Bob Eldred wrote:
> "Billary/2008" <F#%K_Liberals@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in
message
> news:ZFR2f.35219$HM1.8379@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>>A car doesn't have to cost $30,000! Not in this global economy. Unions
>>finally out ****ed themselves! Capitalism works! The inefficient,
>>wasteful, overpriced American car industry has collapsed! It's about
>>time!!!
>>
>>----------------------------------------------------------------------
>>
>>Delphi's Miller: At a "Flash Point"
>>He says his company's bankruptcy filing makes clear how global "economic
>
> and
>
>>social forces...are on a collision course"
>>
>>
>>Rare is the chief executive who sees putting his company into bankruptcy
>>court as a landmark step toward overhauling an entire industry. Robert
>>"Steve" Miller is just that. Named chairman and CEO of auto parts maker
>>Delphi (DPH ) only three months ago, Miller had Delphi file for
protection
>>from its creditors under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code on
>
> Saturday,
>
>>Oct. 8.
>>Advertisement
>>
>>
>>The cause he cited: the necessity of renegotiating labor contracts
>
> inherited
>
>>from General Motors (GM ), Delphi's former owner (see BW Online,
10/08/05,
>>"Time and Patience Run Out at Delphi"). The contracts require Delphi to
>
> pay
>
>>too much in wages and retirement benefits -- some $65 an hour in total
--
>
> to
>
>>survive, he says. Miller knows cor****ate debt restructurings well,
having
>>been involved with 10 workouts, starting with Chrysler in 1980. He
guided
>>Bethlehem Steel and auto parts maker Federal Mogul in their
bankruptcies.
>>
>>Miller also sits on the board of UAL (UALAQ ), the bankrupt parent of
>
> United
>
>>Airlines. On Monday, Oct. 10, he met with BusinessWeek editors in New
York
>>to offer prepared remarks and to take questions on Delphi's filing.
Edited
>>excerpts of the conversation follow:
>>
>>On becoming the boss of a failing company:
>>I felt that taking this job would put me in a pivotal position to impact
>
> the
>
>>restructuring of America's auto industry.
>>
>>On the impact of Delphi's filing on the auto industry:
>>General Motors is headed down the same Chapter 11 path as Delphi, unless
>>there is a dramatic change in their staggering legacy labor burden.
Things
>>are going to get messy for the Big Three automakers. Current labor
>>agreements expire in 2007, and it will be a historical collision point
for
>>all of the social and economic forces at work. [Delphi's lower labor
costs
>>forced by the bankruptcy] are going to be sitting right there in front
of
>>them when they go to the bargaining table.
>>
>>On being unable to get the United Auto Workers, Delphi's biggest single
>>source of U.S. labor, and General Motors, Delphi's biggest source of
>>revenues, to agree to sufficient concessions before resorting to
>
> bankruptcy:
>
>>We talked about lots of ideas. At the end of the day, we couldn't come
up
>>with anything that was satisfying to everybody.
>>
>>The UAW basically said we can do all of this as long as GM pays
everything
>>and makes everybody happy. GM said that sounds too expensive, and we
never
>>finished finding common ground.
>>
>>On the jobs of GM Chairman and CEO Richard Wagoner and UAW President Ron
>>Gettelfinger:
>>Compared with Rick, my problems are more urgent. His are more serious. I
>>wouldn't want to trade chairs with him.
>>
>>The person I feel sorry for is Ron. He is going to have to help 500,000
of
>>his members get through the next several years of dramatic change. Fifty
>>years of ever-increasing pay and benefits is going to be forced into a
>>retreat.
>>
>>On the right way to file for bankruptcy:
>>I said we would be well-financed, well-organized, and well-planned. I
>
> meant
>
>>it. I was not going to run out of gas. We have the biggest
>>debt-in-possession financing in history.
>>
>>This stands in contrast to [competing auto parts supplier] Collins &
>
> Aikman
>
>>(CKCRQ ), which tumbled into a chaotic bankruptcy that left customers on
>
> the
>
>>hook for over $100 million in penalties to keep their assembly lines
>>running. I will not allow this company to do that to their customers or
>>their people.
>>
>>On the common thread between the auto, airline, and steel industries:
>>These three industries have in common a social contract, worked out over
>
> the
>
>>past half-century with strong, centralized labor unions, to elevate
their
>>workforces with elaborate defined-benefit retirement programs.
>>
>>Today, defined-benefit programs are an anachronism. These programs have
a
>>way of threatening the existence of traditional large employers. GM is a
>>junk-bond credit and staggers under a burden of $150 million of combined
>>pension and health-care retirement programs (see BW Online, 10/11/05,
>>"Delphi's Woes Take GM Down a Notch").
>>
>>On government retirement schemes:
>>The overwhelming voltage in the political third rail of touching Social
>>Security and Medicare will forestall corrective action for years. But
the
>>problem will only grow. I fear something like intergenerational warfare,
>
> as
>
>>young people increasingly resent having their wages reduced and taxed
away
>>to sup****t social programs for their grandparents' income and
health-care
>>concerns.
>>
>>I want you to view what is happening at Delphi as a flash point, a test
>>case, for all the economic and social trends that are on a collision
>
> course
>
>>in our country and around the globe.
>>
>>--
>>Love Billary
>>Tampa, FL
>
>
>
> What you say is true, but what you're really talking about is the slow
> destruction of the American middle class and the inevitable spiral
toward
> third world status for America. An America with a wealthy class coupled
> with a poor class and little in the middle. An America that looks more
like
> Mexico or Brazil than what we have enjoyed for the last 200 years.
>
> One really needs to look deeper and think hard about what type of
society we
> are headed towards and what we really want. In addition, we need to
think
> about who is going to buy the cars and goods and services of the future
if
> Americans are driven into poverty. The great middle class arose because
of
> visionaries like Henry Ford who realized that workers have to have a
good
> wage if they are to purchase his products. That philosophy carried this
> country far and made it one of the wealthiest on the planet.
>
> The present course, while it sounds good to the simple minded is a long
term
> disaster in the making. We must think smarter and work hard to keep
> Americans employed with living wages or the whole system will inevitably
> collapse. The American wage earner and consumer is a very im****tant part
of
> the equation.
>
>
I think what is saying is that he is happy that American car industry
has collapsed!
He must be from the Right Wing Christian Conservative Elite.
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