Strike at Deere plants in the US, more supply chain shortage to come

[RandyT]

Years ago there was a well known construction equipment manufacturer that the union went on strike. The strike lasted several years, and the company responded by bringing in the non union salaried employees and built equipment. In this endeavor they discovered that they could build just as much equipment with a third of the work force. So the next union negotiation basically ended with the company agreeing to all the unions demands but in exchange the company only had to re-employ a third of the striking union members. The offer was accepted and ended the strike with 2/3 of the previous employees being put on unemployment benefits.

 

[PuffyC]

I never really got the thought process where you think you’re entitled to X because somebody else got Y, or that you “deserved” X amount just because you have a pulse, or have some noble profession. Economically your value is precisely however much it would cost to replace you. If my boss could find someone or something that contributes to the company what I do for less I’d be out of a job and rightly so. That’s a two way street too, for as soon as someone values me more I’ll fire my boss and move on. Neither one of us owes the other anything beyond the deal we both freely agreed to when hired. It really is (or should be) that simple. If you don’t like your deal, extortion isn’t the answer. The answer is to figure out how you can bring more value to the equation.

This is what so many fail to grasp, and not to single anybody out, but teachers are a great example. They’re not paid based on some philosophical value society places on educating children, they’re paid based on how much it would cost to find another teacher to replace them, just like everybody else.

 

[ruffdog]

These problems are only small bits of the bigger cause...the capitalists business model. Being that we have created and depend on a debt based economy, we must also keep feeding it. A DBE must always grow and with it brings costs. Those costs always will be added to the bottom line and that is what causes inflation. Interesting read:

https://workableeconomics.com/the-debt-based-economy/

 

[sea2summit]

That would be zero.

So if he sat on his thumbs you think all the employees would have jobs?

 

[ultrarunner]

I would understand if options did not exist... but they do and being self employed is always an option but few it seems opt to go this way.

Everyone in my family on Dad's side small business and on mom's farmers...

The idea of a 40 hour week working indoors in conditioned space with breaks and benefits is something no one had experienced... dairy farm is 7 day a week operation and small business is way more than 40 a week...

I worked in a union shop and glad for the experience but it was all foreign to me... like cleaning my bench after the quiting bell... shop steward came over and said did you not hear the bell? Then turned off my light and said work stops at the bell... that was my first day...

Over the weeks I learned to not be so helpful because it would go outside my classification...

As time went on I had more flexibility I guess because I was liked... took the lowest jobs with a smile and so on deferring to my superiors when needed.

That Tool and Machine shop and all those like it are long gone... 40 men on the floor supporting 40 families plus office, etc...

Deliveries sometimes would show up at lunch... a time when no forklift or crane operator... I slowly expanded what I could do only if no one else was on the clock...

Right now Health Care is experiencing strikes and labor is in short supply... simply not enough skilled nurses, etc. to backfill during a strike... time will tell but other unions observing so I don't think it will last long...

 

[mo1]

Right now Health Care is experiencing strikes and labor is in short supply... simply not enough skilled nurses, etc. to backfill during a strike... time will tell but other unions observing so I don't think it will last long...

Health care is a much different situation than most manufacturing due to the massive involvement of the federal government and the large involvement of state governments in healthcare. The employers are often multibillion dollar multi-state duopolies, and the Medicare rules have pretty much pushed any independents out of business. The state certificates of need laws actually do keep new players out. The hospital systems have a large number of employees with specific and often very expensive training that is only useful when working in healthcare. The employers thus have pretty much all of the negotiating power as all the employees can do is either agree to demands or quit, and if they quit, it is going to be essentially the same elsewhere (due to the federal government's involvement) so quitting really means quitting for good. They either leave the field and end up with completely worthless training or retire if they can.

