Todays Headline Misleading (legal, teach, business)

[Fortoggie]

Todays bold headline reads; THE FIGHT FOR VW, usually the Times Free Press does a good job with headlines but this one is way off base. The UAW, wanting to represent VW workers is as American as apple pie and is in no way fighting for or against the company. In fact there is no fight going on at all; only talks. While VW is generally thought of as a good place to work, it is not paradise by any standard. Hundreds of people have been fired for very minor things. One person was fired for putting a picture of their Passat on their Facebook page. Sure it was against the rules; but firing someone? There needs to be a cushion between a worker and a harsh ruling, [that might take a little while to sink in.] Someone else came back from their 10 minute break 2 minutes late and was fired. In a union a fellow union member will take them aside and say look we all need to get back exactly on time to keep the line running smoothly. That usually works from a fellow worker. A foreman is under so much stress that he or she just fires and moves on.
Right now the line moves at 1.59 seconds; what if management cranks it up to 1.50 seconds? It is the nature of management to push just beyond the limit; who's to say, whoa, enough is enough?

[keithps]

Originally Posted by Fortoggie

Todays bold headline reads; THE FIGHT FOR VW, usually the Times Free Press does a good job with headlines but this one is way off base. The UAW, wanting to represent VW workers is as American as apple pie and is in no way fighting for or against the company. In fact there is no fight going on at all; only talks. While VW is generally thought of as a good place to work, it is not paradise by any standard. Hundreds of people have been fired for very minor things. One person was fired for putting a picture of their Passat on their Facebook page. Sure it was against the rules; but firing someone? There needs to be a cushion between a worker and a harsh ruling, [that might take a little while to sink in.] Someone else came back from their 10 minute break 2 minutes late and was fired. In a union a fellow union member will take them aside and say look we all need to get back exactly on time to keep the line running smoothly. That usually works from a fellow worker. A foreman is under so much stress that he or she just fires and moves on.
Right now the line moves at 1.59 seconds; what if management cranks it up to 1.50 seconds? It is the nature of management to push just beyond the limit; who's to say, whoa, enough is enough?

If unions actually worked like you suggest, they'd be great. Unfortunately, they don't. Instead, that guy who comes back 2 minutes late from break gets away with it, and continues to get away with it, because the union protects him and bogs VW down in so much paperwork and legal threats that they can't fire him.

I'd also bet that guy said "i got fired for being 2 minutes late" had a continuous problem and was probably warned repeatedly. Yea, I hear that at work too. Where I am, we have a point system, hit X points in a rolling 12 months, you're fired. You get 1 point for calling out, 0.5 points for being late/leaving early. We get guys going "You're going to fire me for having a sick kid?" No, we're firing you because of those 7 days you missed work with an excuse of "personal business" and those 9 other times you were late.

[Fortoggie]

Well I agree that many in our work force are undisciplined and that there is always a tension between management and the work force but somehow there needs to be a coming together, a better understanding that we are in this together. Without some meditation, some so between there will always be too many firings and too many hirings and this is very costly both for the company as well as for the workers.
With all the power of the internet and of TV, we just don't see much that teaches the masses of how to behave in their complicated environment and neither is management acting like mature leaders. How to proceed?