Report: vehicles built by low wage, chronically absent UAW workers are less reliable

[Henry Whalley]

The Detroit News

Interesting article if you can get behind the paywall. In this case, it may be prudent to avoid trucks and jeeps built in Warren, MI, by "new production operators, hired as part-time supplemental workers, begin at $15.78 per hour...when they can make $17 per hour working in a restaurant or $18 per hour at a food warehouse."

It's not surprising that workers who are paid such paltry wages would not be the most conscientious. Furthermore, if the plant hires 100 supplemental workers, 20 to 30 actually might show up. The rest say to hell with this.

[jcole]

This isn't new; I remember back in the 70's/80's when cars from the Big Three were dodgy because half the workforce was smuggling booze, coke and weed into work or hitting the bars on lunch hour. They actually had it broken down to cars built on certain days and shifts were better than others. Fridays were bad

[Richard]

Right?

Everything else in our life is built by low wage workers,the shirt of your back is made by somebody making $2 per day.

I tried that before with employees,it does not matter if you pay them double or half of the going rate,amount of the wage does not equate to quality of production of employees.

The term of - It’s hard to find good help has been around for centuries.

It’s the conditioning of employees telling management that they have to prove to the employee how much they are worth to them verses the opposite.

[Cincinnati_Kid]

This isn't new; I remember back in the 70's/80's when cars from the Big Three were dodgy because half the workforce was smuggling booze, coke and weed into work or hitting the bars on lunch hour. They actually had it broken down to cars built on certain days and shifts were better than others. Fridays were bad

Fridays and Mondays.

[Jimaz]

I've noticed quality declines across the board since Covid started. Even the venerable Coca Cola brand was turning out pull tabs that pulled off before opening the can. Oddly, packaging was hard hit. Lids are screwed on too tight to open without tools. Various companies are using substitute packaging for their products. Odd color changes for no apparent reason.

The Great Resignation has created a Great Training Shortage.

[Rocket]

The Great Resignation has created a Great Training Shortage.

^ That comment is HUGE actually.

This work from home nonsense will prove catastrophic in 5 - 10 years.

Very little of what one needs to know in order to do their jobs well is learned in college [if any]. Most is learned on the job from the older workers.

What happens when those older workers who know everything about their job aren't in the same building as the new hires? Not good.

[Henry Whalley]

I remember back in the 70's/80's when cars from the Big Three were dodgy because half the workforce was smuggling booze, coke and weed into work or hitting the bars on lunch hour.

Agreed. And probably it wasn't just workers on the factory floor but everyone up the food chain, foremen, supervisors, managers, local union officials, honchos at Solidarity House, corporate executives, etc. By the early 70's drugs were everywhere. Nixon was an alcoholic. Opium was flowing-in from Indochina seems.

My last good American car was a 1967 Dodge Polaris made in Hamtramck by workers who must have been sober.

[Zacha341]

I clearly remember that time marking when I walked away from American made cars. There's not such a clear demarkation anymore [Kia's are pretty ratty - per all the recalls - seized engines, BMW - Burns My Wallet, etc.].

Too bad for the Chrysler-Fiat/ Stillantis empire. Add to that those Italian engines shoved under the hood and weak transmissions. Umm, eh-no.

This isn't new; I remember back in the 70's/80's when cars from the Big Three were dodgy because half the workforce was smuggling booze, coke and weed into work or hitting the bars on lunch hour. They actually had it broken down to cars built on certain days and shifts were better than others. Fridays were bad

[Richard]

^ That comment is HUGE actually.

This work from home nonsense will prove catastrophic in 5 - 10 years.

Very little of what one needs to know in order to do their jobs well is learned in college [if any]. Most is learned on the job from the older workers.

What happens when those older workers who know everything about their job aren't in the same building as the new hires? Not good.

Alex Atwood, the chief executive officer of tech startup GravyWork, told the Journal that his Virginia-based company may have to pay an estimated $500,000 in total costs after a former software engineer worked remotely for long stretches in California and Texas without telling him.

https://www.businessinsider.com/remo...n-fees-2022-11

Even notice how the media has been reluctant to post the thousands that are being laid off on a daily based across the country.

I remember recessions in the 70s 80s 90s 2000s where you could not find a job because there was none,the cycle has always been there,we had a good 7 year run and now it will be time for the cut backs and mass layoffs.

