Mordtech’s Blog

GM management and the UAW doesn’t get it

I was reading a blog post, gettelfinger-screw-you… on rightvoices.com. The author makes some good points. One is that the U.S. Government could buy all 3 big three automakers for roughly 7Billion based on their current market capitalization. They want 25 Billion in loans, but could be bought for 7 billion. Think this could be a Problem? The author also mentions the contractually obligated “Job Banks Program.” Basically, the program entails, you job has been eliminated, but we can’t let you go, so we still have to pay you to come in and sit. The example in the blog is an individual that gets paid $31 an hour to do crosswords. That doesn’t include benefits, but how many people get paid $31 an hour? Now, think about who is earning that $31 an hour. Millwrights: the groups that move boxes from one side of the plant to the other. Line workers: folks who screw the lug nuts on a car moving down the line.

Now, my perspective:

My Grandpa retired from GM going on 20 years ago, and I’m a non-union contractor for working in the IT department in one of the local plants. In our plant, the plant president was walking through the plant, and found an individual sleeping. The president fired the individual on the spot. A grievance was filed. The Union made the president re-hire the individual and pay them back pay or they would strike. Also, I was watching a press conference where Gettelfinger made the statement along the lines of “… we have helped this company out as much as we can…” when referring to the contract negotiations earlier this year with GM. And now, in light of GM publically stating that if it has to file bankruptcy, with restructuring not an option; Gettelfinger says that no concessions will be made. Gettelfinger and the Union in general has forgot that first and foremost, they are employees. When the company is struggling, as employees, you either move on or you help out. You do not try to drive the company into the ground. And that is exactly what the Union is doing to the entire US auto industry.

Now, the union isn’t the only reason GM and the US auto industry is devasted. From my perspective, GM does not look at ways to do things as inexpensively as possible. A couple examples: during a recent hardware refresh, we were comparing vendors for storage. After a comparisons and bids were in, there were two competitors, they were both really close in price, but one had twice the storage as the other. We of course recommended the option with twice the storage, the CIO, chose the lesser option. The beauty is that after the new storage was in place, we had new requests for storage. Also, when we first started pushing VMware as an option to GM, their response was “that is not the direction of GM.” What saving roughly $4K per server in initial cost, not including all the soft costs such as power, cooling, procurement speed, etc.. Another area is GMs outsourcing of nearly all of their IT. Instead of focusing on one vendor, they have decided to spread their outsourcing out to numerous companies. It’s as if Wagoner and Szygenda don’t understand the concept of economies of scale.

Ultimately, the economy is the straw that broke the camel’s back. Poor management and an bloated arrogant union have eliminated any buffer to the poor economy.

My vote: Rick Wagoner, Ralph Szygenda and the Gettlefinger need to be removed. Bring union salaries in-line with other manufactures such as Honda or Toyota.

November 17, 2008 Posted by mordtech | Economy, GM, UAW | Economy, GM, UAW | Leave a Comment