BIG3 / UAW Misconceptions

I have a buddy in Texas named Jim and he's a good friend of mine. He has a quick wit, sharp tongue, and he's a creative writer. He's the type of guy that would give you the shirt off his back and throw his "wife beater" in the deal for good measure. He's also a died in the wool Republican that is slightly to the right of the "Moral Majority" and I try not to hold this against him because on many topics we often agree.

Now he and I have had some great debates over the years about how Mr. Bush never made a single mistake during his two terms in office. And of course, being that I love to take the opposing point of view, my reply to that comment is the only thing Bush got right in 8 years was ducking out of the way of the shoe.

When the economy went in the tank and the Big 3 automakers went to Washington for a loan Ole Jim jumped all over that like stink on an outhouse. He started sending me emails telling me how the UAW was to blame for the automakers demise and how they should be allowed to go out of business. And of course because he's an intelligent guy he'd always back it up with some link or footnote or article showing the basis for his point of view. When I read this garbage, while I didn't have an epiphany, it did confirm however a long standing suspicion that most people are a special kind of stupid when it comes to the auto industry.

Even though I live in a union town, I've worked most of my life outside of the union although I will admit I am a member now in my current job, but for the record it is not the UAW. In fact while my brother (30 years) and dad (43 years)both worked for GM they ended up in management so they weren't union guys either. So it's not like I have a love affair going with the union, I don't. But it bothers me when I see people trying to act intelligent by quoting facts that clearly show they haven't a clue about the issue they are addressing.

Today Jim sent me another email supposedly from Gregory Knox, the President of some company in Ohio that was related to the auto industry, and he professed to have first hand knowledge on the problems with UAW workers. He stated he had been in the plants for years witnessing abuses by union workers. All of these assertions were in response to a supposed email sent out by some President at GM. After reading the email I inserted my responses to the myths given as fact. Here is the email:

Dear Employees & Suppliers,

Congress and the current Administration will soon 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 or supplier, 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


Response from: Gregory Knox, Pres.
Knox Machinery Company Franklin, Ohio

Gentlemen:

In response to your request to contact legislators and ask for a bailout for the Big Three automakers please consider the following, and please pass my thoughts on to Troy Clark, President of General Motors North America.

Politicians and Management of the Big 3 are both infected with the same entitlement mentality that has spread like cancerous germs in UAW halls for the last countless decades, and whose plague is now sweeping this nation, awaiting our new "messiah", Pres-elect Obama, to wave his 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! As you references President Obama as a Messiah I will step out on a limb here and assume you are a Conservative. I'm betting you didn't observe MLK day either.

This dream 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 these atrocities…this dream where you still think the masses will line up to buy our products for ever and ever. Ignoring consumers seems to be a habit not mutually exclusive to the auto industry. For years now the oil industry has been reaping obscene profits on the backs of the working man as have the wizards of Wall Street. And don't even get me started on the companies that "rate" our credit worthiness. As for the overpaid workers, then I take that to mean that you feel the same way about the non-union workers at the "foreign" car plants in the south as well? Given the difference in weekly pay is a whopping $40 a week. That atrocity amounts to $2,080 annually.

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 years in these union shops can only be described as disgusting. And as President you were last on the road when? Because while a majority of your facts would be correct if we were talking about the auto plants of 1993, but we aren't. In case you haven't noticed it's a different century and it's 2009. I don't know how to break this to you but Kelsey Hayes went out of business and was absorbed by another company in 1997, so I'm guessing this might be the time frame for your "eyewitness" observations?

Troy Clarke, President of General Motors North America, states: "There is widespread sentiment throughout this country, and our government, and especially via the news media, that the current crisis is completely the result of bad management which it certainly is not." And you feel this statement is invalid, why? To counter that opinion the wide spread sentiment throughout the north is that, for the most part, the rest of the country has been living large off the sweat of the Midwest manufacturing worker for decades. We set the tone for your wages, your benefits, and when you can't find work in your region we gladly accept your illiterate workers to come and work in our factories for "obscene" wages and benefits. For over 100 years our money and ingenuity has bailed out your sorry asses from all forms of natural disasters and wars. If it wasn't for the Big 3 Texas and Oklahoma would still populated by mostly farmers and cowboys, Florida would be a swamp and California with have a Governor with an accent. Oh wait, they do. My bad!

