On Your Mark, Get Set, GO: Bail Outs
My question is, where is our bailout? I, like everyone I talk to, has mixed feelings about the bailout money. For the car companies, it would certainly hurt for them to go under. But what was management and labor thinking? The gravy train would last forever? Labor is over-burdened with heavy benefit packages, protecting slugs, arcane work rules. Management was fat cats in private jets, multi-million dollar bonuses. How did they get here? The joke of the Japanese car in the 60’s is now their death. It should have never happened. I still believe Americans are the best workers, not every single one, but overall. We have about 10 percent of the workforce that are pure slugs and you all know who they are on your job sites. No one wants them, but unions have protected them at the expense of the 70 percent of good workers and the 20 percent who are superstars. The 10 percent that are slugs also tend to talk the most.
They want to recruit others to their side. “Misery loves company.” “ Don’t work so hard, just to make the man rich.” They spoil crews, morale and the American future. It is time we stop protecting them and cast them out.
Management is not any better. When they get a slug what do they do? Lay him off, not fire. No lawsuits here just go away. The slug moves on to spread his poison to the next shop. I know because I was guilty of this. The auto manufacturers should have stood up for change years ago, too late, now they are being run over by a foreign car.
The American consumer is also to blame. I have many friends who have thought for years it was cool to buy foreign and trash American cars as junk or low class. I owned American cars and they were bad, but recently they are every bit as good as any foreign car. It took them a while, but they finally got it about quality. This labor/management issue they currently face and are trying to solve may be too little too late. It is a shame because the American car could and should be the best for the lowest cost.
Blame can be spread around to a lot of people. Don’t even get me started on the financial institutions. What are your thoughts?
