Kia jobs in West Point, GA (wage, activity, buffet)

[Ill-C]

I applied online at the beginning of December and got a call like two weeks later.

[theATLien]

thanks

[southernnaturelover]

Originally Posted by spotch

Good luck with the Kia thing! If it gets bad enough, contact a union rep. I know 'union' is a dirty word these days, but if you guys had a union you'd be making more money and have a whole lot more protection. Just a thought.

Car companies are building plants in "right to work" states for a reason. If there were a union Kia wouldn't have built the plant in GA at all, they would have put it in Mexico.

Non-union job or no job. Take your pick.

[MovedfromFL]

I'm pretty sure it's illegal to not pay for the 40 hours of training. The law say the employer has to pay at least minimum wage during those hours. (I used to work in HR in FL)

I guess in a "right to work" state, anything goes. If anyone cares, you could contact the Wage and Hour Division of the U.S. Department of Labor (offices in GA) or the Georgia Department of Labor.


The Fair Labor Standards Act's (FLSA) basic requirements are:

• Payment of the minimum wage; <----- (which would be violated in this case if the training is unpaid, even if you did NOT get the job afterwards)
• Overtime pay for time worked over 40 hours in a workweek;
• Restrictions on the employment of children; and
• Recordkeeping.

[Cobb]

Originally Posted by southernnaturelover

Car companies are building plants in "right to work" states for a reason. If there were a union Kia wouldn't have built the plant in GA at all, they would have put it in Mexico.

Non-union job or no job. Take your pick.

Spotch is absolutly correct. And yes, it is true that KIA and other large companies are headed south because that dont have to worry about unions, Perdue saw to that. I do know that there are people looking at unionizing KIA and Hyundai. Hopefully it will be successful one day. The workers would definently benefit from it.

[Mishap]

Originally Posted by Cobb

Spotch is absolutly correct. And yes, it is true that KIA and other large companies are headed south because that dont have to worry about unions, Perdue saw to that. I do know that there are people looking at unionizing KIA and Hyundai. Hopefully it will be successful one day. The workers would definently benefit from it.

Pray tell what exactly are the grievances that can't be resolved w/ your avg labor lawyer who would love to take a piece of Kia? Kia/Hyundai aren't making BMW's here...they are low margin cars and dinging their bottom line will just have them ship production off to Mexico and you in Southern GA can go back to peanut farming. They pay more than the prevailing wage in the area and are hiring in an otherwise difficult time. What would the UAW do for you now? How many GM/Ford/Chrysler plants have been shut down in the last 4 decades? Even Toyota shut down its lone UAW plant in Cali (after GM pulled out). Ford shutdown the Hapeville plant(their most productive) while shifting most production to Mexico.

I'm far from a fan of Purdue and consider myself a moderate w/ slight leanings to the left but I don't see what blind affiliation w/ unions can solve in the US. We have a perfectly viable legal system, internet to share wage information, and corporations scared to death of employee lawsuits. In the days of company script, skull cracking Pinkertons, and pre-OSHA I could see unions protecting workers' rights but these days they are little more than leeches that unduly raise the cost of labor and damage the US competitive advantage.

I remember the UAW tried to unionize the grad students at my college and even in an Ivy league bastion of liberalism complete with a Labor Relations school (no chair could be set out w/o a union member doing the setting) and a fairly large socialist club...the vote was way off. They were so bereft of ideas unionizing some poor grad students was their only source of income since apparently teaching a section or two meant they deserved a living wage (atop their heavily discounted tuition).

[southernnaturelover]

Originally Posted by Cobb

Spotch is absolutly correct. And yes, it is true that KIA and other large companies are headed south because that dont have to worry about unions, Perdue saw to that. I do know that there are people looking at unionizing KIA and Hyundai. Hopefully it will be successful one day. The workers would definently benefit from it.

Fine, then maybe they'll shut the place down and move it overseas. $15 per hour (starting) is perfectly acceptable pay for an assembly line job, especially with the low COL in that area.

[MovedfromFL]

I guess slave labor for 40 hour "training" runs is ok too. IF Kia is not paying minimum wage for the training period, they are in violation of federal law. They have to pay the min. wage to everyone who starts there, even if you just train for one day and get let go.

Of course, today they have us by the neck and nobody will dare complain.

Working for free is not OK. What if someone gets hurt during that week? Are they covered by worker's comp?

[Mishap]

Originally Posted by MovedfromFL

I guess slave labor for 40 hour "training" runs is ok too. IF Kia is not paying minimum wage for the training period, they are in violation of federal law. They have to pay the min. wage to everyone who starts there, even if you just train for one day and get let go.

Of course, today they have us by the neck and nobody will dare complain.

Working for free is not OK. What if someone gets hurt during that week? Are they covered by worker's comp?

Kia's not a fly by night. They can't shutdown b/c they got sued over missing wages so they'd wind up paying sooner or later. Violating labor laws over 40 hrs isn't saving them any money once you factor in the inevitable class action lawsuit. If it's a problem...there's hundreds of labor lawyers in GA willing to step up to the plate. Call up OSHA and complain...you'll get paid minus lawyer fees. Probably little different than the normal drain that unions would take even if you don't have any issues.

[southernnaturelover]

Originally Posted by MovedfromFL

Working for free is not OK. What if someone gets hurt during that week? Are they covered by worker's comp?

They're not working, they're in a class being tested to see if they can assemble parts.