UAW is coming after Rivian

[oskeei]

There's a crap ton of low-performing colleagues that dont get the boot in every non-union workplaces as well. Office politics. I bet you theres a lot in Rivian as well right now without a union.

Very true, but from person experience significantly less paperwork and ease to terminate a non-union vice union member. Especially in public section positions, the hoops to terminate someone in a union is something many supervisors don't want to jump through.

Seeing how thing work at the plant, I'm prepared to wager you there are significantly less "low productivity" team members at Rivian vice a GM/Ford plant.

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[sub]

If Rivian's employees genuinely wanted a union, then I would support them.

But I don't get why it should even be legal for an existing union to "target" companies they have no relationship with. If you and your union made your employer uncompetitive, the solution isn't to attack the competition and force them into the same mess. The point of a union is to help employees of the company, not to help employees of the competition.

 

[teartags]

That’s strange. Not sure why a teacher would hate their union, unless the union is not helping to increase his salary.

Granted I live in CA, but even many of the elementary teachers in my district are making solid 6-figure pay. An elementary teacher. My kids’s former Kindergarten teacher makes as much as a Google engineer. And, the superintendent makes almost $500K. Yet, everywhere I look (not just in my county) during election season, people always vote in favor of higher taxes to raise funds for schools.

My friends and family surely benefit greatly from the unions in healthcare.

I have a hard time believing that everyone here against unions do not have a single close family or friend that works in a unionized job that has not benefited from the union negotiating higher pay. This is what unions are for, to negotiate higher pay. And, in almost all cases, they do
If the unions don’t get higher pay for the members, then the employees simply wouldn’t want to be in a union.

I'm not arguing either side of the big debate here, but my girlfriend is a public school teacher. Yes, I think the union helps them quite a bit for the better, but I can also tell you that there are a more than a few BAD teachers out there that should be fired for not doing their job. However, unless they do something as egregious as smacking a kid around, they can't be fired or even moved to a different job because of the union.

 

[vandy1981]

Great, another thread with owners of $80,000+ vehicles complaining about factory workers getting paid too much.

Disclaimer: my dad was in a factory union and I had healthcare, food on the plate and a roof over our heads. He's now enjoying a humble but comfortable retirement.

 

[HJP1]

Speaking as a retired Plant Manger in a corrugated box plant in California that the union came after 2 times, & we’re not successful, in a highly unionized industry, we instituted the following:
1. Treat all employees fairly & equally
2. Compensate a fair wage with fair increases
3. Set standards for production
4. Institute a point system attendance policy
5. Pay Supervisor’s overtime
6. Make the Plant Manger accessible, why pay union dues to access management
7. Make the benefits equitable & if Holidays are in question, that are like not spelled out in a union contract, let your employees know ahead of time that customer’s orders will not affect their holiday.
8. Tell the employees during a union drive, that if you change your mind after signing a union card, you will never get it back, even though the union “says” you will. Be sure you want a union.
9. Check the facts the union will lie to get in & take your money
10. Tell the truth (management)
11. Once 30% of workforce excluding salaried supervisors sign union cards the NLRB will dictate to management what needs to be done next.
12. Make Safety a priority( live and breathe safety, hold safety slogan contests annually with a prize to the winner. )

We were not as smart as Elon Musk, we didn’t institute a stock program until we won our last union drive. And even then it took 2 years for some employees to sign up. The maintenance employees signed up immediately & when they showed their pay stubs to the operating folks 2 years later, they signed up.

In addition we held attendance award luncheons twice a year for all 3 shifts, giving money for perfect attendance, as well as having management cook & serve for the employees. The plant manager came in all 3 shifts.

Well done and well managed!

 

[SANZC02]

IMHO, there is something wrong with the picture when corporate execs are making tens of millions and, in some cases, hundreds of millions of dollars per year, while their employees can barely make enough to live on. Personally, I find it hard to have much respect or sympathy for that corporate culture.

Some companies will spread the wealth around, while others just hord the bounty at the top. If a company doesn’t want to become the target of a union, maybe they should adopt a culture of taking better care of their valued and critical employees. Maybe they should reign in the simply outrageous salaries that some of these execs are making. It shouldn’t be an us versus them situation. I like the idea of a team, even if it’s a bit idealistic. I think that is the philosophy that Rivian holds, at least for now. If Rivian employees are fairly compensated, valued, respected, and offered a path to a better future, maybe the UAW will find no takers at Rivian. Just sayin’.

Just curious what your thoughts are about the pay inequality of the union officers compared to their members who pay their salaries through the union dues.

 

[dadamb]

Great, another thread with owners of $80,000+ vehicles complaining about factory workers getting paid too much.

Disclaimer: my dad was in a factory union and I had healthcare, food on the plate and a roof over our heads. He's now enjoying a humble but comfortable retirement.

Rivian offers insurance for their workers, kids, spouses and even domestic partners and their kids. Insurance is not lacking at Rivian. The pay isn’t either. Look at the average salary in the BloNo area before Rivian and now. It has gone up significantly. From my experience at Rivian the workers complain about the hours and how they change from time to time. It’s manufacturing so hours and numbers change all the time. There are things that need to be corrected for sure but everyone has to remember it’s a startup company and they aren’t going to get everything right. Its hard to please all 8000 employees

 

[Donald Stanfield]

If Rivian's employees genuinely wanted a union, then I would support them.

