Letter from Troy Clarke, President of General Motors - followed by a response from Gregory Knox of Knox Machinery:

Dear Employees & suppliers,

Next week, Congress and the current Administration will determine whether to provide immediate support to the domestic auto industry to help it through one of the most difficult economic times in our nation's history. Your elected officials must hear from all of us now on why this support is critical to our continuing the progress we began prior to the global financial crisis......................As an employee or supplier, you have a lot at stake and continue to be one of our most effective and passionate voices. I know GM can count on you to have your voice heard.

Thank you for your urgent action and ongoing support.

Troy Clarke President General Motors North=2 0America

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From Gregory Knox,

In response to your request to call legislators and ask for a bailout for the United States automakers please consider the following, and please also pass this onto Troy Clark, the president of General Motors North America for me.

You are both infected with the same entitlement mentality that has bred like cancerous germs in UAW halls for the last countless decades, and whose plague is now sweeping the nation, awaiting our new "messiah" to wave his magical wand and make all our problems go away, while at the same time allowing our once great nation to keep "living the dream"…
=0 A
The dream is over!

The dream that we can ignore the consumer for years while management myopically focuses on its personal rewards packages at the same time that our factories have been filled with the worlds most overpaid, arrogant, ignorant an d laziest entitlement minded "laborers" without paying the price for these atrocities…and that still the masses will line up to buy our products

Don't tell me I'm wrong. Don't accuse me of not knowing of what I speak. I have called on Ford,GM, Chrysler, TRW, Delphi, Kelsey Hayes, American Axle and countless other automotive OEM's and Tier ones for 3 decades now throughout the Midwest and what I've seen over the years in these union shops can only be described as disgusting.

Mr.. Clark, the president of General Motors, states:

There is widespread sentiment in this country, our government and especially in the media that the current crisis is completely the result of bad management. It is not…

You're right – it's not JUST management…how about the electricians who walk around the plants like lords in feudal times, making people wait on them for countless hours while they drag ***…so they can come in on the weekend and make double and triple time…for a job they easily could have done within their normal 40 hour week.

How about the line workers who threaten newbies with all kinds of scare tactics…for putting out too many parts on a shift…and for being too productive (mustn't expose the lazy bums who have been getting overpaid for decades for their horrific underproduction, must we?!?) Do you really not know about this stuff?!?

How about this great sentiment abridged from Mr. Clarke's sad plea:
over the last few years …we have closed the quality and efficiency gaps with our competitors.

What the hell has Detroit been doing for the last 40 years?!?

Did we really JUST wake up to the gaps in quality and efficiency between us and them?

The K car vs. the Accord?
The Pinto vs. the Civic?!?

Do I need to go on?

We are living through the inevitable outcome of the actions of the United States auto industry for decades.
Time to pay for your sins, Detroit .

I attended an economic summit last week where a brilliant economist, Alan Beaulieu surprised the crowd when he said he would not have given the banks a penny of "bailout money". Yes, he said, this would cause short term problems, but despite what people like George Bush and Troy Clark would have us believe, the sun would in fact rise the next day… and something else would happen…where there had been greedy and sloppy banks new efficient ones would pop up…that is how a free market system works…it does work…if we would let it work…

continued......

 

But for some reason we are now deciding that the rest of the world is right and that capitalism doesn't work – that we need the government to step in and "save us"…save us, hell – we're nationalizing…and unfortunately too many of this once fine nations citizens don't even have a clue that this is what's really happening…but they sure can tell you the stats on their favorite sports teams…yeah – THAT'S important…

Does it occur to ANYONE that the "competition" has been producing vehicles, EXTREMELY PROFITABLY, for decades now in this country?...

How can that be???

Let's see…
Fuel efficient…
Listening to customers…
Investing in the proper tooling and automation for the long haul…

Not being too complacent or arrogant to listen to Dr W Edwards Deming 4 decades ago.

Ever increased productivity through quality, lean and six sigma plans…
Treating vendors like strategic partners, rather than like "the enemy"…
Efficient front and back offices…
Non union environment…
20

Again, I could go on and on, but I really wouldn't be telling anyone anything they really don't already know in their hearts.

I have six children, so I am not unfamiliar with the concept of wanting someone to bail you out of a mess that you have gotten yourself into – my children do this on a weekly, if not daily basis, as I did at their age. I do for them what my parents did for me (one of their greatest gifts, by the way) – I make them stand on their own two feet and accept the consequences of their actions and work them through.

