John Deere strike

Strike ended, deal ratified 61% to 39%.  Gotta wonder what those 39% wanted!  

John Deere made it's most recent offer public, I saw it on Farms.com  Looks pretty darn good to me.  COLA every 3 months?  Wow, worried about inflation much?  Awesome healthcare, big bumps to retirement, scheduled wage increases and scheduled lump sum payments.  Vote is Wednesday.  

My previous employer had top heavy management, excused as to "Necessary to maintain a watchful eye of the Union Membership" as to screwing off or not performing duties that really did not exist.  Was in essence buddies employing buddies to make the most money from the corporation, so called "Golden Children" of Management.  Had a VP of Nuclear, a Chief Operation Officer, a Corporate Nuclear Officer, a Department head for every sub section Department the managers could concoct(Last count was 67), Plant Operation Senior Officer, Plant Operations Senior Manager, then had Superintendents, First Line Supervisors, On Line Supervisors, Efficiency Consultants, Working Foremen, Work Package Consultants, Work Package Adjusting personnel, Work Package Alignment Personnel and then the Union Technicians as Electrician or Welder or Mechanic.  That along with QC Inspectors watching every operation FULL TIME with same level of Sub Management.  

DMiller wrote: Actual labor costs are a fraction of overall expenses in manufacturing, worked Union and Non, benefits were bargained for to keep skills at the Union facilities, non union shops tended to be close to slave labor markets where the politically correct butt kissers got raises behind closed doors and those that kept the machines moving took it on the chin moving on after honing skills, 99% of those facilities closed in under ten years due to quality issues. There is far more to machinery costs than Union labor, CEOs earning 400 times the average wage, followed by COO, CFO, boards of directors getting stock shares in the millions of dollars face value for their expertise in upper managerial wisdom. Then the point much of the production is from overseas being assembled here to sate the Fed as to ‘manufacturing’ here to bury profits into offshore funds. Lots more to it than ‘Union is bad’ thinking.

 

HD6GTOM wrote: One of several reasons their stuff is so over priced.

You guys would not believe the HORROR stories from a former "FOREMAN" of a non-union project company that had to basically "BEND OVER" and smile  .

When I owned my tire shop I had a good customer go to work at the JD plant in Ankeny. He grew up on a farm and worked on 1 for several years before wanting a job inside out of the rain and snow. He started and went to work building combines, etc. He almost quit several times. He couldn't stand the slow pace of working there. He said those guys could turn out 3 times the number of combines if they'd get off their butts and actually do some work. I am not running down unions. Just stating what a hard working farm kid told me. One of several reasons their stuff is so over priced.

That too.  

JLS retired wrote: heard a podcast other day said chip shortage is car makers using (relativly) old tech and chip makers R all after the newest and fastest (and more profitable) chips. Old lines are dropped, manufacturing facilities are changed to newer stuff, and dinosaur car makers are stuck. Said newer outfits like Tesla and some I never heard of before don't seem to have any problems because they have jumped on the latest cpu equipment. P S New green equip coming from JD s europe plants are too big for containers, comes over on roll on/roll off ships.

Just recently took a trip through 8 southern states.
They all have a shortage of trucks.
You couldn’t see the ports for the stacked up containers.

there's no shortage of trucks in my area. dealers have just as many as they always carry. maybe they are shuffling them around more than usual to their other stores?

most all the shortages from all over is copy cats trying to get people to buy impulsivly, many stores have product in the back rooms or in on site conex boxes...they are betting that when they do put to product on the shelves...it will sell really fast! and of course the stuff that is still on the shelves is stuff that's hard to sell when other like stuff is out there. hopefully a sales ploy that will burn their a$$'s off! i know when a store does that to me...i just won't buy the items, i'll make other arrangements. others around here are following suit. there are other places to buys things. an area store has put alot of their product in the back rooms...filling them...in hopes as i described above, and another local person contacted the fire marshal, he did a walk thru and told them to stock their empty shelves with the product or he'll close the store! the store is still open, the shelves are full, wow...where's the shortage they were talking about? the big company semis are not just out driving around for something to do. alot of big stores are getting 2-3 semi loads of items everyday. maybe if ya'll would tip off your state fire marshal...things might change, he don't hafta make an appointment! sure worked in our town! there are senerios all over and some places are strapped for parts or supplies...but not all of them. i could go on and on...but most of you will get the picture!

Two weeks and counting on starter rebuild for M3. Also saying parts hard to get