Chrysler employees caught drinking, using drugs, on their break

[jimpeel]

It seems that the same plant that Obama was praising just a couple of months ago is filled with drunks and druggies.

There is video at the link below.

The reporter finally, after days of watching these guys, approaches them and they run, get in their cars, and leave so fast they don't even have time to close the doors.

Pretty hilarious -- er, wait -- they are only still employed because they were bailed out with my tax dollars. That's not very funny at all.

SOURCE

Chrysler Autoworkers Caught on Camera Drinking Beer, Smoking Pot During Break

Published September 23, 2010

While taxpayers are footing the bill to keep America's auto industry off life support, an undercover investigation shows illegal activities by Chrysler employees who have enjoyed nearly $15 billion in government money.

Dozens of autoworkers in Detroit were caught on camera drinking beer and smoking marijuana before heading to work at the Chrysler plant that President Obama praised in a speech just two months ago.

An exclusive investigation by MyFoxDetroit showed workers at Chrysler's Jefferson North Assembly Plant in Detroit, Mich., drinking beer and smoking joints while on a half-hour lunch break at a nearby park.

The investigation -- conducted over several weeks and based on tips from workers at the plant -- outraged the auto giant's top executives who reportedly called the behavior "totally unacceptable."

Obama spoke July 30 at the plant, where he lauded the American worker, saying, "It's workers like you that built this country into the greatest economic power the world has ever known."

"I want all of you to know, I will bet on the American worker any day of the week." he told the crowd.

"I wish they could see what I'm seeing in this plant and talk to the workers who are here, taking pride in building a world-class vehicle," Obama said, referring to opponents of the multibillion-dollar government auto bailout. "I don't think they'd be willing to look you in the eye and say that you were a bad investment."

Chrysler took $14.3 billion in government bailout money, which includes pre-bankruptcy loans. The company has repaid $3.7 billion.

The plant -- taking up more than 3 million square feet of factory -- employs 2,833 union auto workers. The station's report did not say how many workers were involved in the incident.

Scott Garberding, senior vice president of manufacturing, told MyFoxDetroit that he was "very disturbed" by what he saw in the video.

"I want to make it clear that we at Chrysler take this very seriously," he said in an interview with the station. "For us, this behavior is totally unacceptable and will be dealt with swiftly."

Click here to read more on this story from http://www.MyFoxDetroit.com

 

[2minkey]

yeah jim, it's obama's responsibility to make sure the UAW guys aren't screwing around before work. or perhaps he should simply announce during a speech that the working class in the US is a bunch of complacent whiners lacking real self-discipline. would that be a more consistent approach fer ya?

you continue to undermine any point you may have had.

 

[2minkey]

oh, and BTW, i think you've been living in a gingerbread house near the smurf village.

REALLY? FACTORY GUYS GETTING WASTED? WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT????

what's really funny is when they drive the cars through the "water test" at the end of the TCF (trim, chassis, and final) line. they spray high pressure water at the car from several angles at once to check the seals. sometimes the guy or gal driving the car is stoned and/or drunk, and leaves the windows down.

 

[ResearchMonkey]

What even funnier is that they're getting doped up like spike like to do, then they jump into their cars a drive away from the park. Then they go operate heavy machinery, I bet the insurance company is fine with that.

Get loaded, get behind the wheel and then go operate heavy machinery.

 

[Winky]

Union Chrysler employees are worthless scum

You can bet your ass the non-union workers
building Hondas in Ohio aren't doped up out of
their minds.

 

[Gonz]

I worked for a company that supplied the GM truck plant with their just-in-time inventory (stupid fucking idea). Roughly 40 doors & 70 forklift drivers. Never more than half a dozen of them working at one time. They'd play cards. I was reading a novel or two a week waiting for them to do their :08 minutes work each hour.

Other folks were out back by the tire bay, getting stoned. I heard of many, many sexual adventures happening. People getting drunk or doing drugs. The reason it was tolerated...the way the union contract was written, if a supervisor wished to bust someone doing one of these things, the union member could yell addiction, then GM was forced to pay for their treatment as well as play the union member 100% FT wages while in treatment. There is no maximum times this can be done & firing the union member is impossible.

