GM and Chrysler both declare bankruptcy (unemployment, Congress, minimum wage, generation)
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This is absolutely the best thing that could have happened. Yes, a lot of innocent folks will catch particular hell because of the financial ripple effect, but it was high time to root out the cancerous thinking in US auto manufacturing. This Senate decision has, at long last, put the boot to the perennially lazy and over-demanding UAW. Unwilling to participate in proposed wage reductions? Talk about a bunch of immature whining foot-stamping hustlers. (Side-bar: One hopes that the growing economic "perfect storm" will also root out the NEA [National Education Association], another spoiled union. Another thread). For too long the UAW has held the manufacturers in Detroit hostage, all the while building inferior quality, on a personal basis, into each and every vehicle they laid their hands on.
Complicit with the union stranglehold, the particular arrogance of GM's senior management has pretty much guaranteed this outcome. Anyone directly involved and experienced at the management level of the US auto industry, as I was prior to my happy exit from employ with GM a few years back, has seen first-hand the rank attitude of GM's management, as well as the inevitability of this tragedy given even minor marketplace stresses. While the Asians are always willing to buckle down any time, anywhere, to make necessary improvements or to listen to their customers, dealer body and field staff, the Big Three, most notably GM, were more interested in closing the Q&A sessions at national meetings so the big boys could go off to their private, expensive dinners. A typical response to field staffs’ questions about product technical or quality issues that were having their second or even third birthdays was, and I quote: “We’ve moved on beyond that issue. We’re concentrating on our next generation products now! Let’s have just one more question, guys. I mean, the cocktail bar awaits, right?”
Such thinking produced such notables as the Chevette, Vega, Cimmaron, Olds sedan diesels, the "X" and "F" chassis classics, the 6.2l truck diesel engine and a bunch of "badge"- or worse, "decal"-engineered vehicles. Which means you’re driving a classic Cadillac, but, in reality, you’ve purchased a mere cheapo Chevy sedan with some flashy plastic trim add-ons, fake wood dashes, “Rich Corinthian Leather” and a smirk from the perpetrators of such marketing idiocy. A hard-won good reputation is a terrible thing to waste! And yet, they willingly did!
The Big Three's management will cry !wolf! now, baying at the moon as they describe the utter collapse of the US economy if they (and their promised retirement packages) aren't somehow saved. Sorry, guys! Too late to be humble.
Yes this will be dramatic, but in the end it will likely produce a productive, lean, mean hybrid company. Let's say, "RamGen Motors". And Ford MoCo. BTW, this whole scenario has been presaged in Britain in the early and mid-‘70s with their primordial-mentality auto industry. British Motor Corp, morphing into BM Holdings, British Leyland and other death-throe iterations, allowed for the weeding out of similarly hide-bound management, and the eventual total collapse of their once-proud industry.
The similar and inevitable turfing-out of lazy, energy-spent old-time management thinking, and irritating greedy unions in the US can't come too soon. I'm sure there are many truly honest, hard-working and frustrated folks who've endured smirks and thoughtless management decisions over the years, who will now thoroughly enjoy seeing these pig-headed urchins have their hats handed to them.
Meantime, when and if the buying market does slowly return, the design integrity, reputation and built-in quality of Toyota, Honda, Mitsu, Mazda, as well as VW and BMW, will ensure their continued success and growth. Successful and innovative non-union suppliers to the Detroit builders will similarly find new markets for their products and services, and the memory of true Yankee arrogance run amok in Detroit will rapidly fade from our collective conscience.
Good riddance, you mutts!
Last edited by rifleman; 12-12-2008 at 04:13 AM..
Reason: typos
I'm sure, Rifleman, that when the next hurricane hits Alabama and surrounding states, that the Japanese Overlords will be there to bail them out. All of the donations of time and money that flowed from the north to the south after recent storms (including my own) will not be repeated. You cannot believe the level of anger and bitterness engendered by Senators Shelby, McConnell and Corker, here in Michigan.
Realistically, you must know that those management-types will lose nothing. Just like those banking executives we so gallantly gifted with 700 billion (no questions asked, no reporting back on how it's spent or not spent) they are protected under the rules of the old boys' club. They will take care of each other.
Ordinary, middle class, taxpaying (well, formerly taxpaying, anyway) US citizens will suffer, starve, lose their homes, lose their health insurance, move into shelters, and you're gleeful? Wow. What a compassionate guy.
Yours truly,
Another "arrogant (non-management, non-union) Yankee"
Julia
I understand Rifleman's position on this. I don't believe that Big Auto's failures are all the fault of Big Union; Ford also employes UAW members and it's positioned to weather this storm, while GM and Chrysler are just about finished. As well, Mazda will survive as will Volvo (both of which were wholly or partly owned by Ford).
Some collapses are unavoidable. GM and Chrysler aren't the victims of some unprecendented event. They're the victims of their own greed, mismanagment, apathy and incompetence. They will either fail now or fail later, but we ought not give them billions of dollars in the meantime.
Save those billions for the unemployed innocent victims of all this: the hard-working, middle-class folks who devoted decades of their lives and asked for little in return.
The bailout failed when union leaders refused to accept any pay cuts for their workers. They assume that Congress, the President or the President-elect will still bail them out. This may still happen, but I hope not.
I'm not one to see many people go unemployed, but the unions are as much a part of the problem as the auto makers management. Remember when the steel industry collapsed in the 1970's? In the end, most of it came back in different ways. Not all of it, but a goodly portion. The industry had become so bloated wirth mismanagement and union corruption that a type of cleansing had to take place.
Not to get all red-state-blue-state on you, but I can see, as someone whose location is listed as Atlanta, GA, why you would agree with Rifleman. ;>)
I understand Rifleman's position on it, too. I just thought the whole "Good riddance, you mutts!" was nasty and uncalled for. As I said, it's the ordinary workers who will suffer, not the managers or union bosses.
The trio of smirking southern senators does little to make us damn yankees feel all warm and fuzzy about having poured millions into rescue efforts to bail the south out when their houses blew away.
Apparently it's a southern thing.... as Dolly Parton sang.... "it's all takin' and no givin'".
Not to get all red-state-blue-state on you, but I can see, as someone whose location is listed as Atlanta, GA, why you would agree with Rifleman. ;>)
I understand Rifleman's position on it, too. I just thought the whole "Good riddance, you mutts!" was nasty and uncalled for. As I said, it's the ordinary workers who will suffer, not the managers or union bosses.
The trio of smirking southern senators does little to make us damn yankees feel all warm and fuzzy about having poured millions into rescue efforts to bail the south out when their houses blew away.
Apparently it's a southern thing.... as Dolly Parton sang.... "it's all takin' and no givin'".
Or maybe the southern senators understand the meaning of personal accountability and a fair day's wage for a fair days work.
Blazer Prophet.... I don't think you need to worry. Unions will die on the vine. The government's mission of busting all unions is succeeding. Will we go back to having children working in our factories? Forget safety standards.... those are expensive! So what if you get black lung?
I think we're racing to the bottom where all of us will live on minimum wage. Unless we are management, of course. The gap between rich and poor will get even wider. History repeats itself, with our willing participation.
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As the sun sets on Detroit....
