An abridged letter from Troy Clarke, President of General Motors - followed by a response from Gregory Knox: President, Knox Machinery.

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

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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 world’s 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 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 a$$…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 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 favourite 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 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 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…

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…

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 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"


Gregory J Knox

President

Knox Machinery, Inc.

Franklin, Ohio 45005

 

That response is a very unusual thing to hear from an upper-middile class Caucasian man who lived in Detroit for 10 years and now owns a machinery company based out of Joe Everyman's home state of Ohio.

 

He had a fairly cogent whiff until the god part...

 

"Ever increased productivity through quality, lean and six sigma plans… "


True words of Wisdom.

 

What he said absolutely wreaks of truth.

 

Thanks too Ford Motor Co;[Australia].. In the New Year,were looking at a 4 day week,until........................................ .....June'09.

 

in my opinion i thing while it does hit a few key point its a very general over site that really doesn't touch on allot of the true problems facing Detroit. i think that there is alot of filler crap in there like about his kids to make what he is trying to talk about more legitimate in fill in for his lack of understanding and the complecity of the situation.

for example the bank bail out. look what happen to stockes when just one major bank/investment company colapsed. not only that but bandks are FDIC insured so if there was a mass of amount of bank colapses in the united states the goverment would have been paying out billions any way. At least with the current "bail out" the goverment has bought assets into thease companies or given them loans so most of the money should be recouperated.

these arnt truely bail outs either that the banks or the big three are looking to get there loans. the term bail out is being used becuase the media wants to put a negetive spin on the situation.

 

All the Motor Companies are manipulative, as are most Governments.

Workers who don't produce what they are capable of in order to increase their wage should be fired.

Toyota vehicles produced here in SA are sold in Australia for 30%
LESS than we pay for them here !!!
Honda have pulled out of F1, and various other manufacturers like Mitsubishi have dropped out of the Dakar Rally.
Does this mean that the little Oriental fellers have a plan up their little sleevies, I think so.......

 

Thats right, banks are FDIC insured. After the bank goes bankrupt, the FDIC pays the 100,000/ 250,000 to the person that lost their money. Thats why we have insurance. Do you really think the goverment would be paying this out of their pocket? The insurance money that is paid out comes from an account that each bank pays into. example if I got a 30,000 loan at 5% interest, the bank pays the insurance company 1/4% of that 5% interest amount. (not exact numbers hence example)

Now on top of that, the bailout money was to allow the banks to keep lending cash. They have stopped lending cash for two reasons. They need that money to make their books look good for the company to keep their credit ratings, second they have learned a lesson about loaning out money to us, we no longer have credibility because they screwed us so bad their not sure we will have a job anymore to fully payback the loans. (in short they F-ed the economy and were paying)

Take a look back at the stock market in the eighties. there were no day traders, the market was stable. I invest on a raising stock and lose my *** the next day after all profits have been taken by these voulters. Your a fool to think about long term investing anymore. Ever watch "Mad Money" with Jim Kramer? He is the worst, teaching people how to get in and out very quickly.

 

I worked for Mcdonnell douglas building the military C-17 and I was in the (back in 87-93). I was laid off three times due to the fact of my seniority at the time. I really began hating the after being told to slow down every day by my fellow senior members. Each job would be alloted a time amount. If the job took 5 hrs I could probably do it perfectly in 2 hrs. It was an overbloated time for each job because most employees drug their *** on each of them. So im preety sure it's the same for uaw workers too.

Funny thing is I would rather take a pay cut of $5 hr to $17-$22 hr instead of sitting in the unemployment line for $9 hr (I think its around $360 something a week now).