[tgagneguam]

"...The real issue is perfectly clear, and here it is: Will a labor organization run the plants of General Motors Corporation or will the management continue to do so." Alfred P. Sloan. January 6, 1936

This article infuriates me! Imagine the audacity of the UAW to attempt to shape the future product plans at GM. I think they've definitely overstepped their boundaries, and it certainly deserves a public rebuke from GM.

And what does it say when representatives of the UAW speak poorly about the products produced by members of another chapter of their own union (i.e., UAW brothers and sisters who build the Crown Victoria)?

Mr. Jim DooLittle, you need to focus your business acumen elsewhere.

 

[tgagneguam]

The B-Body (or some iteration of it) should be brought back if and when a clear business case can be made for it.

Employees of a company should be paid a salary and benefits commensurate with a variety of measureable factors: level of skill, market demand for their work, and the like. In the case of the auto industry, assemblyline workers have the UAW [arguably] representing their collective interests.

GM, now more than ever, appears to rely on the expertise of its assemblyline workers where appropriate. Though it took decades to emulate their counterparts at Toyota, GM now appreciates the wealth of knowledge those on the factory floor possess in terms of how to perform their jobs most effectively. That makes sense. It's not an insult to decline those same workers's input when it comes to making decisions about less germane topics: future product development, asset allocation, and capital expenditure, to name a few.

When people who aren't privy to the facts that make the above decisions logical make demands from a point of ignorance, I'm inclined to ask a similar question: "How dare they?!" It's not under their purview.

My intention is not to sound callous, but I feel presently that the UAW is more likely to be a roadblock on GM's path to success than it is to be a catalyst for positive change.

I sense olfactory hallucinations.