For what its worth I work in a non union warehouse and its full of pot heads, coke heads, and drunks. I know for a fact some of the smokers light up before work and on their breaks. Couple guys come in drunk every now and then. The one coke head is on his second leave of absence in a month. I think he is binging.

 

These guys weren't on the job site, just on break.

 

Nice....



More

 

For sure!

 

Why is there an investigation? With video proof, fire those on film. If they can't follow work rules they don't deserve the opportunity to do the job.

 

This shouldn't even be news. This happens at EVERY job. I know frickin' engineers who came to work with severe hangovers (still drunk). At one plant I worked in, the BOSS came in so drunk on a Saturday that he fell off of his motorcycle when he got there and passed out!!! I've worked in restaurants, brick plants, auto plants, horse farms, and office buildings as a receptionist back in the day and most recently as an engineer. Nothing changes. There are ALWAYS those that don't care. Drug testing wouldn't even work with some of these guys, they're just drinking beer, that won't show up on a drug test. Now the ones hitting the Devil's Lettuce... that's just asking to get fired with a random drug test. WHY RISK IT?

 

Yeah, but you're recalling very specific incidents. That reporter went there day after day, after day and saw the same thing.

I'm sure all of us have seen someone grabs some drinks at lunch, and maybe some us have too. But that might a drink at Ruby Tuesday's or something, not picking up 40s and snapper bottles and hammering them in a parking lot. I'm not saying this unique to union plants, as I suspect that it has more to do with the types of jobs and the people who work in those professions. But when so much of one's reputation is about "the quality of the work/workers" and knowing full well what we've seen in the past from unions in policing their own, AND the billions upon BILLIONS of dollars that they got . . . you would have to have your head willing in the sand not see how this isn't a big deal.

And then to have a number of people defend them like it's okay?!?! . . .

 

Anyone looking using this as an anti-union stance really has their head up their a**. Everyplace there is a small group of rejects who do stupid stuff like this. This type of behavior is banned in pretty much every union contract (let alone work rules in most places), and is grounds for immediate termination if discovered or it affects their job performance (afterall, this did take place off grounds and off the clock, right??... therefore, not typically under company time or rules).

I see some also missed the part where the tip off came from another UAW member.

On the flip side, I doubt there is anyone on this site who has never had a beer or a cocktail ever during their lunch. I'm also pretty sure that we all know someone at work who is known to smoke weed, and likely does so on break if not while off the clock.

This is big news because:

A. It's Fox.
B. It serves an anti-union spin.
C. It's a good "we bailed them out with tax dollars, and now look!" mentality.

Final point.

The UAW has pretty much most all of their retiree health finances riding on Chrysler's turnaround and profitability. Anyone with a room tempreature IQ will also realize that the UAW leadership and 99% of the rank and file are smart enough to not tolerate anything that might jepordize that goal and that making the best vehicles possible is mandatory.

Also, the UAW (like any major organization) also doesn't want the bad press.

As for the cracks about needing investigations, it's obvious that those of you saying this don't run or manage anyone, and never have.

Investigations are MANDATORY in ALL instances involving termination of any REAL jobs. There is this thing called "Wrongful Termination" suits. Even if that isn't an issue, there is the issue of contributing to paying that employee's unemployment.

I can terminate someone immediately pretty much only for gross insubordination, theft, vandalism, verbal or physical assualt. Everything else is a write up. If they come to work drunk or high, I send them home with a write up. a certain amount of write ups in a certain time then is termination. And my employees aren't union. Anything done off the clock that doesn't grossly affect job performance I generally can't touch.

For the record, I did work with union members when I was in the military, and my dad was also union.... anyone saying that as a rule ALL unions and union members are lazy can go scr*w themselves.

For sure there are certain unions (San Francisco's MUNI, for example) where work rules breed and are attractive to members who take full advantage of the system to the point of abuse. But keep in mind that the other half of the equasion is management. If you have a management with backbone, and foresight (to plan for bad times as well as good), then you'll have reasonable work rules and a workforce that is no worse than any other. If you don't, then you have the animals running the zoo.

This instance is the last examples of the results of the old UAW that finally started changing early this decade.

 

This is really the most disturbing part of the whole thing for me. That there are people within the industry who after all of this bailout and bankruptcy stuff has gone down, who should be aware of the reputation problems, fair or unfair, that the American people have about their industry -- that they STILL don't get it. Because if you can sit there and justify why slamming beers and smoking grass on your half-hour lunchbreak is "ok" simply because you're not on the clock, and defend it even after it's been brought to the attention of an already skeptical nation - I wonder if there's really any hope for a real recovery, if you're still not shaking up attitudes.

Last night on Fox 2 here they had a roundtable that included the reporter in the piece and worker from the plant, who was not involved but knows most of the people on the tape. This worker, instead of blaming his co-workers for embarrassing him, his union and his employer, attacked the TV station for running the report claiming THEY are hurting Chrysler by exposing this. He then claimed that because their jobs are so stressful, different people deal with stress in different ways, and speculated that this is what this group of individuals was doing.

