Chrysler Employees Caught Drinking, Smoking At Lunch....Again

Pretty unfair how our delinquents are being hired when there's definitely better people out there. Do they even have random drug screenings? I would imagine a corporation as big as Chrysler would incorporate such measures.

Sigh....right in the parking lot of the Union hall......they were probably told to drink there instead of in a public park after the last morons got caught. Thank god my car was built at Sterling Heights. Just love the UAW! How much does anyone want to bet that the UAW fights to keep these nimrods jobs?

Kain77 +1000

Oh and I love that it was a Fox station that found these idiots. I doubt anyone else would have the guts to take on the UAW in their own backyard.....NBC CBS and ABC are just propaganda arms of the White House now.

@bodyblue

Since we're talking politics, to be fair it wouldn't surprise me if Fox News shining the spotlight on a union was agenda-driven. You'll find this behavior in many work settings and walks of life. To be fair, these morons are operating equipment and assembling engines that propel your family down a road at 70 mph. OSHA aside, that's an unsettling thought.

kain77 says:
11:26 AM, 07/14/11
I know some honest, hardworking yet unemployed people who would love to have their jobs.

Totally agree!!!!!

This wasn't negotiated in their current contract? What's the world coming to when a man can't spark up a fatty, shotgun a brew, or two, and drive back to work where he operates machinery?

Those "Live better, work union" bumper stickers make a lot more sense now.

Why would Fox interrogate the Chrysler V-P and not the idiots who are misbehaving? They are the ones who need to answer for their actions.

Geez....at least the cretons were observed in a Chrysler-built vehicle....

I certainly think one could make an argument that when you have unions that have become as powerful as the UAW is relative to the US automakers, that some employees might feel exceptionally secure in their job to the point that their behavior would not be moderated by the fear of job loss or other reprecussions.

These types of employees exist in a lot of industries/companies, but most of them are too afraid of losing their job (especially these days) to risk such behavior. I would suggest that taking steps to remove the entitlement culture of UAW members would do a lot of good. Fear and greed are ultimate motivators. If someone has to work hard to earn their money and has good reason to fear losing their job if they break the rules, you'll end up with a much heathier company and better product than if the same person gets paid a large sum of money for minimal/shoddy work and feels like they're locked into their job no matter what.

BB:

"Oh and I love that it was a Fox station that found these idiots. I doubt anyone else would have the guts to take on the UAW in their own backyard.....NBC CBS and ABC are just propaganda arms of the White House now."

Let's not get carried away with Fox/News Corp. In case you missed it, the "fair and balanced" news organization is in rather deep trouble now.

I feel bad for them. I never like to see anyone lose their job. But then I think, they brought this on themselves. I guess terminating 13 employees last year wasn't warning enough.

e90_m3, Fox has nothing to do with The News of the World newspaper other than being owned by the same conglomerate. Your assertion would be like suggesting that Tropicana is in trouble because of something Gatorade did. They're both owned by PepsiCo, but are separate entities.

That anyone is even advancing the argument you made (and I've seen it a lot) is evidence to me of a strong US media bias in favor of villifying Rupert Murdoch and News Corp because of its ownership of Fox.

"e90_m3, Fox has nothing to do with The News of the World newspaper other than being owned by the same conglomerate. Your assertion would be like suggesting that Tropicana is in trouble because of something Gatorade did. They're both owned by PepsiCo, but are separate entities."

Actually, the allegory should be more like this: hypothetically if a certain brand of drinks is found to be intentionally tainted, is it right for consumers to question ALL products made under the same corporate umbrella?

I would think so.

ps: My distaste for liberals is only exceeded by my disdain for the religious right.

"ps: My distaste for liberals is only exceeded by my disdain for the religious right."

Oops. Don't get me wrong. This has NOTHING to do with your handle. Just realized that it may be interpreted that way.

"to be fair it wouldn't surprise me if Fox News shining the spotlight on a union was agenda-driven."

I hope so! Any way to destroy the UAW is a good thing.

Oh and this was a Fox affiliate not a Fox owned station......

"Why would Fox interrogate the Chrysler V-P and not the idiots who are misbehaving? They are the ones who need to answer for their actions."

