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Did you read this letter to GM about the bailout ?
Abridged letter from Troy Clarke, President of General Motors
- followed by a response from , Gregory Knox:
Dear Employee,
Next week, Congress and the current Administration will determine whether to provide immediate support to the domestic auto industry to help it through one of the most difficult economic times in our nation's history. Your elected officials must hear from all of us now on why this support is critical to our continuing the progress we began prior to the global financial crisis.....................As an employee, you have a lot at stake and continue to be one of our most effective and passionate voices. I know GM can count on you to have your voice heard.
Thank you for your urgent action and ongoing support.
Troy Clarke
President
General Motors North America
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
From Gregory Knox,
In response to your request to call legislators and ask for a bailout for the United States automakers please consider the following, and please also pass this onto Troy Clark, the president of General Motors North America for me.
You are both infected with the same entitlement mentality that has bred like cancerous germs in UAW halls for the last countless decades, and whose plague is now sweeping the nation, awaiting our new "messiah" to wave his magical wand and make all our problems go away, while at the same time allowing our once great nation to keep "living the dream".
The dream is over!
The dream that we can ignore the consumer for years while management myopically focuses on its personal rewards packages at the same time that our factories have been filled with the worlds most overpaid, arrogant, ignorant and laziest entitlement minded "laborers" without paying the price for these atrocities and that still the masses will line up to buy our products
Don't tell me I'm wrong. Don't accuse me of not knowing of what I speak. I have called on Ford, GM, Chrysler, TRW, Delphi, Kelsey Hayes, American Axle and countless other automotive OEM's and Tier ones for 3 decades now throughout the Midwest and what I've seen over the years in these union shops can only be described as disgusting.
Mr Clark, the president of General Motors, states:
There is widespread sentiment in this country, our government and especially in the media that the current crisis is completely the result of bad management. It is not.
You're right, it's not JUST management, how about the electricians who walk around the plants like lords in feudal times, making people wait on them for countless hours while they drag *** so they can come in on the weekend and make double and triple time for a job they easily could have done within their normal 40 hour week
How about the line workers who threaten newbies with all kinds of scare tactics for putting out too many parts on a shift and for being too productive (mustn't expose the lazy bums who have been getting overpaid for decades for their horrific underproduction, must we?!?) Do you really not know about this stuff?!?
How about this great sentiment abridged from Mr. Clarke's sad plea:
over the last few years we have closed the quality and efficiency gaps with our competitors.
What the hell has Detroit been doing for the last 40 years?!?
Did we really JUST wake up to the gaps in quality and efficiency between us and them?
The K car vs. the Accord?
The Pinto vs. the Civic?!?
Do I need to go on?
We are living through the inevitable outcome of the actions of the United States auto industry for decades.
Time to pay for your sins, Detroit .
I attended an economic summit last week where a brilliant economist, Alan Beaulieu surprised the crowd when he said he would not have given the banks a penny of "bailout money". Yes, he said, this would cause short term problems, but despite what people like George Bush and Troy Clark would have us believe, the sun would in fact rise the next day and something else would happen. Where there had been greedy and sloppy banks, new efficient ones would pop up. That is how a free market system works. It does work if we would let it work!
But for some reason we are now deciding that the rest of the world is right and that capitalism doesn't work; that we need the government to step in and "save us". Save us, hell we're nationalizing and unfortunately too many of this once fine nation's citizens don't even have a clue that this is what's really happening but they sure can tell you the stats on their favorite sports teams yeah THAT'S important.
Does it occur to ANYONE that the "competition" has been producing vehicles, EXTREMELY PROFITABLY, for decades now in this country?...
How can that be???
Let's see - -
Fuel efficient -
Listening to customers -
Investing in the proper tooling and automation for the long haul -
Not being too complacent or arrogant to listen to Dr W Edwards Demin
Not being too complacent or arrogant to listen to Dr W Edwards Deming 4 decades ago -
Ever increased productivity through quality, lean and six sigma plans -
Treating vendors like strategic partners, rather than like "the enemy" -
Efficient front and back offices -
Non union environment -
Again, I could go on and on, but I really wouldn't be telling anyone anything they really don't already know in their hearts
I have six children, so I am not unfamiliar with the concept of wanting someone to bail you out of a mess that you have gotten yourself into. My children do this on a weekly, if not daily basis, as I did at their age. I do for them what my parents did for me (one of their greatest gifts, by the way). I make them stand on their own two feet and accept the consequences of their actions and work them through.
Radical concept, huh?
Am I there for them in the wings? Of course but only until such time as they need to be fully on their own as adults
I don't want to oversimplify a complex situation, but there certainly are unmistakable parallels here between the proper role of parenting and government.
Detroit and the United States need to pay for their sins.
Bad news people, it's coming whether we like it or not.
The newly elected Messiah really doesn't have a magic wand big enough to "make it all go away" I laughed as I heard Obama "reeling it back in" almost immediately after the vote count was tallied "we might not do it in a year or in four"! Where was that kind of talk when he was RUNNING for the office
Stop trying to put off the inevitable!
That house in Florida really isn't worth $750,000!
People who jump across a border really don't deserve free health care benefits!
That job driving that forklift for the big 3 really isn't worth $85,000 a year!
That couple whose combined income is less than $50,000 really shouldn't be living in that $485,000 home!
Let the market correct itself peo
4 Answers
- Spartan LLv 51 decade agoFavorite Answer
Thanks for bringing this to my attention. You are right that America could easily follow many of Britains mistakes we made over the last century.(I'm a Brit). Greed is not good and it has pervaded all levels of America. Let's just hope a slightly poorer USA will be a better USA.
- toledojeeperLv 51 decade ago
Then why is Toyota asking the Japanese Government for a 2 billion dollar loan?
Did you ever think that the profit the Japanese automakers WERE(Toyota is losing money now) making is because of the undervalued yen?Not so much now but around 2 years ago the Japanese were making an average of $8000 on each imported vehicle because of the undervalued yen.Then the Japanese get a tax break on each imported vehicle while the American automakers pay a tax on each exported vehicle.Is this fair trade?
See how uninformed you are,a forklift driver at GM doesn't make $85000 per year unless he is working a lot of overtime.Under the new contract a forklift drivers starting pay is less then $15 per hour.
- Andrew KLv 61 decade ago
Everything the response letter talks about regarding the bad employees could easily be solved if the supervisors would wake up and start doing their jobs. There's no reason to keep slack employees, and for some reason, management hardly ever seems to realize who the bad and good employees are. So, I'd have to say that the problems of the auto industry are at least 95% bad management.
I mean, yeah, in every job there are people who aren't as productive as they should be, but if management is doing nothing about it, I have a hard time blaming the workers.
Also, before anyone wants to blame the UAW for any of the auto makers failures, I'd just point them in the direction of Toyota and Honda, who are doing as good as ever and have the same contracts with the UAW for their American plants.
- Anonymous1 decade ago
Ha ha Toyota needs a bailout now!