a conspiracy to put the lives of other people at risk to settle a score!!

Bill


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## tdvffjohn (Mar 10, 2005)

Grunt0311 said:


> Hmmm, cant imagine why Ford would want to close the plant with workers like that
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They probably asked 20 workers for a comment and finally found one jacka.. who gave them a quote they wanted to 'make' the story.


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## NJMikeC (Mar 29, 2006)

Fine, then we should all reply that we won't buy the trucks and then that knucklehead and his cronies will be out of a job. Probably should have happened already!


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## Castle Rock Outbackers (Jan 18, 2004)

Alright, I know the GM folks are thinking it, so I'll go ahead and say it.

Like we needed a reason to beware of Ford trucks in the first place!










Randy


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## PDX_Doug (Nov 16, 2004)

And people wonder why the domestic auto companies are moving offshore.









Hopefully - as the others have said - this guy is an isolated case, because if this attitude is typical of the 'American work ethic', we are all in a lot of trouble. I feel bad everytime I hear of an American manufacturing facility closing and the impact it has on the lives of those in the surrounding communities, but I have no problems with people like this guy represents losing their jobs.

Happy Trails,
Doug


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## mountainlady56 (Feb 13, 2006)

Well, the guy was probably mouthing off, because he's upset that his family's probably not going to be able to keep living the lifestyle they've become accustomed to........such as the nice house they have, nice clothes, vehicles and great food on the table!! We had that happen to Coats & Clarks thread company, here, in Thomasville, GA. This company had been here probably a century, and, due to cheap labor, etc., they moved the business about 2 yrs. ago, to Mexico. Put a lot of long-term (20-30 yr.) employees out of a job, many of them not near retirement age (went to work there from high school, etc.). Many people lost their homes because of this.......one was a friend of mine, who had recently lost her husband to cancer, had a teenage daughter, and there was no severance package offered to them. BUMMER!!








Darlene action


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## biga (Apr 17, 2006)

PDX_Doug said:


> ...but I have no problems with people like this guy represents losing their jobs.
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Unfortunately, the only way this guy loses his job is to shut down the plant. "The Union" will protect him.

I worked as a contractor for a steel mill. I personally saw/heard a couple things that made me swear off unions for good.


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## Highlander96 (Mar 1, 2005)

sgalady said:


> Well, the guy was probably mouthing off, because he's upset that his family's probably not going to be able to keep living the lifestyle they've become accustomed to........such as the nice house they have, nice clothes, vehicles and great food on the table!! We had that happen to Coats & Clarks thread company, here, in Thomasville, GA. This company had been here probably a century, and, due to cheap labor, etc., they moved the business about 2 yrs. ago, to Mexico. Put a lot of long-term (20-30 yr.) employees out of a job, many of them not near retirement age (went to work there from high school, etc.). Many people lost their homes because of this.......one was a friend of mine, who had recently lost her husband to cancer, had a teenage daughter, and there was no severance package offered to them. BUMMER!!
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Needle trade.....What needle trade????? The textile and and furniture manufactuing operations from Southside, VA all the way to Florida have really taken their lumps.

It is a shame when someone looses his or her job...It is even more frustrating when they are just as lazy and ignorant.....









Happy Outbacking!

Tim


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## Ravens35 (Jun 5, 2006)

There was a time and a place for Unions. That time has since passed. If it weren't for Unions then Ford probably would be expanding the Norfolk plant, and never even thought of building one south of the border. Now it's the other way around. Sadly, the folks benefiting from Unions are not the American workers, or the companies that employ them. It is the Union fat cats, and the politicians that they buy.


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## LateralG (Feb 11, 2006)

Ravens35 said:


> There was a time and a place for Unions. That time has since passed. If it weren't for Unions then Ford probably would be expanding the Norfolk plant, and never even thought of building one south of the border. Now it's the other way around. Sadly, the folks benefiting from Unions are not the American workers, or the companies that employ them. It is the Union fat cats, and the politicians that they buy.
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Amen!


