"hk" wrote in message
. ..
Eisboch wrote:
"HK" wrote in message
...

Eisboch wrote:
"hk" wrote in message
. ..

The U.S. auto companies are in trouble because their management sucks
and has sucked for years, and they grossly overpay their mid and upper
level white collar workers, as do many American corporations.

The bulk of layoffs at GM and Ford right now are white collar jobs.


Ford and GM are "multinational" corporations, and the management there
doesn't give a crap whether they make cars in the USA or not.

Nonsense.

I can understand why you think the way you do Harry. I suspect very
much that you never held a job that had a bottom line accountability or
responsibility.

You seem to simply observe and complain about those that do.

Eisboch


Are you maintaining that GM, Ford, and Chrysler have been well-run
corporations the last decade or so?



Look for yourself.

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/hp?s=GM&a...g=m&z=66 &y=0

According to the historical stock price, starting in July, 1998, GM paid
a quarterly dividend of 50 cents every quarter until November of 2005.
The stock price appears to have fluctuated roughly between about $30 to
$40 per share. The quarterly dividend then dropped to 25 cents, but has
still been paid every quarter, the last being in May, 2008.
The decrease in the dividend corresponds to a decline in the stock value,
which happens to correspond to the increase in fuel costs.

So, in GM's case, yes, I'd say they are doing a reasonably good job
adjusting to a very difficult and changing market.

I didn't check Ford. Chrysler is a unique situation, having been
acquired by Mercedes, then recently sold to private investors.
I'd agree that Chrysler has not done well as a company over the past 10
years.

Eisboch


We obviously have different standards by which we judge corporations.

GM,. FORD, Etc. Are in deep trouble because of the fixed costs. A major
one is retiree medical costs. Yes they were poorly run. Years ago, when
they had most of the worlds car markets, they gave the unions anything they
asked for. Has come back to bite them in the ass. Toyota, etc. assembling
cars here in the US, have not been here long enough to have much in the
retiree line. GM's union manual is 1000's of pages. defines all the job
categories and what that category can do. Toyotas is about 100 pages and
they can require a worker to what ever job is required. From putting doors
on to sweeping the floor. Must better negotiators. When they should have
layed off people, they kept 1000's on the payroll per union agreements.
They did no work. Bad management is correct.