Roy Exum
General Motors is at wit’s end. GM needs to hire 450 “part time” workers immediately in Flint, Michigan and another 275 at the Fort Wayne, Ind., assembly plant. Add the fact the United Auto Workers, with its last president just sentenced to over two years in the slammer, is just as desperate for new members. GM is offering $16.67 an hour the first day, free medical care after 90 days, paid vacation after 120 days and a plump permanent job within 24 months.
But nobody is applying.
The first hurdle is that the average unemployment check in Detroit is $16.05 an hour. There ain’t 50 suckers in Michigan or Indiana who are going to swap the sofa for back-breaking assembly line work for a net 62 cents an hour. That’s right, a 10-hour shift will yield $6.20 more than unemployment for a full day’s work and taxes will swallow that whole. Those interested should call the UAW for more details.
But wait ‘til you hear this! The UAW has just launched a fail-proof plan – the union has asked GM to lift all drug screening for new employees. In other words, nobody will fail a drug screening. Now that’s fool-proof!
Eric Welter, the UAW’s Shop Chairman for Local 598, explained this idea to the Detroit Free Press. "When you have a line of people waiting for a job, then it's OK to test (for marijuana). But, if you don't have enough candidates, testing for marijuana might turn people off from applying," he reasoned.
Welter says younger job hunters are particularly likely to skip an interview if they know they're going to be drug tested. (General Motors generally collects hair samples, which can reveal signs of pot use even if it was consumed several weeks before someone applied for a job.)
His better approach? “You have to start treating people right, improving your compensation and doing something different to attract employees because you’re competing with every major employer in the area. Nobody has workers," Welter told the newspaper. He recommends increasing the entry-level pay to over $17 an hour.
Are you kidding me? That’s just $10 bucks a day better than unemployment and you ain’t got to hold a front-bumper assembly while Darlene tightens the bolts. Secondly, Walmart and Amazon will meet that price for a skilled worker and a manager at McDonald’s is a heckuva lot happier.
Finally, Michigan is one of 16 states where marijuana is legal. What do you reckon Darlene and her cohorts on the Local 598 Women’s Select Bowling Team might share a doobie or two before the second-shift whistle? Brake lights don’t work on the Silverado come down the line? No cares, my man … chill. Accidents, people falling… those are union grievances. No problem Aunt “Mary Jane” will soothe your anxiety and let GM grabble “internally”.
Over a dozen UAW leaders, including the ridiculed former president Dennis Williams, are now in the hoosegow. Many union members are miffed by huge money loses, an insatiable pension plan about to topple, and corruption still rife in the lesser ranks. Man oh man! Roll me a ‘blunt.’
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CHICAGO MAYOR DECLARES RACISM ‘PUBLIC HEALTH CRISIS’
Mayor Lori Lightfoot formally declared racism to be a public health crisis in Chicago on Thursday in a terse announcement at the MLK Exhibit Center and it was the most laughable moment in the United States.
Lightfoot, in my opinion, is the most repugnant elected official in America, is a blatant racist and just a month ago wrote to the Chicago media that she, as the first black woman and openly gay person elected to run that city, confirmed “that on the occasion of the two-year anniversary of my inauguration as Mayor of this great City, I will be exclusively providing one-on-one interviews with journalists of color.” Please!
"We can no longer allow racism to rob the residents of the opportunity to live and lead full, healthy and happy lives and we are working closely with the Chicago Department of Public Health and community organizations to address these inequities once and for all," Mayor Lightfoot wrote in mid-May. (A Lightfoot spokesperson later clarified that the protest only pertains to interviews about her anniversary in office.)
Yesterday the volatile firebrand was back on her high horse. This week her hysteria was borne by a Chicago Department of Public Health study that earlier this week showed black Chicagoans have a shorter life expectancy. The study revealed black lives are shorter in the city. On average in 2017 blacks in the city lived 71.4 years, while non-blacks lived 80.6 years.
The report listed the factors of the gap as chronic diseases, homicides, infant mortality, HIV, flu and other infections, and opioid overdoses. Put an emphasis on homicides…
THIS JUST IN: The Chicago Jackass website revealed Thursday afternoon that 43 persons have been shot and killed within the Chicago city limits thus far in just the month of June and 258 Chicagoans have been shot in the last 17 days. For the year. 294 have been killed by gunfire and 1,704 people have been shot … that’s one victim for every 2 hours 22 minutes since Jan. 1, 2021. The demographics: Of the dead this year there are 221 blacks, 36 Hispanics and 8 whites. (SOURCE: heyjackass.com)
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