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## cookie9933 (Feb 26, 2005)

Castle Rock Outbackers said:


> Alright, I know the GM folks are thinking it, so I'll go ahead and say it.
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> Like we needed a reason to beware of Ford trucks in the first place!
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So do you think that GM employs an entirely different breed of worker from Ford?
You can be sure that a similar sentiment would come from some, not all, GM employees if their job was going somewhere out of the country. It's human nature that enthusiasm to perform will suffer when morale is diminished.

For that matter, why would you suspect that Toyota or Nissan, etc wouldn't have their workers cut from the same cloth? But I said "some, not all" workers will be disgruntled. Most will do their jobs properly like they always have.

Bill


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## mountainlady56 (Feb 13, 2006)

Highlander96 said:


> sgalady said:
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> > Well, the guy was probably mouthing off, because he's upset that his family's probably not going to be able to keep living the lifestyle they've become accustomed to........such as the nice house they have, nice clothes, vehicles and great food on the table!!Â We had that happen to Coats & Clarks thread company, here, in Thomasville, GA.Â This company had been here probably a century, and, due to cheap labor, etc., they moved the business about 2 yrs. ago, to Mexico.Â Put a lot of long-term (20-30 yr.) employees out of a job, many of them not near retirement age (went to work there from high school, etc.).Â Many people lost their homes because of this.......one was a friend of mine, who had recently lost her husband to cancer, had a teenage daughter, and there was no severance package offered to them.Â BUMMER!!
> ...


This isn't "needle trade"!! This company manufactured yarn, thread, material, etc., and it was shipped all over the entire United States as well as overseas!!
It was one of the main employers in our area for eras!! What do you mean by "when they are just lazy and ignorant"??? These people were neither!
Darlene


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## Highlander96 (Mar 1, 2005)

sgalady said:


> Highlander96 said:
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Darlene,

You took it out of context.

First of all, I am a government Economist. I study Industrial prices for a living and I spend 30 hours a week in factories in the Mid Atlantic Area.

I used the tern "Needle Trade" as a reference to the North American Industriall Classification System (NAICS). Yarn Manufacturing is lumped into the umbrella of needle trades. Sorry if I offended you.........Sometimes I speak in code and acronyms and not everyone understands.

I did not refer to your people as "Lazy or Ignorant". My reference was to how Unions have transformed certain trades in to Lazy and Ignorant people. *Again, no direct insult here. I am copied on e-mail communications from the USWA President in Pittsburgh once a week. You should see some of the inside information. * Sorry if that was misconstrued. When I reread it it did seem to come from nowhere.

My father is a Bethlehem Steel Retiree with 43 years of service...........You know what he gets??????Nothing, Nada, Zip........The unions have fleeced the contracts so much that there was nothing there. My father lost his health benefits in October 2003. He lost his leg in October of 2004 and He lost my mom in October 2005. The PBGC (Pension Benefit Guarntee Corporaton, for those who do not know) cut his pension 75% and the company stock that he worked soo hard to earn, was devalued on the NYSE (New York Stock Exchange).

I don't need to be lectured on urban plight as well. My wife is the Special Education Department Chair at the Middle School in the Sparrows Point Community. It has gone from being an excellent blue collar community to almost all transients. Everyone had to leave in search of work. We have seen communities devestated by factories closing.

BTW.....We also lost the General Motors Assembly plant last year as well. They cut 17,000 jobs. 1500 lucky employees got to transfer to the Allison Transmission plant right down the road. The rest were SOL.

Sorry if I offended anyone.........However the sad truth is that people are doing it cheaper and better......

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news on this one.

Happy Outbacking

Tim


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## prevish gang (Mar 19, 2006)

I agree Tim. My ex-husband was a union official at the NN Shipyard. I have never seen such a lack of performance in my life. He would have 4 weeks of paid vacation that came in on Nov 1st every year and he had blown through that by the end of Dec. With taking days off for feeling "sick" he would end up with an additional at least 4 weeks off without pay. How did he not get fired? The union protection!!! How is this a good thing for keeping up quality production? They were always B&*^%ing and moaning about how much money they weren't making, but if put into the real world where you have to earn your raises alot of them would have been fired years ago. Now not all union workers take advantage of the system and unions have some useful purposes, but to me they are in large responsible for the ruins that our airlines, automakers etc are facing. To be fair though, the big guys are just as responsible with their ridiculous salaries. There is fleecing everywhere and now it is time to pay the piper. I feel bad for these guys in Norfolk, but if alot of us would get off our lazy butts and work, we could make quality products that our American citizens would want to buy and then there would be job security.


