Armchair Auto Executive

So, once again, there's talk about the American auto manufacturing business being in dire straits, and needing a big cash injection from Dr. Government to survive. After all, if they were willing to give Wall Street $700 billion, why not throwing a few measly billion at GM, Chrysler, and Ford?

I'm going to avoid the political socialism nightmare that I think this whole situation is devolving into, and instead postulate on what I think I'd like to see happen here.

Before I do that, though, I think it's necessary to point out that, for the most part, I think I know quite a bit more about the auto manufacturing business than I knew about the Wall Street stuff. Frankly, I felt that I didn't know enough about the ins and outs of that world to really make an informed snap decision, and the media coverage didn't really shed enough light on things for my liking. But I am more familiar with the car guys and their world.

To me, the whole problem with the American guys can be summed up in one word: unions. Or, hey, even more simply--it can be summed up in three letters: UAW. If the government ends up writing a big twelve-figure check to fix everything at GM, I would really like to see it happen only with the stipulation that the UAW is forevermore banished forthwith. There are lots of sectors of the auto business that are doing well--even here in America. Even in manufacturing! Specifically, though, it's all the foreign guys, who have non-union plants, mostly in the south. BMW, Hyundai, Honda, Mercedes, Nissan, and Toyota all have plants down here, and they're all non-union (at least I am pretty sure they are; let's keep this thing unencumbered by messy research and just assume I'm right).

There have been lots of things written about the anchor the UAW is around the necks of the Big Three. I saw something recently that said union costs, including health insurance premiums, inefficiencies, corruption, and pensions, run to close to $8000 for every single vehicle GM produces. Today, I saw an article (can't find it now, though) where some high-up UAW clown states that he'd rather surf GM into the ground a la Slim Pickens' character riding the nuke in Dr. Strangelove than make any sort of concession to the EEeee-vil GM management.

Look, I've seen all of the Big Three try to compete the last few years. The management at all three firms has been pretty good about raising quality levels, trying to develop new hybrid and other fuel efficiency technology, and generally, y'know, trying to stay alive. But how can they manage to stay alive with a workforce that would rather kill the golden goose than make cutbacks to survive?

Sorry, unions, your time is up. And, yes, I believe they have, at one time or another, had a valid reason for existence. But, hey, if you don't like your job, or how you're treated, you have other options. You can pick up and move somewhere else! Yes, it's true! I have!