group work coming to an end

group work is suppose to make a project move faster. It sounds logical....
group = more people = more insight, more minds = less work = job done faster

but in reality it is more like
group = more people = more insight, more minds = more complicated schedules to get together = less time = job is a disaster.

One of my group work started off as a team of 4 and then the professor added someone to our group because he was out for 2 weeks and missed when we made our groups.... now this is not our fault that he is missed class and is obviously a slacker. but she forced him onto us. we figured she give us some slack because everyone got to make their own groups and she made ours. fine.
but recently he has not been helping out and doing his part of the group work. He is a weak link in our team. He hasn't been showing up in class, especially today when we had time to work on our group project, he has not been doing his individual assignments. It just isnt fair that he is part of our team, making us do all the work.
I called him today to see why he wasn't in class and he didnt respond.
We want to kick him out of our group.
But we think the professor will deny our request and just give him a lower grade at the end, but he is really no help and should have to work alone.

Another group project I have in a different class is going great we are on top of deadlines but the only problem we continue to face is schedules. we all have conflicting schedules, that it is almost impossible to find time to work on the project....
we are going to email everyone our freetime, we are going to have to work for an hour or 2 at the most everyday since that seems like the only time we are all available!