Would you buy a Ford built by temps?
December 01, 2006
Temporary workers will help build the Lincoln Town Car since so many Ford employees took buyouts this week
With nearly half of its workforce accepting buyouts, Ford is recruiting temporary workers to help build cars at its Wixom, Mich., assembly, something it is likely to have to do at its other plants as well.
Ford announced this week that 38,000 hourly workers, or 46 percent of its U.S. hourly workforce, had accepted early retirement or buyouts of $35,000-$140,000 by the Nov. 27 deadline. That puts Ford ahead of its goal of cutting 30,000 hours jobs by the end of 2008. Meantime, Ford is taking applications for temporary work at its suburban Detroit plant that produces the Lincoln Town Car. (It once built the now-defunct Lincoln LS and Ford Thunderbird, which were curtailed due to poor sales.) Temporary workers will receive no benefits nor will they accrue union seniority. They will receive the starting pay required under Ford's UAW contract of $16 per hour.
A Michigan auto analyst was quoted by a Detroit-area newspaper saying what Ford is doing at its Wixom, Mich., plant, likely will be done at its other plants as well. Temporary workers will be required to keep Ford's plants running in light of the huge acceptance of worker buyouts. It causes one to wonder. For years, automakers have preached that extensive training of experienced workers results in vehicle quality. How can Ford sustain quality when its vehicles are built by temp workers who are not compensated as well as the permanent employees they work alongside of and they have no prospect for a future job or job security?
Posted by Michelle Krebs at 7:44 PM under Companies | Comments (4) | digg this | Seed Newsvine
I am a permanent employee at a large, manufacturing plant. I can say without a doubt that using temporary employees have hurt our quality. With that said, I would never buy a Ford if the majority of their workers were temps.
Posted by: Theresa | April 21, 2007 at 1:54 AM
As I am a permanent employee at a large automotive manufacturer, I can tell you that the hype regarding the use the temp workers and its impact on quality is overstated for a variety of reasons.
1) The temp workers I have worked with have better work attitudes, college degrees and are seeking to get hired as a full-time employee. This is compared to the 20+ year UAW veterans who have had job protection from the union and has no motivation to do anything but the bare minimum until he gets a retirement package.
2) Most quality defects are prevented through effective product engineering and manufacturing processes.
3) Many manufacturing processes are automated. A robot doesn't care if parts are being loaded into a workstation by a temp worker.
4) For non-automated processes, temp workers receive training prior to working. For example, if a person is assigned to install dashboards on a vehicle, he/she receives training and are tested on that specific workstation prior to making production parts. Working in a plant for 20 years doesn't mean a person is doing a better job.
Unfortunately, in many cases the media will publish a story for its ratings as opposed to "news-worthiness." This is one such example.
Posted by: Mark | April 25, 2007 at 6:05 AM
Iam a temp worker for automotive man. in K.C. I , like Mark had stated Work very hard in hopes of a full time pos.
What i dont understand is why they(the comp. i work for) will not disclose to the temps.(like me) whether or not we will be hired full time
Posted by: jon | August 02, 2007 at 11:25 AM
It actually depends on the output of those cars. But I think they should really be given the chance to show if they have the potential or they don't. Who knows, they might give us the car up close and personal like those on autopartswarehouse.com blog
Posted by: warpfreak | June 14, 2008 at 12:18 AM