Radical concept, huh…

Am I there for them in the wings? Of course – but only until such time as they need to be fully on their own as adults.

I don't want to oversimplify a complex situation, but there certainly are unmistakable parallels here between the proper role of parenting and government.

Detroit and the United States need to pay for their sins.

Bad news people – it's coming whether we like it or not

The newly elected Messiah really doesn't have a magic wand big enough to "make it all go away" I laughed as I heard Obama "reeling it back in" almost immediately after the vote count was tallied…"we might not do it in a year…or in four…" where was that kind of talk when he was RUNNING for the office

< div>
Stop trying to put off the inevitable …
0D

That house in Florida really isn't worth $750,000…

People who jump across a border really don't deserve free health care benefits…

That job driving that forklift for the big 3 really isn't worth $85,000 a yea r…

We really shouldn't allow Wal-Mart to stock their shelves with products acquired from a country that unfairly manipulates their currency and has the most atrocious human rights infractions on the face of the globe…

That couple whose combined income is less than $50,000 really shouldn't be living in that $485,000 home…

Let the market correct itself people – it will. Yes it will be painful, but it's gonna be painful either way, and the bright side of my proposal is that on the other side of it is a nation that appreciates what is has…and doesn't live beyond its means…and gets back to basics…and redevelops the work ethic that made it the greatest nation in the history of the world…and probably turns back to God.

Sorry – don't cut my head off, I'm just the messenger sharing with you the "bad news"

Gregory J. Knox
President
Knox Machinery, Inc.
Franklin, Ohio 45005

 

Very true.

 

Wow! Very well said.

Unfortunately the truth as written by GK will never pierce the illusion the big three have created for themselves. They will get bailed out and we will be right back here in a year or two after they have p*ssed away all the money.

 

My family owns a succesful buisness here in Michigan and my father has a laminated poster that hangs in the confrence room where we have all of our meeting and the only words on it are "Change is good". The reason the auto makers are failing is because they fail to change the way they do buisness and when you fail to change you grow stagnent and die a slow death.

 

Wow... That was brilliant.

 

You guys really think that a supplier would write a letter like this to his customer?!

I call BS.

 

We all know it's true; yet, there are still so many people in denial. One day we will look back and talk about how rediculous the UAW was and how it destroyed the US auto industry.

 

Sounds like yet another one of those right-wing, made up BS letters that never really existed. How unusual.

 

Ok, before you guy's throw me in the same bucket as momalle1.

All I meant was that the letter being from a GM supplier sounds like BS.

Not the content of the letter.....

 

The letter's authenticity does not change it's truthful message. The point is resonating with more and more Americans these days. The sentiment of the Big 3 doing no wrong is fading. Americans are getting fed up with poor business practices and the UAW's rediculous contracts.

 

The problem is, there is less truth than BS in it. Doesn't matter what the people want, the Republican president is going to give them a bailout just the same, but you keep on bashing those evil Democrats.

Fact is, it's a made up letter, why do conservatives constantly have this steady stream of fiction? Could it be your world is fictitious?

Too late, if you don't drink the Kool Aid, you're out of the club.

 

Does it matter if the letter is fiction? I never tried to call it authentic. The point of the letter is spot on. The American people are tired of throwing money at a failing enterprise. It is an insult for the Big 3 to continue functioning as it is while we pay for it. It was even more of a slap in the face that the UAW refused to make concessions in worker pay to allow for the bailout.

UAW concessions were not the only part of the bailout, but that was the point that killed the bill. The UAW refused to change pay scales for at least 2 more years until 2011. You can't negotiate a 2 year time line for a bankrupt company... there is no bargaining chip, there is no wiggle room... because there is no money.

I'm not sure how momalle1 has turned this into a Democrat/Republican issue. The majority of Americans do not want to bail out the Big 3. Simple as that. So wether this letter is fake or not; the premise is appropriate.

Here's a link to Knox's company....
http://www.knoxmachinery.com/history.html

 

When you use the name of a real company, the intent to deceive is obvious. So yes, it's a problem, and a common one from the right.


Part of it is spot on opinion. nothing more. The jabs at Obama are the amusing part.


Are you kidding me, or are you so neck deep in garbage like this, you missed the jabs at the Democrats? Perhaps you could show me one of these BS mass emails going around that comes from the left because all I ever see is the one's that come from the right. Again, the fiction works well for you for a reason.

 

I couldn't have said it better ^