But I don't get why it should even be legal for an existing union to "target" companies they have no relationship with. If you and your union made your employer uncompetitive, the solution isn't to attack the competition and force them into the same mess. The point of a union is to help employees of the company, not to help employees of the competition.

Gone are the days where the union is about the member. Unions are companies themselves and they only really care about making their union bigger because then the people who run it get more dues which leads to higher salaries.

 

[Singletracker]

Just curious what your thoughts are about the pay inequality of the union officers compared to their members who pay their salaries through the union dues.

Not sure what the relevance of your question is to my post, but I’ll give it some thought. If I come up with anything, I’ll get back to you

 

[Donald Stanfield]

Great, another thread with owners of $80,000+ vehicles complaining about factory workers getting paid too much.

Disclaimer: my dad was in a factory union and I had healthcare, food on the plate and a roof over our heads. He's now enjoying a humble but comfortable retirement.

If they want more they can do something that generates more profit. Tons of jobs pay better, and generate profit for the economy to a greater extent. Simply holding your hand out doesn't mean you deserve more money, the market determines that.

Not sure what the relevance of your question is to my post, but I’ll give it some thought. If I come up with anything, I’ll get back to you

The relevance, since you missed it, is Union bosses are corrupt thugs who are worse than the big greedy capitalists you think take too much money. The big evil people running the companies are making the decisions and setting the company direction up to generate profit which creates a product and all those jobs.

Union bosses take way more than their constituency yet they don't produce anything themselves. Union bosses are the definition of the upper class privilege yet pro Union folks turn a blind eye to their corruption.

 

[R1TS]

Rivian offers insurance for their workers, kids, spouses and even domestic partners and their kids. Insurance is not lacking at Rivian. The pay isn’t either. Look at the average salary in the BloNo area before Rivian and now. It has gone up significantly. From my experience at Rivian the workers complain about the hours and how they change from time to time. It’s manufacturing so hours and numbers change all the time. There are things that need to be corrected for sure but everyone has to remember it’s a startup company and they aren’t going to get everything right. Its hard to please all 8000 employees

If they can’t please the majority, then they can form a union and make management implement changes.

So, let it be up to the employees. This whole thing about anti-union is crazy. Just have management put up the best they can, and let those with skin in the game decide.

 

[R1TS]

If they want more they can do something that generates more profit. Tons of jobs pay better, and generate profit for the economy to a greater extent. Simply holding your hand out doesn't mean you deserve more money, the market determines that.



The relevance, since you missed it, is Union bosses are corrupt thugs who are worse than the big greedy capitalists you think take too much money. The big evil people running the companies are making the decisions and setting the company direction up to generate profit which creates a product and all those jobs.

Union bosses take way more than their constituency yet they don't produce anything themselves. Union bosses are the definition of the upper class privilege yet pro Union folks turn a blind eye to their corruption.

Doesn't matter if the bosses take more. If it leads to higher compensation and benefits for their members, then they did their job. That’s why CEOs get paid exponentially more than the actual people doing jobs in the factory.
Just let the employees decide. If they see that Rivian’s offer is a lot better, then they wont form a union. Otherwise, they will.
People up in arms for no reason when it’s not even themselves affected.

 

[dadamb]

Doesn't matter if the bosses take more. If it leads to higher compensation and benefits for their members, then they did their job. That’s why CEOs get paid exponentially more than the actual people doing jobs in the factory.
Just let the employees decide. If they see that Rivian’s offer is a lot better, then they wont form a union. Otherwise, they will.
People up in arms for no reason when it’s not even themselves affected.

Just because I do not work there anymore more doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t be affected by them unionizing. I still have stock and espp with Rivian and from my understanding, correct me if I’m wrong but if they unionize the shares that are vested are taken. I have family that works there and have voiced concerns. Just like I said earlier, when Georgia opens up what would keep RJ from shutting normal down?

 

[R1TS]

Just because I do not work there anymore more doesn’t mean that I wouldn’t be affected by them unionizing. I still have stock and espp with Rivian and from my understanding, correct me if I’m wrong but if they unionize the shares that are vested are taken. I have family that works there and have voiced concerns. Just like I said earlier, when Georgia opens up what would keep RJ from shutting normal down?

How can you make a decision when you dont even know what kind of benefits those that are in normal can get with union negotiations? That just sounds like a biased take since you don't have all the information to compare with.

They cant shut down normal. The Georgia plant will be too busy making the R2 line. As long as Rivian keeps the R1 line intact, the normal factory will stay. They dont have the resources to just build another factory somewhere else just because they dont want the possibility of their employees joining a union. That sounds like a childish response. Makes no sense financially.

 

[Donald Stanfield]

Doesn't matter if the bosses take more. If it leads to higher compensation and benefits for their members, then they did their job. That’s why CEOs get paid exponentially more than the actual people doing jobs in the factory.
Just let the employees decide. If they see that Rivian’s offer is a lot better, then they wont form a union. Otherwise, they will.
People up in arms for no reason when it’s not even themselves affected.

I know why CEOS get paid more, pro union people tend not to. Also I do have skin in the game Im a stockholder. So when it tanks because union made manufacturing too expensive I personally lose money.

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