They did confront them......one of the guys was drinking before work....he had not a valid DL since the 90's and drove to work every day.......I know! Maybe he got the new GM insurance!

"Let's not get carried away with Fox/News Corp. In case you missed it, the "fair and balanced" news organization is in rather deep trouble now."

LOL nice try but a huge stretch. I am sure some lefties are very excited by what is happening in Britain but tabloids in the UK are notorious for their antics....it is no surprise that the NOTW got caught as it has been known as one of the worst. Murdoch did the right thing...he closed it down. Case closed. It has nothing to do with Fox news......

I wouldn't think so. These were all separate companies acquired under the auspices of an overarching conglomerate. And don't worry. My handle has nothing to do with religion :)

And this is why the UAW must be crushed! One of many reasons actually.

"Any way to destroy the UAW is a good thing."

Which is why I won't buy a vehicle assembled in a UAW plant.

So, let me get this right. A few employees who go outside on break to enjoy the fresh air, whet their whistle, and have a smoke are getting busted? What's this world coming to? All sarcasm aside, I most certainly do not approve of their behavior. It really is shocking, considering it was a big scandal like this less than a year ago at another Chrysler plant. Seems kinda like these guys were the bad boys in high school who never grew up; the ones that smoked cigs underage, managed to get ahold of beer while underage and had parties where illegal drugs were also used. They're still a little (?) too rebellious and defiant of authority. Considering how much Chrysler has turned things around pretty much with new and/or greatly improved products, sure hate to see these jerks put Chrysler in a bad light. Hopefully they will be replaced with more responsible employees.

Truthfully, there are always gonna be a few "bad apples" in every profession such as the clergy, law enforcement, teaching, the practice of law (including even judges), manufacturing , retail sales, etc.

Anyone who thinks this only happens inside of a union is just naive. Unskilled labor mostly consists of lesser educated people who also happen to have a higher rate of abuse of drugs and alcohol. Go to any assembly plant anywhere and I'm sure you can find a group of people doing the exact same thing.

Also, those of you who continue some kind of fox news conversation, this is a local fox AFFILIATE, has almost nothing to do with its parent company or the "news" program you refer to.

Lost: you are very right about this type of thing happening outside of unions. But I would not consider them "unskilled". They are very highly paid with awesome benefits and retirement plans. Can you imagine how many people could get hurt in a plant like that?

Don't bogart that joint my friend.....pass it on over to me.

The "bigger problem in the orchard" is that the orchard is in Detroit, the second most depressing city in America behind Gary, IN.

@bodyblue, the gross majority of plant work is unskilled labor

kain77:

well said.

I decided to sleep overnight before responding. Let things mellow and truly think about this issue and others.

First, there is no justification for this behavior at all. Period. Having grown up in a pro-union household, there is still no excusing this behavior. Especially in light of the previous time this has happened.

I am still pro-union, although I recognize the weaknesses of unions. However, I believe they still can and should provide a balance to those times when management goes overboard, and they do.

Church123: I understand where you are coming from, however, I disagree intensely that workers should ever come to work afraid. I believe, whole heartedly, that you get the best out of your workers if they feel part of the team and decision making process. The top down management style doesn't really work. Management gets into real problems, GM for example, when they separate executives from workers. Only bad things happen at that point.

The Rupert Murdoch, Fox News and News of the World problems are quite interesting. The way that he closed News of the World down was quite interesting, considering that he didn't fire the editor in charge at the time, Rebeca Brooks. She has resigned today, I read. That is one reason why I am still pro-union. The workers get fired, the executives in charge, nothing. Murdoch may not have known what was happening at the newspaper, but Brooks did or should have. Fox News is hurting because the News Corporation lost like 3 billion in value in one day. That had to hurt, no matter who you are.

If I were king for a day, I would eliminate all the MBA programs. No finance person would ever run any company that is in manufacturing. What say you?

The problem with unions today is that they are so corrupt. If a company votes to go union then that is fine but it needs to be something other than what is out there now. Government unions are another story....they should be illegal, period. Even FDR thought that public sector unions were wrong because they were not affected by market changes.

"Thank god my car was built at Sterling Heights"

Except you didn't read the article that well. These clowns work for Trenton Engine, the SAME PLANT where your 3.6L came out of.