People think today will last forever,it never does,the great resignation was about those who were close to retirement decided to just advance the timeframe,the rest that do not want to work or feel it is their right to dictate terms to employers will be getting a sharp dose of reality.

Most of the machine and metal shops around me that I have used for years,have shut down because the average workers hit retirement age during the pandemic,the only thing that is really going to happen in the future is we will become a service economy that will only support a bloated $15 per hour wage,but with the technology it is easy enough to replace them with robots.

Remember when they kept talking about the new normal?

This is our new normal that blows China out of the water,we get to pay high prices for crap verses what we were doing in the past with paying low prices for crap.

Besides there are plenty flowing across the border,they work hard,are willing to learn and only ask for fairness in return,why waste time messing about with entitled American workforce.

[Richard]

I clearly remember that time marking when I walked away from American made cars. There's not such a clear demarkation anymore [Kia's are pretty ratty - per all the recalls - seized engines, BMW - Burns My Wallet, etc.].

Too bad for the Chrysler-Fiat/ Stillantis empire. Add to that those Italian engines shoved under the hood and weak transmissions. Umm, eh-no.

There was some good cars built in the 80s but at the higher end of the spectrum,I think the manufacturers were still stuck in the 60s n 70s where the majority of the buying public bought a new car every couple of years and never put 80,000 miles on them,so they were never built to last,that’s why you could not give an American car away that had 100,000 miles on it.

Money was tight,it was a recession,if you were not in the snow trade,so people were looking for cheap,the first Hyundais were junk,they had a lot of imported just to break into the American market cars that were cheap junk also.

The Suzuki Samurai had a sticker on the firewall that clearly stated - Manufacture life expectancy of this vehicle does not exceed 50,000 miles.

At least they were honest.

The low budget cars were junk,but the higher dollar ones were a lot better quality.

Buick gran national,Chevrolet MC SS,full bodied Cadillacs,even the Chevrolet cavalier was a decent little car,until it thought it was a Cadillac.

The Escort,Citation,Aries K cars,Pontiac Ferio with the 4 cyl,low budget Cavalier etc were all just cheap easy to produce cars that were high profit margins and were not built to last.

The biggest thing with the 80s cars is one had to pay attention to what drivetrain was actually in it and ones to avoid.

Dodge caravan,great vehicle as long as they did not put the 2.2 liter,the Mitsubishi 3.0 or even the Chrysler engine in it.

Okay great vehicle as long as you did not need an engine in it,but yet you could take a Honda Prelude put 200,000 miles on it and still sell it for more then you could for an American car with 80,000 miles.

But that was what the buying public expected,and that’s what they got and never expected it to make it to 80,000 miles.

I think with the influx of technology,the 90s was far worse.

[Zacha341]

Yeah, I meant to qualify/ specify my comment was mostly towards compact cars I was driving then. Had a Chevette and what-nots over span of few years -- ugh! Switched to Japanese and was amazed with the longevity, quality and amenities they packed into their small cars.

Full size Buick Century great and drove forever on the other hand!

There was some good cars built in the 80s but at the higher end of the spectrum,I think the manufacturers were still stuck in the 60s n 70s where the majority of the buying public bought a new car every couple of years and never put 80,000 miles on them,so they were never built to last,that’s why you could not give an American car away that had 100,000 miles on it....

[Richard]

I had mechanic shops back then and a car lot,I was running 10 year old preludes and accords with 150,000 miles up to Minneapolis from Florida and averaging $5000 per car,nobody thought twice about the mileage but a comparable American car at the time over 100,000 miles,nobody wasted time with them.

I switched to a Honda/Acura shop and doubled my rates,in those days I had it worked out with the new Honda dealer they gave me all of their trade ins,it pissed a lot of people off at the auction,if you saw 10 Hondas for sale in the newspaper 9 of them were mine,I used to pay other people to sell them from their house because the newspaper would only allow you to sell 4 cars a month.

The South was not as loyalist as the north,Hondas were the yuppy cars that replaced the Volvo.

Honda/Acura,the same exact thing broke on all of them,so they were easy.

In the south it’s the heat that kills engines,all of those lower spectrum cars all it took was for the electric radiator fan to quit while you were stuck in traffic and it would blow the head gaskets.

Outside of the rust,I would have never had an issue buying a northern car with high miles,because they stay cool in the winter months.

Rusty bodies,clean interior with strong drivetrains in the north verses,clean bodies but sun trashed interiors,paint and engines in the south.