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## Highlander96 (Mar 1, 2005)

prevish gang said:


> I agree Tim. My ex-husband was a union official at the NN Shipyard. I have never seen such a lack of performance in my life. He would have 4 weeks of paid vacation that came in on Nov 1st every year and he had blown through that by the end of Dec. With taking days off for feeling "sick" he would end up with an additional at least 4 weeks off without pay. How did he not get fired? The union protection!!! How is this a good thing for keeping up quality production? They were always B&*^%ing and moaning about how much money they weren't making, but if put into the real world where you have to earn your raises alot of them would have been fired years ago. Now not all union workers take advantage of the system and unions have some useful purposes, but to me they are in large responsible for the ruins that our airlines, automakers etc are facing. To be fair though, the big guys are just as responsible with their ridiculous salaries. There is fleecing everywhere and now it is time to pay the piper. I feel bad for these guys in Norfolk, but if alot of us would get off our lazy butts and work, we could make quality products that our American citizens would want to buy and then there would be job security.
> [snapback]123846[/snapback]​


Really good book out there about the Big Guns. It is called "Making Steel, The History of the Sparrows Point Plant", I can't remember the author, but is is published by the University of Chicago Press.

It details how when Andrew Carnegie owned Bethlehem, he brokered a deal to build German U-Boats in MD. His motto was "If we are going to bust, we'll go bust big". Bethlehem Steel was doomed from the 1950's.

US Manufacturing has been reduced from 70% 0f GDP in 1970 to 30% of GDP in 2000. That is a big shift in Operations.

Finally, I am not Anti or Pro Union. I believe that they have their place. I am Pro American Worker, but we need to realize that the world has changed, but we have not.......I see it every day.

I work on the Producer Price Index. PPI PRESS RELEASE

Happy Outbacking!

Tim


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## Scooter (May 9, 2005)

I have no clue what the heck ford is thinking with their restructuring plan. When this story was first reported in April I just shook my head. Who the heck is at the helm , making these idiotic decisions. I understand the company's need to restructure with a 1.X billion dollar loss last year but Norfolk has been one of Fords most successful plants building the f-150 since the early 70's. In 2001 the plantâ€™s productivity was ranked 17 out of 45 Auto assembly plants and In 2002 Ford allocated over 350 million to expand the plant. In 2005 they invested an additional $25 million to build an additional sequencing center to increase overall production. The decision to close Norfolk by 2008 is just stupid after they have invested so much monies.

Course then again perhaps the CEO is just plain jealous and the elimination of 30,000 jobs and the closing of 14 plants by 2012 is just part of an overall master plan to receive a 400 million golden parachute to keep pace with his Mobil Buddy.

Note : General Motors Corp. also going through their own restructuring initiative plans to close 12 plants by 2008.


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## Castle Rock Outbackers (Jan 18, 2004)

cookie9933 said:


> Castle Rock Outbackers said:
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> > Alright, I know the GM folks are thinking it, so I'll go ahead and say it.
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Not at all...my point was unrelated to the issue at hand. My point was, for GM faithfuls, we don't need to "beware" of Ford products for reasons like labor problems. We avoid them because we prefer GM.

Randy


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## PDX_Doug (Nov 16, 2004)

Sure am enjoying my Titan!









Happy Trails,
Doug


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## pjb2cool (Apr 8, 2004)

PDX_Doug said:


> Sure am enjoying my Titan!
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Ditto that Doug


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## jfish21 (Feb 14, 2006)

Just live in MICHIGAN these days and watch the news not fun wjth GM and ford.


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