I say fire these idiots just like the last ones.

You didn't read my whole post aurakr - I said they should be afraid of losing their job if they break the rules. People who belong to powerful unions (UAW, Longshoremen, Teacher's Unions) are often extremely difficult to fire even when they blatantly screw up or break the rules. Hell, our unemployment compensation rules often make it tough to fire someone from a non-union job without having to pay a portion of their unemployment benefits for some time after they're gone unless you do lots and lots of documentation of cause for firing. If an employee feels like their job is safe even when they disobey, misbehave or blatantly break the rules, then you're going to have a subset who do just that and thumb their noses at you. By the same token, if work rules prevent workers from branching out and going above and beyond the call of a specific job role (or working extra hours), or raises are given solely on a seniority basis, then the best of your employees will be de-motivated from excelling and the cream of your workforce will never rise to the top because they cannot be rewarded. Fear and greed - always the primary motivators.

As for Fox News, they should feel no effect. It is a profit center just like most of News Corps' other entities. I'm sure some edict will come down from the top asking executives of each corporate entity to institute additional safeguards/checks to ensure legality of actions (great more work for lawyers - we are way over-lawyered in business today - totally essential, but it doesn't have to be), but other than the attempts by other news organizations to paint Fox in a bad light, Fox News has nothing to do with NOTW.

Finally, for MBAs, I graduated #1 in my MBA class some years ago from an excellent school. I found it quite useful. Of course, I have other technical degrees and have worked in design, manufacturing (before getting my MBA), product management and marketing before starting my own companies over the last 10+ years. It ain't the degree, its what you do with it.

church123, I unfortunately had to fire somebody last year for blatantly violating the rules. It cost us tens of thousands of dollars in non-conforming product. We had documentation that he had read and understood the rules. We had documentation that he read and understood the printed discipline policy. He had been warned and disciplined before. When interviewing him, he stated that he knew what the rules were and that he knew he was violating them. The judge at his unemployment hearing ruled that it was clear-cut in the company's favor. Then the NLRB got involved and, through machinations I was not privy to, we ended up having to pay him full salary and benefits for the months he did not work. My facility isn't even unionized, so you'd think that it would be even more difficult on companies whose workers belong to a union. Except that isn't always the case. Some years ago, at a different facility in my company, several employees violated procedure much like I described above, except these employees belonged to a union. In negotiations between the union and the company, the union agreed not to fight on behalf of the least-senior employees, if the company did not fire the most-senior employees.

So while I can agree that, at times, unions are necessary and effective... I firmly believe that a free workforce will be happier and more productive.

greenpony:

I wish that were the case. My wife works at Target, has for over 25 years. In the beginning, things were all lovey dovey, the workers got along with management, management got along with the workers, it was wonderful. I even worked for a few years, it was actually quite nice. As the company grew, things were still really good for the most part. Then somewhere along the way, something changed. Orders came down to cut costs. Good workers, those with at least 15-20 years experience in the "Target way" were pushed out, because they were too expensive. I would ask my wife, did they just get lazy, and she said no, they were working harder than ever, just were making too much money, for retail. Work conditions started to change, instead of come in to our office and lets talk and work it out, it was if you don't like it, you are free to leave. In a period of 2 years, over 5 people with anywhere from 15-25 years, mostly women, were pushed out.

Nice huh? Add to that, the raises, if any, were set up so that all the planets had to line up just the right way to get any raise. Fair, after all the economy was in a recession, except that didn't apply to the executives at the stores. Then word leaked out the CEO was getting a huge 22% raise, while the employees who graded out as outstanding, were lucky to get a 10cent raise. Understand, my wife is a supervisor, the first line of management. When she brought this up to the management team, about the inequity, she was told to be quiet. Nice, huh. Hours were cut to limit the number of employees getting health benefits. Then of all the Walmart style activities, to threaten to close a store if the employees decide to unionize. I can understand giving employees the right to choose to either join a union or not, but to threaten to close a store if employees choose to join a union?? My wife, who is management, and when we married 24 years ago, anti union, now actually understands why unions can happen. By the way, the persons who started saying you are free to go, the store team leader herself.