OT Greg Knox Letter to GM

Letter To General Motors
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Abridged letter from Troy Clarke, President of General Motors

- followed by a response from Gregory Knox:



Dear Employee,

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, 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

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

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".

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 nation's 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!

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

 

now..............tell 'em how ya really feel.

well written...................................and correct

 

This was not a letter to GM ... This was a letter he sent out to friends and his mother. It has been forwarded a million times and is now national news.

He was on the radio here in Minneapolis yesterday, they talked to him for 30 minutes or so, he had no idea that this would get so large.

Greg Knox owns a company that sells CNC equipment in Ohio and he deals with the big 3.

 

I saw this elsewhere and checked it on Snopes....they have no info on it yet!!! BUT; I BELIEVE EVERY WORD!!!!!

Leave it to the manufacturers to believe that everyone thinks they (the manufacturers) have clean hands. I ,for one, applaud Mr. Knox for having the stones to tell them what's what!!!!

 

And the President of a failing company isn't worth $20 Million a year.

I wonder how much the Presidents of Honda,Toyota, Mazda, etc make ?

 

Good stuff. I agree.

 

AMEN brother, I could not have said it better myself. I would kill to get a job with one of the big 3 and work circles around all the overpaid lazy bums. I had a "friend" who worked for Ford here in Indy and he would go clock in at the plant and then go home and drink beer. Then go back to clock out for lunch and repeat cycle over and over. That PISSED me off real f*&%$#g bad!!!


Bob Shutt

 

Why isn't the president of a failing company worth $20M?

 

Wouldnt that be delt with the big 3 now?

Doc.

 

I suspect that he sells to the "other" manufacturers too!!!!

 

God bless America and what she used to stand for. There was a time for unions, and there may be again, but unions "of the people and for the people", not "for the UAW" or anyone else. These MF'''''rs, with our approval, have ruined us. The medicine will taste like slick, slimey snake shit, but we gotta take it.

Merry Christmas

 

Well, if ya would READ the article above you would know he sells to others too...

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

 

Here is a link to Garage Logic 1500 am where Joe had this interview with Greg Knox.

It's a great story.... http://pcast.am1500.com/008050501.mp3

 

very well said UNKL IAN, everybody ALWAYS blame the union and while I agree they do get greedy, not much is ever said about the millions and billions that the ceo's and management make in wages, bonuses, and stock options. no, nothing lets just blame the workers thats easy!
I love when a guy making millions sitting on his ass tells a guy making 20 50K "you aren't worth that much".
Chrysler just anounced plans to shut down all plants for 30 days, the report also says "labor only makes up 10% of the auto prices'

 

Hot Rods people, Hot Rods!

 

How about the President of a failing country making $400,000.00 a year?? Shouldn't he too cut his wages to $1.00 a year until this mess is straightened out?

 

What part don't you understand ?

Sales are down,market share is consistently shrinking, losing money,
stock price is in a freefall, commercial paper is below "Junk", and on
the verge of bankruptcy. Doesn't sound like a healthy company.


For $20 Million, that is over $38,000 a week plus benefits,
I would want someone who would make the company grow and prosper.
These guys get paid the same, if the company does well, or it doesn't.

They are rewarded for mediocrity, so that is what you get.

 

Well this thread ain't gonna last much longer - a bit like the American auto industry.....

 

that would be funny, if it werent so close to the truth.

 

well here is another wake up call for our govenment..are they really worth what they are paid?...how 'bout they all take a pay cut too and get back to really working for the people..(such a novel idea eh?)
all of what was said in that letter is true..i have seen it my self too.with my own 2 eyes.and had one of those "hilo drivers" in my own family and all those stories being told of how cushy his 80G job was..been a contractor for the past 28 years doing work for the big 3 and a lot of tier 1's and 2's

im not advocating letting them fail..that will really be way too ugly..but getting them back on track and really opperating up to snuff and no golden 20 mil parachutes for any of these greedy bastards (banks included)

 

I agree with the free market. The big three do not deserve this, but come to our state and tell that to the thousands of loyal, hardworking laborers out there with families. It's a rough road ahead and I'm afraid for our state.

P.S. All unions are not bad.

 

If he's worth that much, they should probably sell 'em.

~Jason

 

oh yeah forgot....Dead Thread

 

Yeah, I wouldn't have had a problem with the bailout demanding a cut in pay to the workers 'to bring them in line with the foreign manufacturers' (that build cars here) IF there was a commensurate correction for management to their equivalents in said foreign manufacturers.

And yes, a CEO that's supposedly paid based on performance, shouldn't be taking home the GDP of Belize for the results thye have at the moment.

 

True, I grew up a Teamster brat. But what I remember from seeing dad work as a kid (and everyone around him on the job too), to what I see now. Makes it pretty obvious that some of the mean spirited jokes I've heard over the years about organized labor aren't entirely unfounded (not the Norm maybe, but the SLACKERS I've seen give all union WORKERS a bad name).