Underneath my 91 GMC 1 ton,there is not a speck of rust on floorboards or bolts but with 87,000 miles I just put a new motor,front end,complete interior including dash assembly.

Do not even have to change a tie rod end on a 200,000 mile Honda .

[CassTechGrad]

I was 18 when I started working at the Dodge truck plant in Warren in 1967. I credit my parents for what I’ve accomplished in life because of how I was raised. We lived near 6 Mile & Davison, a blue-collar Catholic neighborhood of wood framed homes. Dad worked at the Dodge plant then and mom stayed home with me and my brother. I was taught to be at work on time every day and be ready to work, not hung-over from a night of drinking. And to do the best I could without complaining. Sounds simple and it works. I got drafted in 1969, came back to work in 1971, got a Diemaker apprenticeship in 1975 at the Chrysler Vernor Rd. Tool & Die plant. I’m retired now living in Arizona. It hurts me to see what has happened and I blame it on the breakdown of the family unit. I could say more about that but….no.

[Henry Whalley]

It hurts me to see what has happened and I blame it on the breakdown of the family unit.

Agreed. Why say more when Dave Chappelle will say it better than we can?

[Vitalis]

When I was a kid I worked summers at the Michigan Truck Plant in Wayne. 14 weeks of doing whatever management told me to do. I ended up working everywhere in that facility except the paint room. Long story short, we pushed so many trucks off the final assembly line [[because they wouldn't start or had parts missing or had something hanging that shouldn't have been) that they had to create a team of inspectors to either figure out what was wrong or missing, or they would further push the trucks out into the yard. Fridays and Mondays? Sure.

[Henry Whalley]

[QUOTE=Vitalis;629803Long story short, we pushed so many trucks off the final assembly line [[because they wouldn't start or had parts missing or had something hanging that shouldn't have been) that they had to create a team of inspectors to either figure out what was wrong or missing, or they would further push the trucks out into the yard. Fridays and Mondays? Sure.[/QUOTE]

Summers in a truck plant probably made your hair stand on end with the mere thought of lifetime employment in a factory. Did you move on to less chaotic work?

[canuck]

Summers in a truck plant probably made your hair stand on end with the mere thought of lifetime employment in a factory. Did you move on to less chaotic work?

Isn’t Vitalis the stuff that would make your hair stand on end, too?

[Henry Whalley]

Isn’t Vitalis the stuff that would make your hair stand on end, too?

LOL! Vitalis was one of my go-to greaser products before I discovered Bryl Cream. And when the Beatles came along, I wanted my hair to lay flat.

[Cincinnati_Kid]

LOL! Vitalis was one of my go-to greaser products before I discovered Bryl Cream. And when the Beatles came along, I wanted my hair to lay flat.

Do they even make those products anymore? LOL

[Henry Whalley]

Do they even make those products anymore? LOL

Probably not. I used to love the smell of Bryl Cream. Wanted to be like Kookie on 77 Sunset Strip before realizing I was more like Maynard G. Krebs on Dobie Gillis. And my fate was to wed someone like Zelda Gilroy. LOL

[jcole]

Sure do....
https://www.amazon.com/Vitalis-Hair-...15007174&psc=1

Do they even make those products anymore? LOL

[Henry Whalley]

Sure do....

They may be keeping Bryl Cream in production just in case Elvis isn't really dead. Or to entice Kim Jong-un to defect. LOL

[canuck]

They may be keeping Bryl Cream in production just in case Elvis isn't really dead. Or to entice Kim Jong-un to defect. LOL

Kim has a roster of proper hairstyles that North Koreans can’t deviate from. He’s the only one that doesn’t have a reason to defect; he gets to choose any hairstyle he wants, out of the norm, so to speak.

A little dab’ll do ya would help his image, though. Lol.

[detmsp]

It hurts me to see what has happened and I blame it on the breakdown of the family unit.

This article is about how in a time of abundant job opportunities, one of the lowest paying jobs you can find is attracting the lowest levels of talent. Sounds like an efficient market at work, if you ask me. I'm not sure how mom and dad staying together would have changed that. I don't mean to pick on you. This thread is full of bad takes. I don't feel like responding to them all, so I just picked one.

[Vic01]

This article is about how in a time of abundant job opportunities, one of the lowest paying jobs you can find is attracting the lowest levels of talent.

I'm not sure that working at Chrysler, even at the lower "tier" wage qualifies as "lowest paying jobs you can find"