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 the weekend and make double and triple time…for a job they easily could have done within their normal 40 hour work 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

(We certainly must not expose those lazy bums who have been getting overpaid for decades for their horrific underproduction, must we?!?) Mr. Knox with your vast knowledge of the inner workings of the automobile industry I would think you would know that Electricians are not members of the UAW but a separate bargaining unit through the Electricians union. Tell me when was the last time you had one of those overpaid electricians to your home? I'm betting you paid them more than minimum wage too.

Do 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 Accord? The Pinto vs. the Civic?!? Do I need to go on? What a joke! What have we been doing? How about selling 50% of all automobiles purchased worldwide. Building Presidential Limos, high-tech satellites (Hughes corp), bring robotics to manufacturing to streamline costs, building the Mustang, Charger, Corvette, Impala, PT Cruiser. Cadillac, Lincoln, Challenger and another dozen or so cars that have resale well above $50K, not to mention the Ford F-15o pickup which happens to be the best selling truck of it's kind ever. Speaking of the Pinto and K-car do you know why they are called Nissan? Because as Datsuns their fenders rusted through in two years and the nameplate had no value so they changed it. You talking about that quality? Honda? You mean the Civics that were prone to engine fires due to the carburetor bases that leaked gasoline onto the exhaust manifolds? Or the Toyota's that went through head gaskets every 30k miles? Have you seen any Asian produced car from the 80's still fully operational in a winter climate? You won't...they don't exist. Have you ever seen a vintage VW explode from gas fumes from the heater? Oh and let's not forget Mercedes-Benz....they had to BUY CHRYSLER just to steal how American Engineers can create advanced technology and get a car to market in less than two years and once they milked the company dry sold it to Home Depot. Can you name 5 features in a foreign automobile that were not originally developed by the Big 3? Yeah they sure are better than we are, huh?

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. So true and I'm sure laws in this country that allowed the imports to dump product here below their manufacturing costs had nothing to do with them gaining market share, right? How about our government turning a blind eye to foreign currency manipulation that makes the imports more affordable here and our exports to their countries more expensive. God Bless The Lobbyists! Furthermore, I agree...fair is fair and on behalf of Detroit I am presenting a bill to the states of Texas, Florida, California, Georgia, North Carolina, Louisiana, Alabama, South Carolina in the amount of $372,000,000,000 for reimbursement of costs absorbed in Detroit to pay for your earthquakes, wild fire, mud slides, hurricanes, floods, tornadoes, and illegal immigration problems. See we don't have any of those problems here in Detroit and on the rare occasion we do get hit with a natural disaster, we suck it up and take care of business. We don't sit there whining about how we need FEMA, Federal Disaster Loans, and troops to keep our cities safe. Our taxes pay for all of those hand outs and our insurance rates climb annually because you need to live by the ocean and you hate snow. Grow some balls! And while I'm at it I'm going to throw in an extra $85,000,000,000 for teaching the southern states (through provided union dental benefits) that you can reach adulthood with more than 5 teeth in your mouth.

I attended an economic summit last week where brilliant economist, Alan Beaulieu, from the Institute of Trend Research, 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 politicians and corporate magnates would have us believe, the sun would in fact rise the next day… and the following very important thing 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 only let it work…" …" I'm assuming these "experts" are prepared to include wall street in this statement? Hell No! Wall street is where they make THEIR living....thought so...'nuff said! So much for survival of the fittest.

