Yakety yak
“Take out the papers and the trash/Or you don't get no spendin' cash/ … /Yakety yak (don't talk back)” (The Coasters, 1958).
This is fitting for wayward teenagers, but I also think for the overpaid and rigid-minded top managers of the Detroit carmakers. For years, their attitude has been, “We’ll make them our way and make the customers buy ‘em.” (If everyone is in lightweight, fuel-efficient cars then you don’t need an SUV to be and feel safe.) Now it’s “The taxpayers are stupid—they’ll just give us the money.” Ain’t gonna happen.
Well I say these companies need to take out the papers—bad labor agreements that promised more for retires than could be delivered—and the trash—the shortsighted managers and Board members. They need lean and mean management that looks forward into the 21st century, not back to the 20th. Or they don’t rock and roll with spending cash from American taxpayers.
The best way is probably through a pre-pack bankruptcy, GM first, rewriting the labor agreements, replacing management and Boards. With their lawyers driving to court in Toyota hybrids.
This is fitting for wayward teenagers, but I also think for the overpaid and rigid-minded top managers of the Detroit carmakers. For years, their attitude has been, “We’ll make them our way and make the customers buy ‘em.” (If everyone is in lightweight, fuel-efficient cars then you don’t need an SUV to be and feel safe.) Now it’s “The taxpayers are stupid—they’ll just give us the money.” Ain’t gonna happen.
Well I say these companies need to take out the papers—bad labor agreements that promised more for retires than could be delivered—and the trash—the shortsighted managers and Board members. They need lean and mean management that looks forward into the 21st century, not back to the 20th. Or they don’t rock and roll with spending cash from American taxpayers.
The best way is probably through a pre-pack bankruptcy, GM first, rewriting the labor agreements, replacing management and Boards. With their lawyers driving to court in Toyota hybrids.
Labels: auto labor, auto makers, bailout, bankruptcy, Detroit, GM
posted by Phil Marcus-the Negotiation Pro at 4:33 PM
1 Comments:
I agree. Further I suggest that the same should apply to the banks. While they do need liquidity a bit more than the auto makers; it is essentially the same thing. This era of free money and no accountability yearns to be finished. Consider this: the government bailed out Chrysler back in the mid-late 70s. But Iaccoca had a plan. He took a $1/year salary. He agreed to a independently monitored restructuring/governance. And most of all HE PAID THE MONEY BACK.
A professor I once knew said it is important for companies to go bankrupt or out of business. Like humans, it is part of the natural life cycle. Demise allows future entities to reclaim the dying resources (the capital/assets to be moved back into the system), evolve (other companies extending the dying company's innovations and learning from their mistakes), and grow (failure of mis-managed and poorly performing companies provides room for others).
Post a Comment
<< Home