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Right To Work at the Chattanooga VW Plant
Posted on 1/3/17 at 10:20 am
Posted on 1/3/17 at 10:20 am
Volkswagen in Tennessee: Productivity’s Price
March 12, 2015 / Chris Brooks
EFFICIENT RUTHLESSNESS
One of VW’s core lean tactics is “workforce flexibility”: competitive pressure from temps or part-timers.
At the Chattanooga plant, permanent employees work alongside “temporary” workers, some of whom have actually worked there for years. Pitted against one another, both groups fear to speak up.
Workers are routinely pushed to their physical and emotional breaking points. From management’s point of view, this maximizes productivity.
“Every employee there busts their arse and is injured and is working through the pain because they don’t want their job taken by a temp,” Amanda says. “It is made clear to all of us that we are easy to replace.”
That’s lean production in a nutshell: ruthless efficiency, produced by a system of efficient ruthlessness. Workers are deliberately stretched to their limits, by a combination of competitive pressure, inadequate training, repetitive stress, and rotating shifts—so that the weakest links can be identified and eliminated.
Another central component is the “team model.” Plant workers are grouped into teams of six and expected to work with management to continually find new ways to increase their team’s productivity. The “team” aspect encourages peer pressure.
It’s a never-ending loop. If you break down from stress, you’re out the door—but if no one on your team is breaking down, then the team’s load should be increased, for instance by removing a worker.
All the pressure to boost production means safety and training get short shrift. Much of the onsite training falls informally to team leaders or other assembly line workers—already overburdened by their own workloads.
“Assembly line work is very nuanced and complicated,” said one VW team leader I spoke with. “It has to be practiced to be understood.” When a worker who hasn’t been properly trained is pushed to pick up the pace, the results can be catastrophic."
LINK
More at the link. Those workers need a Union.
March 12, 2015 / Chris Brooks
EFFICIENT RUTHLESSNESS
One of VW’s core lean tactics is “workforce flexibility”: competitive pressure from temps or part-timers.
At the Chattanooga plant, permanent employees work alongside “temporary” workers, some of whom have actually worked there for years. Pitted against one another, both groups fear to speak up.
Workers are routinely pushed to their physical and emotional breaking points. From management’s point of view, this maximizes productivity.
“Every employee there busts their arse and is injured and is working through the pain because they don’t want their job taken by a temp,” Amanda says. “It is made clear to all of us that we are easy to replace.”
That’s lean production in a nutshell: ruthless efficiency, produced by a system of efficient ruthlessness. Workers are deliberately stretched to their limits, by a combination of competitive pressure, inadequate training, repetitive stress, and rotating shifts—so that the weakest links can be identified and eliminated.
Another central component is the “team model.” Plant workers are grouped into teams of six and expected to work with management to continually find new ways to increase their team’s productivity. The “team” aspect encourages peer pressure.
It’s a never-ending loop. If you break down from stress, you’re out the door—but if no one on your team is breaking down, then the team’s load should be increased, for instance by removing a worker.
All the pressure to boost production means safety and training get short shrift. Much of the onsite training falls informally to team leaders or other assembly line workers—already overburdened by their own workloads.
“Assembly line work is very nuanced and complicated,” said one VW team leader I spoke with. “It has to be practiced to be understood.” When a worker who hasn’t been properly trained is pushed to pick up the pace, the results can be catastrophic."
LINK
More at the link. Those workers need a Union.
21
Posted on 1/3/17 at 10:22 am to WhiskeyPapa
cool
Posted on 1/3/17 at 10:23 am to WhiskeyPapa
It's just work. If you can't do it somebody else can.
Posted on 1/3/17 at 10:24 am to WhiskeyPapa
So organize. They keep trying and falling short.
Posted on 1/3/17 at 10:25 am to WhiskeyPapa
Sounds like they are suffering from free market pressures on low skilled jobs?
Posted on 1/3/17 at 10:26 am to member12
quote:
So organize. They keep trying and falling short.
There is no 'union' in the culture of Tennessee. They voted against their own best interests.
Posted on 1/3/17 at 10:28 am to WhiskeyPapa
quote:
They voted against their own best interests.
Posted on 1/3/17 at 10:29 am to WhiskeyPapa
"Like many of her former co-workers, Amanda supported the United Auto Workers organizing efforts in Chattanooga last year because she believed unionizing would improve working conditions. “If we had had a union, [what happened to me] would never have happened,” she said.
UAW Local 42, a minority union, has recently been meeting with management under VW’s new “Community Organization Engagement” policy. Workers report that nothing has changed so far, but some are openly calling for direct action over the rotating shift schedules.
“It is imperative,” one member told me, “that we take action as a unit of workers to change our shift model to something that is much healthier for the workforce and will lead to a much higher likelihood of long-term employment at VW.”
Chris Brooks is a graduate student in the Labor Studies program at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and an organizer living in Chattanooga."
