Several years ago I was involved in the transition as a new agency Director came on board. During his first briefing on the state of the agency, department heads told the new Director how bad things were. Performance and productivity were down for a variety of reasons. This was going wrong, that wasn’t being optimized … on and on.
The Director just sat there, listened – didn’t ask any questions – and took in all the poor-mouthing coming from his top executives.
I wanted – badly – to hear him say “Raise your hand if you were in charge when all these failures were taking place.” And to the owner of every raised hand – which would have been everyone – he would point and say, “You’re fired. You’re fired. You’re fired…” and so on.
He didn’t. He should have.
And now – in another industry – America’s auto makers are bellying up to the taxpayer’s trough with “woe-is-me” tales of imminent collapse. If they don’t get money to “bail out” their despicable business plans, not only will the automobile industry go bankrupt, but tens, maybe hundreds of thousands of U.S. jobs will be wiped out. Dealers, parts distributors, plastics and steel workers, port employees, truckers and on and on will suffer catastrophic job losses.
And they’re right. All of this, and more, will happen if the automobile industry doesn’t become solvent soon.
Still, it’s extortion. And though our government policy is to not negotiate with terrorists, somehow we are quite willing to negotiate with those who are kidnapping our national economy.
Since we have no choice, we should turn things around – as much as we can – and enter into this Devil’s Deal with stipulations.
- All corporate executives of those companies who are asking for a bailout will resign. This goes for CEOs, COOs, CFOs, Presidents, Board Chairmen, all members of the Board, any and all senior union representatives and all Inspectors General (or equivalent positions). The failures happened on their respective watches, so they are to be held responsible. In other words, “You’re fired. You’re fired. You’re fired.”
- They will get what any other American losing his/her job gets: two weeks severence. Period. No buyout. No insurance. No stock. No options. Nothing, as in NO THING, else. If a guy working his tail off to make ends meet gets laid off for reasons not of his doing, and all he gets is a couple of weeks pay and a free computer paper box to cart his stuff out the door, then why should corporate heads sail away with millions of dollars and a secure financial future?
- Reduce the number of car models made. General Motors produces 71 vehicle models: Buick (3), Cadillac (12), Chevrolet (17), GMC (15), Hummer (3 or so), Pontiac (8), SAAB (8) and Saturn (5). The Ford brand includes Ford (17), Lincoln (6), Mercury (6) Mazda (11) and Volvo (9). That’s 49 models for Ford. Chrysler has Chrysler (9), Dodge (16) and Jeep (7) for a total of 32. The “Big Three” auto makers are responsible for no less than 152 models of cars, trucks and vans. And this doesn’t count commercial and fleet vehicles or those specifically made for foreign markets. Say what you will about consumer choice, but this is stupid. Why should a company create it’s own competitor? Chevrolet isn’t just competing with Ford, Chrysler, Toyota, etc., it’s competing with itself!
- Convert plants/factories that are negatively impacted by #3, to manufacture parts and accessories that are currently made in Canada, Mexico or other locations outside the United States.
- Since the companies are funded by the government, impose those regulations regarding federal employee unionization on the automakers, to be lifted when the bailout funds are repaid. If our service men and women can be expected to get by without a union, then folks who work the assembly line for Chrysler can as well.
- Ban lobbying by automakers or unions representing auto employees, to be lifted when the bailout funds are repaid. If you’re “owned” by the government, what’s the lobbying for?
- Get out of the financing business. GMAC, Ford Credit and Chrysler Financial are unnecessary. Make cars. There are plenty of other alternatives for buyers to finance their purchases.
- Require a profitability deadline. Give each company five years to become profitable. If it does not meet that deadline, it must file for bankruptcy and shut down. Survival of the fittest.
Maybe – MAYBE – with incentives like these, the people running the companies and the workers on the assembly lines will get the message that failure will not be rewarded.
