Let me introduce myself. I am so far down the auto industry food chain, that I still have a job. Someone has to process all that damm paperwork, and crunch those numbers, and it's me.
I work for a parts supplier out in the heartland. We have a slight chance
of survival - really conservative management from the 50's and 60's put in
place practices that made us cash rich, and in the 80's almost impossible
for a take over bid.
We make a cutting edge product, and have contracts beyond this current
crisis, if we can just hang on by our fingernails long enough to get there.
So when you are asked to take a 5% cut in pay, and get weeks off without pay, you can't even complain. You still HAVE a JOB. You still HAVE INSURANCE...........when you say good bye to someone you have worked
with for 40 years, seen everyday, know their grandchildren's names,
see that empty desk, walk by the stripped cubible, secretly curse
management for having to suck up someone elses work, but then worry
that somehow management has some thought invader to read your mind,
and put you on the next lay off list.........everyday is a test of
your personal courage. The courage to suck it up and smile at your
co-survivors, send funny emails, still go out for a cheap lunch,
spring for the chinese buffet every couple weeks........make sure some part of life goes on, be calm, show your heartland grit.............
In an industry that has taken a direct hit.........it seems to me
that there are a few things the government could do to help.
Are autoworkers at the Big 3 over paid. Some. The question is why.
Because the union negotiated a piece of the profit pie for the workers.
Should all the money made have gone only to the management staff and
shareholders? Guess that depends on which side your job is. Are you
in the tower, or on the factory floor, or are you miles away, and don't
have a clue what it takes to work on a factory floor, or manage a large
manufacturing corporation in a corner office on Wall Street?
#1 Would someone please tell me why big business supports the sickness insurance industry. They complain about the "wages paid to the workers"
(and the executives are included in this cost too)
but the sickness insurance is what is killing their bottom lines. If
they would stop their support of the sickness industry, trust me, we
would not have a sickness industry - we would have single payer national
health insurance. Every business in the country - big or small - has
at least one person dedicated to health insurance - finding the best company package, negotiating the terms and costs, budgeting it for the company and breaking that down per department and employee, running the deduction package thru payroll, making the payments and running interference between the insurance co and their employee complaints.
#2 cars.............Henry Ford knew that if he paid his workers enough
money, they could buy the cars they built. A built in market. Not rocket
science. As the price of cars started including more and more business
liability costs - and you have to know that is based on pre tax/pre-profit dollars.
That means the management can spend whatever it wants on management,
salaries, bonuses, perks (like free life and health insurance, better retirement plans, preferred stock options,access to free financial and
legal advice and services), country club dues,
membership dues in professional organizations, first class travel reimbursement, office decor, size of staff. So stack up those dollars,
against the cost of the factory workers. Getting back to my point.
The factory floor worker cannot afford to buy the car he builds anymore.
#3 Where did the deduction go? There was an income tax deduction
for interest paid on personal loans. It included the interest we paid on
car loans and credit cards. It was taken away in a mis-guided effort
to get us to save money. (we know how that worked out don't we) In the stimulus package there is a very very very
tiny crumb thrown at the auto industry. Wooo-Hoo, you can deduct
(1 time)
the SALES TAX for buying a new car. Well that's one hell of an
incentive to buy a $35,000 car..........NOT!
#4 Incentive to buy a car. Hardly any one out there who still has to work for a living is breathing. We are holding our collective breath. We are waiting for that perverbial "shoe". Unless our car is totalled
in an accident, chances are us workerbees are praying our cars back and
forth to work everyday. "Oh, Lord, let betsy get me there and back for
another day". How about a government program for good credit
buyers to insure their loans. Notice I did not say everyone - just those
folks who can afford a new car, still have jobs, or decent retirement
incomes. And to that end car manufacturers and car dealers have to offer
some damm good deals to get those people in the door.
#5 Incentives for the Banks to give those car loans. Government insurance
for the car loans the banks give. And since we bailed out their sorry
asses, they owe it to those of us still paying taxes.
#6 The government needs to step up support for ALL manufacturing in
our country, not just the auto industry. Tax laws encourage outsourcing,
and job loss. In the past, in my area alone, we have lost four huge drug manufacturing companies. A little tax clause #935 made Porto Rico
a tax haven for them. Can things be made cheaper somewhere else.
Sure. But at what cost? (see statement below) Chasing ever more elusive profit margins have
laid waste to communities everywhere in this country, but also to
fragile newly minted middle-classes in countries across the world.
One only need to look as far as the American Protectorate - Saipan.
My mantra for years has been "Noblese Oblige". The obligation of the nobility to protect the serfs. Well in the olden days - the King charged
his nobles to protect his subjects. He gave them land and money, and in return he received their loyalty and swords. Times have changed but the
serfs still need to be protected. Business has filled that role in communities across the country. When a business was set up, civilization soon followed. The OWNERS of those business' took the RISK, and rightfully REAPED the rewards. They became respected pillars of that
new commnunity. In my small community the presidents of my company who
VALUED AN EDUCATED WORK FORCE
invested in public television, the first co-op program
at the local high school, and provided an interest-free college tuition loan for workers and their children. Of course those presidents had come up thru the ranks, and had grown up in the community. They felt a real
respect for the company's place in our town, and had the support
of the employees because they knew he was one of them, and would do the
best job he could to keep the company profitable,a paycheck in their pocket, and a jewel in the town to be proud to work for.
Fast forward. How many publicly held companies share that view?
not many, not even mine anymore. Executives move from company to company, loyal only to their own wealth growth. They believe the
wall street view that business exists in a vacuum only to create
a profit, except when it needs the government laws to say they have
the same rights as a "person". Not only do they not care about the company they work for, they could care even less about the community around them. Screw the tax base - i don't care about the school system or about the local hospital, or downtown or streets.....I don't need to know anyone lower than my immediate staff. sad..........
This is the time. This is the crisis. This is the President.
The pendulum has swung at last. And ANYTHING that can be done
to jumpstart manufacturing should be done. And hopefully that
heavy brass pendulum will also smack some corporate executives in the
head too. Those as us on the bottom need help. We need you to
care about more than yourselves. You need us too. and a minimum
wage tied to the cost of living.........but that's another diary.