 

I'm sorry, but you couldn't be more off the mark. The station is a local Fox affiliate but has nothing to do with the "big evil" Fox News Channel. If the tip had been called into the NBC or ABC affiliate here, you don't think they'd run with the story??? So let's put this silly conspiracy stuff aside for a moment. Obviously (C) comes into play, exposing Government waste and fraud has been the hallmark of the news for generations. Why should this be handled any different?

To address your point about "we've all had beers at lunch" and that it's off the clock, I can honestly say no I haven't because my butt would be canned. Besides that point, this wasn't some random, occasional thing - it was 10 days in a row. This is displaying a clear problem with these individuals. Who knows if this lunchtime party has been a 5 year tradition? No one is implying that you can't have a beer when you're off the clock. What everyone IS saying is that it's WRONG to drive to a public park, slam 40s and smoke marijuana and then return to work. Make the distinction. I really don't care who else is doing it, wrong is wrong. The guy working at ABC company who gets caught smoking grass and returning to work can be fired and it's not a news story because ABC doesn't have a horrific reputation with the public. ABC Company didn't take billions in taxpayer money to save these jobs. The membership still hasn't received the wakeup call in many instances.

As I said in my previous post, Guy, you may know a lot about the inside workings of the industry but I suspect you do NOT know the mentality of a lot of the people on the floor. Local Detroit radio was blowing up with UAW members calling in to DEFEND these guys. So while the UAW leadership is assuredly going to put on the best face for the public and say all the right things, they STILL have a real problem with the attitudes in a good number (though I know certainly not all) of their membership. And this is the most disturbing thing.

 

The UAW has a chance to look like grown ups here, but I don't get that from their wishy-washy prepared statement at the end of the piece.

Heads up their ***? The UAW is all over that one...

 

I'd like to see a nationwide poll taken that involves this scenario:

Imagine for a moment that you were in the showroom looking to buy a new vehicle. The price and payments are right, your credit is approved and you are just doing a final check to ensure that the vehicle is right for you. As you look it over, the salesperson is demonstrating the vehicle features and the this statement is made:

"...this vehicle has 6 airbags, anti-lock brakes, plus stability and handling control. In addition, it was built in part by the hands of autoworkers that were either intoxicated or had just smoked marijuana, or both. Sign here."

How many would still buy that vehicle? My guess is few. This is the message being sent to every potential auto buyer, and those who are defending the actions of these guys instead need to condemn them because this hurts them and their livelihood as well. Perhaps they are too busy covering the asses of the "good ol' boys club" to realize this. I wouldn't want someone to fix the plane I fly on when they were loaded. I hope the guys who change my oil aren't baked when they do it. I wouldn't even want someone to cut my hair when bombed. I sure as hell wouldn't want to place my safety and my family's safety in the hands of these guys.

Don't ask the other auto workers how they feel about it (although it was a tip from other autoworkers from that plant which started everything). Ask the people who were going to buy that car. Ask the people who have to work on them under warranty (which again, is rolled into the price of the car). Ask the people trying to sell these vehicles. I wonder how THEY feel about it, because to me, that is more important.

Forget the union, forget the buyout, forget all of that. The bottom line is this looks bad because it is bad. There is no justification for it. Any excuse that can be made for this is flimsy.

• Their job is stressful. So is mine. So is the job of a brain surgeon. Is it okay that they perform the same activity just before going back to work? Air traffic controllers have a stressful job as well. I it okay they wake and bake before they go to work? If they have a substance abuse problem or any problem, they should be big boys and deal with it accordingly. It sure looked like they were having fun from the footage. It was more like happy hour than "dealing with a problem". Your job is stressful? Quit and get a different one! There's a lot of people waiting in line for YOUR job, and CAN and WILL do it better and without being loaded! I'll back this statement up by betting one-year's salary that I can do their job better for one year without touching booze, beer, or even a cigarette. This isn't a blind statement, I used to be a conveyor engineer for an auto plant, I know what it takes.
  
• They were on their own time. That's right, they were. However, the effects of what they did on their own time carried into being on the clock. They are responsible for making quality vehicles. How many times have you bought something that was defective and felt screwed? Did you wonder if who put it together was drunk or just didn't care? Imagine if it was a $40,000 item. That's how every 2011 Grand Cherokee owner feels right now.
  
• They have quality control to catch the faults of the workers. And that quality control costs time and money and gets rolled into the price of the car. When some stoned or drunk auto worker doesn't do his job effectively, and faults are caught, the vehicle that could have been approved for sale has to go through another process, and that time and lost production gets once again rolled into the price of the vehicle.
  
• This happens in every industry, every day. And that makes it okay? That simply states that it is worse than it needs to be. People have the "Out of a job yet? Keep buying foreign" bumper sticker on their car. After seeing that, you almost can't blame some for buying foreign. This is just one more black mark on the American automotive industry. The bumper stickers should be changed to say "Out of a job yet? Keep going to work drunk and/or stoned."

This all just sucks. These guys were wrong, they know it and so does everyone else. Those who defend it need to wake up and look at what the industry has been going through over the past few years. Auto workers like this are a big part of the problem.

 

...

 

People who know they are not doing anything wrong don't hide in parks and flee from cameras.

 

That's making one hell of an assumption. My wife and I sure don't. She doesn't drink EVER, trust me, I've tried, and I could count on one hand how many beers I've had this year. I've NEVER had one before work or during lunch