 

[2minkey]

you don't like just in time? wow. sounds anti-management to me. so management is stupid but you're anti-union huh?

 

[Winky]

He's the anti anti

which means he's all for it

 

[Gonz]

you don't like just in time?

It's asinine. We'd get a call telling us that X product had to be in teh plant in :10 minutes, otherwise they shut the line down...a (claimed) cost of about ten grand a minute.

No winks, I'm anti-stupid ideas.

 

[2minkey]

hmmm. yeah it is a pain in the ass. i used to do consulting on that type of thing.

but it is a great way to reduce inventory carrying costs/taxes, reduce facility and handling costs, and keep the UAW sluggos on their toes. in a lot of ways it's really a form of industrial discipline - keep marching, boys - though i like the term "management by stress" to describe it.

$10k/minute huh? i've heard figures far greater than that.

the problem is that nobody is very good at managing inventory. i remember an anecdote about an OEM losing an entire truckload of parts. they really had no idea where it went.

 

[ResearchMonkey]

Break the unions, save money every minute.

 

[Winky]

UAW sluggos

and at the same time
abolish capital gains taxes

 

[Gonz]

the problem is that nobody is very good at managing inventory. i remember an anecdote about an OEM losing an entire truckload of parts. they really had no idea where it went.

This is what I always wondered about. We were the middle man. Truck loads brought it to us. We seperated into proper dock & times. Our loads were 1 day ahead of invetory needs. What happens if a huge snowstorm blankets the Great Michigan-Canadian corridor (hardly unusual) or the truck decides to run into a ditch? That just in time is now sitting in the middle of a cornfield & the UAW boys n girls are getting paid to sit on their fat asses. Management can't send 'em home (they can ask for volunteers). They won't do other necessity work. Now what?

The pickup line did one truck a minute..for two shifts. Theyr've now gone to 24 hours.

 

[2minkey]

one day of inventory. vs. an hour of inventory at the top of the chain. folks below you had to keep even more inventory than you did. this is the magic formula. push the inventory costs down the supply chain! and then demand price reductions!

but the cornfield, yeah... i've heard of many instances of emergency shipments by plane.

i can't imagine them not getting volunteers to go home. the biggest problem i saw in assembly plants was actually getting people there. they had a huge lineup of people on call because the regulars often didn't wanna get out of bed. much of the automation you see in parts of assembly plants (body in white and paint) is just as much an effort not to rely on people as it is for efficiency's sake. another case of industrial discipline.

the really funny part is that the gains from JIT were likely not understood before it was implemented, but managers do need to manage something! in fact, a lot of the "improvements" in manufacturing were jumped into without fully understanding their cost structures. again, it was more about avoiding human issues like grumpy workers than efficiency. which at some level is essentially the story of henry ford's life...

 

[jimpeel]

The only reason we saved those candy asses jobs was so the union contracts would survive. If they had bankrupted, the contracts would have been null and void. Obama had to save his union buddies.

 

[Gonz]

but managers do need to manage something!

How about fewer managers? How much bureacracy is needed to run an assemby plant?

 

[2minkey]

trust me, assembly plants are NOT overstaffed with management. those guys and gals work like motherfuckers and run (often literally) around the plant all day. they also tend to have a very high divorce rate, because they almost live at the plant. typical plant manager is on his way in at 4:30am and getting production updates on the phone...

 

[Winky]

UAW sluggos are the best!

Not to mention the alcoholism, ulcers, heart attacks and just
all around great quality of life. Then they get thrown on the street.

 

[MrBishop]

The only reason we saved those candy asses jobs was so the union contracts would survive. If they had bankrupted, the contracts would have been null and void. Obama had to save his union buddies.

The car bailout goes a lot further than just the unionized floor workers keeping their cushy jobs. Take a good hard look at how many suppliers just one of these manufacturers has to have in order to make their vehicles, not to mention sales centers, garages etc etc... Think bigger...WAY bigger!

 

[Winky]

Bish let’s not forget the legitimate shareholders of GM
stock that were screwed out of their ownership of
the company. How’d that deal work out Minks, did the
regime actually give the company to the UAW?

Who really owns GM now?