Eisboch wrote:
wrote in message
t...

That's the difference, I don't see this as a joke. We are in recession,
and it looks like a serious one to me. Let GM go down, and we are
talking depression. That's no joke. Many of us will survive
financially, but what about the social upheavals? The last depression
brought us facists, communists, unions, all warring for a piece of the
pie. Hell, we even had a Dupont planning a coup. No thanks.

Frankly, I don't give a damn about GM. During normal times, I'd say let
them go under, but in these times, I think the risk of letting them fail
is too big. The bridge *loan* they are talking about is 1/10 what we
have already spent on Wall Street, and only a couple of months of the
spending we've been doing in Iraq for years.


I know you were addressing Tom, but I wanted to also respond.

I am not opposed to a bridge loan. I'd just like to see it tied to a
genuine requirement on the part of GM to change their ways.
Otherwise, the money is completely wasted. That's why I still think it
should be done with strong oversight, such as that
in Chapter 11.

I don't point the finger of distrust or blame at management or the labor
union. I just think there are so many years of
adversarial distrust between them that they need an arbitrator to fairly and
efficiently reorganize the company.

One thing I don't get, and maybe one of you guys more familiar with unions
can explain.
As I understand it, the UAW represents workers at all three Detroit
automakers, meaning GM, Ford, and Chrysler.

Why is it that Ford has been more successful in lowering per unit costs,
while actively revamping their product line?
The latest automotive reviews rates the newer Ford products as being equal
or in some cases better than their Toyota and Honda counterparts, quality
wise and Ford is in the least amount of trouble financially. Does each auto
manufacturer negotiate different contracts with the UAW in terms of pay,
benefits and retirement packages?

If you focus your efforts on designing out the flaws on the areas that
will cost you the most to fix in warranty repair then you will reduce
your costs the most.