But for some nondescript 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 my ass, Hell - we're nationalizing…and unfortunately too many of our once fine nation's citizens don't even have a clue that this is what is really happening…But, they sure can tell you the stats on their favorite sports teams…yeah - THAT'S really important, isn't it… 2/3 of the industrialized countries in the world provide their citizens with basic health insurance, yet they are still bastions of Free Enterprise. The only reason the United States doesn't follow suit has nothing to do with socialism nor capitalism....more so it has to do with Lobbying by the American Medical Association which stands to lose all of those "OBSCENE WAGES AND BENEFITS" they "earn" playing god, 'er Doctor! (See above for more about obscene wages and benefits)

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 efficient… Listening to customers… Investing in the proper tooling and automation for the long haul… It does...did you know getting into medical school has nothing to do with your grades? You can have top grades yet but not get into med school because because there are limitation quotas set. If anyone qualified could become a Doctor "competition" might drive the medical costs down in this country, resulting in lower "benefit costs, which could result in more competitive wages and benefits in the auto industry, which could result in lower pricing of our domestic cars....geee who knew! Now throw in a dash of fair trade enforcement and the imports have some serious issues.

By not being too complacent or arrogant to listen to Dr. W. Edwards Deming four decades ago when he taught that by adopting appropriate principles of management, organizations could increase quality and simultaneously reduce costs. Ever increased productivity through quality and intelligent planning… Treating vendors like strategic partners, rather than like "the enemy"… Efficient front and back offices… Non union environment… Doc, I saw you for exactly 4 minutes and 30 seconds and my "office call"charge is $65 , tell me more about your open employment theory? Principles, that's where you close hospitals because there are too many available "beds" in the area and it lowers profits? Reducing costs? You mean like they do in Canada by buying prescriptions in bulk and sell them to their citizens at such a substantial savings that the U.S. had to pass a law so their citizens couldn't cross the border to buy these drugs because it would effect the drug makers lobby contributions? Those reduced costs?

Again, I could go on and on, but I really wouldn't be telling anyone anything they really don't already know down deep in their hearts. See we do have something in common! You could go on and I could make you look stupid for hours?

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 when I was 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 through it. 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. 6 kids?!?!?! Obviously part of your "cost savings plan" was no cable tv, huh? Guess that all worked out!

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 final vote count was tallied…"we really might not do it in a year…or in four…" Where the Hell was that kind of talk when he was RUNNING for office. For a Republican you sure do like to flaunt a title reserved for the Lord Jesus Christ, don't cha? Obama never said he was the Messiah...I believe that was your Messiah Rush that hung title on him on him. Now there's a source of good information. In any event he can't do any worse than the last guy who's only claim to fame was he ducked the shoe.

Stop trying to put off the inevitable folks … 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… 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 atrocious human rights infractions on the face of the globe… $85k, can you document this? If so can you get me an application. $85k...who provided you with that data, the same guys that offered up WMD's?

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 folks - 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 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. If they are buying a $485k house on $50k of earnings the problem lies with Wall Street, fannie mae, the FHA and the guy in the restaurant from free credit report dot com, not the auto industry! And after the Messiah paragraph don't even try to bring God into it.

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. I wouldn't dream of it...there are laws now preventing torture. Besides after reading your points of view, I would be charged with a hate crime for hurting the handicapped.

Gregory J. Knox, President
Knox Machinery, Inc.
Franklin, Ohio 45005

Barry Ellerholz
A much smarter man than you.
W B, MI


Ok, now while some of that got to be a little tongue and cheek towards the end I think I made my point. That point being, you don't have to like the domestic automakers, you don't have to like the UAW, but for God sakes make intelligent opinions based upon actual facts and statistics as they exist today. As I read junk like this that is floating on the net daily, or see the sound bites from our elected officials on the news, I just shake my head in disgust.

If the opinions expressed during the Senate and Congressional hearings of the Big-3's loan request were true, than it's no wonder this country is in the shape that it's in. Those people are stupid and out of touch with reality. And until the time comes that they actually get off their collective asses and do something positive to help this country, and the people in it, there are going to be guys like me here....waiting to pick them apart. In the meantime, Jim will read this at some point, tell me I'm wrong, and we'll find a new topic to disect.