What is wrong with Detroit? Here is the Problem plainly
put!!:
Nah, there's more nonsense badly put.
A Friends Wife wrote this preamble:
Funny, a "friend", always "friend".
Where did you get this old piece of trash?
Having lived in and near 'auto' towns for 34 years, Flint,
Saginaw and Bay City, these things in the second letter are
what I have observed by listening to the union workers brag
about drinking, playing cards on the job and padding their
hours.
Now, that sounds like BS to begin with, the next part is just
evidence it is BS.
They also liked to work Sundays for triple time/no
bosses. Third shift was double time/no bosses.
Uh... sorry to tell you. Third shift is not only not double
time, but auto companies typically don't run a third shift.
Typical is 10% for second shift, 15-20% for third. Oh, and there
are bosses, just a lot fewer. One of the things I like about
night shift.
Also saw for
years, workers 'ballooning' a loan for a car, then selling
it in a year for more than they paid for it and getting
another new one.
Now just how do they do that? Esp when you can buy a year old
used car for a lot less than even an auto-worker can buy a new
one for.
I'm talking Caddy's and Corvettes. This
sudden cancer that is eating the auto industry alive is
anything but sudden. I said then and I'll say it now, they
were raping their company!! Please take the time to read
this, it's well worth it. Kat
If they could rape the company, blame the management. No union
is that strong.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
There are two letters below. One from General Motors
President to all employees and all of their suppliers..
The other is from the President of a supplier to the auto
industry. His letter is an awesome letter that tells it
like it is.
Actually, not only is he a minor dealer in machining equipment,
but I doubt he's sold anything to the auto industry in many a
year.
Every manager in Detroit and ALL politicians should read
this along with the union members.
This is one of the greatest responses to the requests for
bailout money I have seen thus far. As a supplier for the
Big 3 this man received a letter from the President of GM
North America requesting support for the bail out program.
His response is classic, and has to make you proud of a
local guy who tells it like it is.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
+++++++++++
Dear Employees & Suppliers,
Congress and the current Administration will soon determine
...
Troy Clarke
President General Motors North America
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ ++++++++++++++
Response from:
Gregory Knox, Pres.
Knox Machinery Company
Franklin , Ohio
Gentlemen:
...
awaiting our new "messiah", Pres-elect Obama, to wave his
Note that everything he talks about including his letter, were
before Obama took office.
magic wand and make all our problems go away, while at the
same time allowing our once great nation to keep "living
the dream" Believe me folks, The dream is over! This dream
IOW, America is finished?
where 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
Before Bush took office we had a discussion of the differences
in productivity. I found that the Statistical Abstract of the US
had a copy of an international business org's comparison of
various nation's productivity. I found, and posted in Fidonet,
that the US had the most productive industry in the world. Yes,
even well ahead of Japan. That's value per hour worked.
The *ONLY* industry Japan led us in was automotive production.
In all others we were head and shoulders ahead of them.
IOW, that fool doesn't know what he is talking about.
these atrocities this dream where you still think the
masses will line up to buy our products for ever and ever..
Don't even think about telling 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 throughout the Midwest
during the past 30 years and what I've seen over those
Actually, he hasn't even been working 30 years. That 30 years is
actually part of three decades. IOW, 1989-2009 counts as 30
years by his reckoning. It does cross three decades. He never
did say what years he is talking about. Oh, his bio is on his
company's website.
...
You're right Mr. Clarke, 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 ass, so they can come in on
Now you can tell he doesn't know what he is talking about. No
one gets to make people wait just because they want to. Not even
in auto plants. If you think they tolerate a line down because
someone wants to let the work wait till the weekend you need to
think again.
the weekend and make double and triple time for a job they
easily could have done within their normal 40 hour work
week.
If the job is that easy, they won't get past a couple hours of
time and a half. If it isn't, then it's cheaper to pay them
triple time than shut down the line.
Just today my boss told me one of our machines had a safety
issue. He asked me to see if I could fix it. I talked to the
production supervisor, and advised him the line would have to
shut down for me to work on it. I also advised him, if it's not
an actual hazard it would be better to wait until the line is
down anyway. I had seen it was all in place, but I didn't know
they had jury rigged it to keep it running. So it had to be
done.
I had estimated it to be 15-30 minutes. It took me about 15
minutes. Simple job. Now, do you think that is better than
holding it till I can do it on overtime, with the line down?
Ok, I don't know what that line costs to shut down, it's
different than the other lines. But I do know the other two
lines cost $8,000/hr each to shut down.
So, you do the math, how does 15 minutes at $8K/hr compare to
even 8 hours at triple time? Even for an autoworker, triple time
is around $100/hr. And I only get triple time on holidays. I
doubt autoworkers get it much more often. More likely it would
be time and a half. Or about $50/hr. That's for the highest paid
autoworkers.
IOW, waiting for the weekend would, at it's very worst, pay off
for the company at a rate of 10 to 1.
How about the line workers who threaten newbies with all
kinds of scare tacticsfor putting out too many parts on a
shift and for being too productive (We certainly must not
Have you ever worked on a production line? A production line
runs at a fixed rate. You can't put out too much or too little.
Not even if you want to.
expose those lazy bums who have been getting overpaid for
decades for their horrific underproduction, must we?). Do
Which is... ready for it... NOBODY!
Ok, maybe the boss's son.
you folks 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
As I pointed out above, the US was the most efficient producer
in the world.
Accord? The Pinto vs. the Civic?!? Do I need to go on? What
a joke! We are living through the inevitable outcome of the
actions of the United States auto industry for decades.
It's time to pay for your sins, Detroit .
Note that he only goes on about the Auto industry. He doesn't
seem to know anything else. Or else he never does business with
the Auto industry, so he will slam a business he doesn't deal
with, but not his customers.
I attended an economic summit last week where brilliant
economist, Alan Beaulieu, from the Institute of Trend
Research , surprised the crowd when
I looked for info about him, there is damn little to be found.
Apparently he is not only "from the institute, but the
president. It is the only thing on his speaker's bureau bio. It
appears to be the only thing he has ever done. He doesn't even
had anything about his education in the bio.
IOW, he sounds like a snake oil salesman.
OTOH, he does say a lot that is directly counter to what Knox
said, so he can't be all bad.
...
Does it ever occur to ANYONE that the "competition" has been
producing vehicles, EXTREMELY PROFITABLY, for decades in
this country? How can that be??? Let's see... Fuel
How about government support all the way. Incentives, don't you
know?
...
back offices..... Non union environment! Again, I could go
Yet they are even more heavily unionized in their home
countries.
...
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
He's got a hard enough time keeping it from turning into a full
blown depression.
...
driving that forklift for the Big 3 really isn't worth
$85,000 a year....
IF he's working 10 to 12 hours a day 6 or 7 days a week to do
it, it just might be.
We really shouldn't allow Wal-Mart to
stock their shelves with products acquired from a country
that unfairly manipulates their currency and has the most
True, but conservatives love it.
...
Yes it will be painful, but it's gonna' be painful either
way, and the bright side of my proposal is that on the
other side of it all, is a nation that appreciates what it
has and doesn't live beyond its means and gets back to
basics and redevelops the patriotic work ethic that made it
the greatest nation in the history of the world and
probably turns back to God.
And if Knox has his way, a third world nation.
Sorry - don't cut my head off, I'm just the messenger
sharing with you the "bad news". I hope you take it to
heart.
Arrogant, isn't he.
BOB KLAHN
bob.klahn@sev.org http://home.toltbbs.com/bobklahn
... I'm not CREATING a disturbance; I'm improving one already in progress.
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