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if you get a chance:
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".
--- Yep the democracies that are called labor unions are a plague for those who want total control over others.
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
--Making enough money to buy a house, send their kids to school is too much money? Lazy? If a union brother slacks off, he will be held to task by his fellow union workers. His slacking off makes it harder on everyone, and sullies the name of the union. Lazy is not a union value.
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.
--You are wrong. Again, unions are a sign of a democratic nation. But then you are a business owner and don't like your absolute rule challenged.
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 ass 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
--Just because they don't jump when you snap your fingers, doesn't mean they are up to something subversive. Your problem might not be the first job on his work orders.
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?!?
--Line work is hard, dangerous, and wears the body out. Union and management knows what pace is the most productive over a long period. A newbie might be working really hard to impress his supervisor and peers, but he doesn't quite understand that a career is a marathon, not a sprint. Working at a fast clip around heavy machinery leads to mistakes, injuries, and a shortened career. The average useful life of a line worker at Toyota is 12 years. There's high turnover due to repetitive stress injuries. Find a pace you can maintain for eight or more hours.
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?
--How about something from this century?
The Pinto vs. the Civic?!?
-- See my above comment.
Do I need to go on?
--No, you've already made a fool of yourself.
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.
--Milton Friedman in your vest pocket, or is it Ayn Rand up your wazoo?
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 nations 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.
--Oh, now he's playing the "Socialism card."
Does it occur to ANYONE that the "competition" has been producing vehicles, EXTREMELY PROFITABLY, for decades now in this country?...
-- They are getting big subsidies from their home country, and real sweetheart deals from "right to work" states. They are also being bailed out by their countries as I write this.
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 Deming 4 decades ago
--Can't blame those on the unions. They build the car management designs.
Ever increased productivity through quality, lean and six sigma plans
Treating vendors like strategic partners, rather than like "the enemy"
--Oh, now I am seeing a bit of bitterness. Did someone shun you?
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.
--Give back all those tax credits for all those kids.
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 office?
--Since then the bottom has fallen out of the world wide economy and bush is MIA.
Stop trying to put off the inevitable.
That house in Florida really isn't worth $750,000
--Florida is an extreme case.
People who jump across a border really don't deserve free health care benefits
--Where did your family come from?
That job driving that forklift for the big 3 really isn't worth $85,000 a year
--Why? back in the eighties I knew workers at Toyota making $75,000 a year. Don't you want the same for our workers in Detroit?
That couple whose combined income is less than $50,000 really shouldn't be living in that $485,000 home
-- Gee thanks, I'd never had figured that out.
Let the market correct itself people, it will. 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 is a nation that appreciates what is has and doesn't live beyond its means and gets back to basics and redevelops the work ethic that made it the greatest nation in the history of the world and probably turns back to God.
Sorry don't cut my head off, I'm just the messenger sharing with you the "bad news"
--You must be well off enough that you believe you can weather the storm of a depression, or survive social disruption that's sure to happen if you put three million people out of a job to teach them a lesson.
Gregory J Knox
President and --asshole
Knox Machinery, Inc.
Franklin, Ohio 45005
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