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USA Edition | Today Is Monday, March 22, 2010 |
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USA Edition | Today Is Monday, March 22, 2010 |
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| Jeff Greenfield, Television And Journalism | « Scan Content In The Order It Was Published » | Bungle — A Definition | |
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CEO's: Gettlefinger ( UAW ), Wagoner ( GM ), Nardelli ( Chrysler )
Detroit automobiles come in different brands, but no matter the Corporation or mark, Big Three automobiles are built by the United Auto Workers. Detroit’s problems are failures of both management and labor. Shaking Rick Wagoner out of GM was a good start, but changing only one player falls short of solving an embarrassing failure in labor-management relations. There is blame enough for Detroit’s fall from grace to go around to all the players. To be successful, Chrysler’s Nardelli, Ford’s Mullaly and UAW’s Gettlefinger all need to give way to new blood, new ideas and new directions.
Newsroom Editors & Contributor Opinions
The Obama administration’s ousting of GM CEO Rick Wagoner last Sunday sent a powerful signal that Detroit will never again be left to its embarrassing legacy of failed corporate management. The failure of this nation’s once mighty Big Three automakers has been going on for decades. When tough decisions had to be made, Ford, Chrysler and General Motors failed the test — time after time.
Across the table all those years was the Big Three’s partner — The United Auto Workers — one of this nation’s proudest and most powerful labor unions. Perhaps fueled by an erroneous belief that having leverage over the Big Three made the UAW omnipotent, the UAW successfully negotiated the auto industry into being lazy, inefficient and non competitive in a very competitive market. The United Auto Workers is essential to Detroit’s future — if it has one, but it too must change for the entirety of the worldwide automobile industry is no longer in Detroit.
Not all of Detroit’s failed decisions came at the hands of the United Auto Workers, but short term thinking on the part of management consistently failed to deal with the long term strategy pursued by the United Auto Workers.
UAW President Ron Gettlefinger's Starting Lineup
UAW President Ron Gettlefinger out foxed, out maneuvered and out strategized his divided management counterparts. Today’s workers and retirees enjoyed the benefits of a UAW strategy that made the Big Three uncompetitive. His membership benefited from Mr. Gettlefinger’s skillful and successful leadership. And now the piper must be paid.Many will lose benefits, others good jobs all because of failure to break old habits.
Ron Gettlefinger is no more, nor no less responsible for the collapse of his Big Three partners. He does not deserve to be fired for his success, for representing labor’s interests was his job. But he is part of the problem and he too must be accountable for his decisions, his actions and his failures.
What is to be learned from the demise of the American automobile industry is that failing to solve the difficult problems only puts off the inevitable. Saving the Big Three and the UAW family requires more than a federal bailout — it demands new ideas, new management and new labor leadership.
Robert Butche
Publisher
Newsroom Magazine
