"Bob Eldred" <nsmontassoc@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message
news:33858$434bfa47$42a7d082$21160@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> "Billary/2008" <F#%K_Liberals@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in
message
> news:ZFR2f.35219$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.
>
The defining moment of this disaster was the "New Deal" and it's been a
race
to the bottom ever since.
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