Three cheers for this American!
Auto Supplier Tells GM Where To Go
This message says a lot about our need to stand up and be responsible.
Hopefully it will get a wide distribution. This is one of the greatest
responses to the requests for bailout money I have seen thus far. As a
supplier for the Big 3, this man received a letter from the President of
GM North America requesting support for the bail out program. His
response is well written, and has to make you proud of a guy who
tells it like it is.
This letter and Mr. Knox are real.. check it out at:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/Knox.aspThis is GM's letter:
Dear Employees &Suppliers,
Congress and the current Administration will soon 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 America
Response from:
Gregory Knox, Pres.
Knox Machinery Company
Franklin, Ohio
Gentlemen:
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".
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 and 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 ass 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.
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!
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?
Stop trying to put off the inevitable.
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
year.
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. 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