UAW Local 42, a minority union, has recently been meeting with management under VW’s new “Community Organization Engagement” policy. Workers report that nothing has changed so far, but some are openly calling for direct action over the rotating shift schedules.
“It is imperative,” one member told me, “that we take action as a unit of workers to change our shift model to something that is much healthier for the workforce and will lead to a much higher likelihood of long-term employment at VW.”
Chris Brooks is a graduate student in the Labor Studies program at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and an organizer living in Chattanooga."
Posted on 1/3/17 at 10:29 am to WhiskeyPapa
quote:
At the Chattanooga plant, permanent employees work alongside “temporary” workers, some of whom have actually worked there for years.
The horror
quote:
“Every employee there busts their arse and is injured and is working through the pain because they don’t want their job taken by a temp,” Amanda says. “It is made clear to all of us that we are easy to replace.”
bullshite. If you are injured at work, and tell your employer, they are required, by law, to see to that injury. OSHA anyone?
quote:
That’s lean production in a nutshell: ruthless efficiency, produced by a system of efficient ruthlessness.
Someone sounds like they were picked last in kickball in grade school.
quote:
Workers are deliberately stretched to their limits, by a combination of competitive pressure, inadequate training, repetitive stress, and rotating shifts—so that the weakest links can be identified and eliminated.
I'm still waiting to find the bad part of this.
quote:
Plant workers are grouped into teams of six and expected to work with management to continually find new ways to increase their team’s productivity. The “team” aspect encourages peer pressure.
Why on earth would a company ever want their workers to be efficient? That's just silly talk, as we all know companies are nothing more than employment agencies setup to provide a living wage for the loudest of mouth breathers.
Whiskeypapa, what's the other option? Oh that's right, fire your workers and reduce production in order to limit your company losses.
quote:
All the pressure to boost production means safety and training get short shrift
But it doesn't. Someone's never worked a job before.
quote:
More at the link. Those workers need a Union.
These workers need to find a job where incompetence is rewarded. Like working for the government. This is the express reason why unions are not needed. It increases costs while simultaneously degrades the product.
Posted on 1/3/17 at 10:30 am to WhiskeyPapa
Teams, competing peers, and mandatory workflow feedback?
OMG, THE HORROR!!!!!
OMG, THE HORROR!!!!!
Posted on 1/3/17 at 10:30 am to BugAC
free market gonna free market
Posted on 1/3/17 at 10:31 am to WhiskeyPapa
quote:
There is no 'union' in the culture of Tennessee.
Yet the Chevrolet plant an hour away in Spring Hill is organized.
Central Tennessee managed to attract production facilities from Nissan, General Motors, and VW. They are doing something right.
quote:
They voted against their own best interests.
Or more likely, one random internet poster has a much rosier picture of organized labor than the thousands of people who actually do the work there every day. Those people had several chances to unionize and repeatedly decided to tell the UAW to pound sand.
They are welcome to unionize. They just do not see the value in doing so.
This post was edited on 1/3/17 at 10:33 am
Posted on 1/3/17 at 10:31 am to WhiskeyPapa
quote:
Labor Notes is a media and organizing project that has been the voice of union activists who want to put the movement back in the labor movement since 1979.
They need a community organizer. I hear there's one gonna be out of work soon.
Posted on 1/3/17 at 10:32 am to WhiskeyPapa
Labor Notes is #fakenews.
Posted on 1/3/17 at 10:34 am to WhiskeyPapa
Sounds to me like these employees should either keep putting up with it or find another job. If they are worried about being replaced, that means there are temp workers (probably with little to no benefits that the FTEs have) that are working just as hard who want that position and would benefit from it. Sorry, but if you have people who are willing to work under stressful conditions, why should the business change?
Posted on 1/3/17 at 10:34 am to saints5021
LMAO... "workers pushed to their emotional and physical breaking points..." Guess 8 to 10 hours is a real kicker... 
Posted on 1/3/17 at 10:35 am to WhiskeyPapa
quote:
labornotes.org
No agenda here. Nope, none at all.
I've been in a lot of workplaces, many of them non-unionized.
This description is laughable.
Posted on 1/3/17 at 10:36 am to FooManChoo
quote:
sounds to me like these employees should either keep putting up with it or find another job
They keep voting to not unionize....so apparently they are not dissatisfied with the conditions, pay scale, and hours.
Posted on 1/3/17 at 10:36 am to WhiskeyPapa
quote:
There is no 'union' in the culture of Tennessee. They voted against their own best interests.
And Volkswagen as a global company can decided to transfer the manufacture of those cars to a plant somewhere else if they do.
Or maybe they can just replace all the workers with complete automation with robots.
Hey but what the hell WORKERS UNITE
This post was edited on 1/3/17 at 10:39 am
Posted on 1/3/17 at 10:37 am to member12
quote:
There is no 'union' in the culture of Tennessee.
Yet the Chevrolet plant an hour away in Spring Hill is organized.
Spring Hill is more like 3 hours from Chattanooga. That plant came into being back in the 80's.
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