The main underlying issues causing people to quit in healthcare are chronic understaffing, poor pay, poor treatment by patients, and poor treatment by administration. This is not new and has been an issue causing shortages of staff ever since the forced consolidation of local hospitals and independent practices into large hospital systems in the late 1990s. It got worse in the early 2010s with many new CMS regs and a frozen payment schedule pretty much finishing off the independents. These issues have all gotten worse in the last two years due to the coronavirus. The first thing hospital systems did when patient numbers briefly dipped for two months in April and May 2020 were to cut staff (either fire them outright, lay them off, or cut hours) and cut benefits. The patient numbers more than rebounded last summer and have been very high since, and little to no staff have been hired to replace ones that were fired or quit, and pay/benefits for staff haven't budged for anything except absolute entry-level positions. Patients have gotten much more unruly for whatever reason or reasons and the hospital systems won't do much to protect their employees from this or back them up "because it's bad PR, the customer is always right." Add in the hassles of the coronavirus politics and mandates (particularly their employer twisting the school board's arms regarding restrictions and mandates for the schools their kids attend), and it adds up to too much for many and they quit. Apart from the VA, there is essentially no unionization of healthcare workers in this region so it's all individuals walking out and quitting and not an organized strike.

 

[ultrarunner]

Update... the pendulum has swung back to hospital employees at least to end of year here and special incentives offered to avert similar situations as Deere...

I venture to say similar in other in demand and not easily off shored segments...

Major Hospital battling chronic staff shortages recently implemented over the top retention... and it is working... one friend just worked 80 regular + 70 extra hours in two week period...

To encourage/reward staff for long hours all hours over Full Time Employment plus 4 which can be anything from 24 to 40 per week receives bonus pay...

Say you are scheduled 40 per week
and work 40 at your pay rate and then work 4 hours of overtime making 44 hours... for each additional hour worked RN receives $40 bonus dollars above and beyond overtime or double time...

Surgical Techs get same deal but $30 bonus pet hour...

The kicker is if you are Full Time at 24 hours per week the bonus kicks in after you work 28 hours.

The shortage is critical... strikes already happening and hospitals can't close everywhere...

You are right in that all the mandates and CMS changes have virtually consolidated to too big to fail and shuttered all the smaller community based hospitals plus the Catholics with 70-80% charity cases at some hospitals left when they could not get an exemption so as not to perform abortions, etc...

 

[Cahaba Valley Farm]

If someone is ******* around on company time they deserve to loose their job.

That's almost every person that works a job in my town

 

[Cahaba Valley Farm]

The answer is to figure out how you can bring more value to the equation.

Absolutely.

 

[Cahaba Valley Farm]

I have read many of your responses here and as you will probably all see I think I gave a like to every post because I think all of you made great points and arguments. So here's my two cents:

I have been looking very closely at Deere's product lineup for two years. And when you compare their offerings to their competitors in the market they are undoubtedly much higher and I would go as far to say overpriced. They also have done everything they can to keep the customer from getting a break such as building different model tractors with parts that are not interchangeable so they can force the customer to have to pick a much more expensive tractor and part with a lot more money then what they really want to spend. When you look at their product lineup the customer really has no reasonable or fair choices. The economy tractors are so de-spec'd and overpriced that it's just a bad buy. The deluxe tractors are so underpowered that the bells and whistles don't make up for the difference in price that they are sticking to the customer.

It has also been mentioned here by many people who have shopped at Deere, myself included, that there is a noticeable attitude and lack of care the salespeople at the dealerships continue to demonstrate across the country. The call center customer service has also been beyond terrible every time that I have called. They also have screwed over a lot of mom and pop dealers that sold their equipment for several generations and could care less whether they left those families and people out to dry or not. In several cases they were left out to dry.
They have shown me in more then one way that they don't respect the customers or the dealers and that the bottom line is the only thing they value.

So the takeaway is this: You reap what you sow. When you are bad with people people will be bad back with you. When you are unfair with people people will be unfair with you. When you are greedy with people people will be greedy back with you and when you are unrighteous with people people will be unrighteous with you. What they sowed they are reaping and they are eating the fruit of their ways.