(MI Sen. Carl) Levin: Big 3 CEOs should resign if need be to get aid

[Bozita]

Source: Detroit News

Sunday, November 16, 2008
Levin: Big 3 CEOs should resign if need be to get aid
David Shepardson / Detroit News Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON -- Michigan Sen. Carl Levin said Sunday the top executives of Detroit's Big Three automakers should consider resigning if necessary to convince Congress to quickly pass up to $25 billion in emergency loans for the struggling companies. "If it was the difference between getting this kind of support or not, obviously the management should consider resigning," Levin told NBC's "Meet the Press."

The Detroit Democrat said the government "should have more than a say" in management through an oversight board that would oversee the $25 billion in loans if they are part of the broader $700 billion Wall Street bailout, the source Democrats pushing for the aid prefer.

"I'd be happy to tell (GM CEO) Rick Wagoner that he ought to consider resigning if that is the difference between getting this kind of support and not," Levin said.

Wagoner, who has been CEO since 2000, has come under increasing pressure. Since 2004, GM has lost more than $70 billion, including more than $20 billion this year. He told Automotive News earlier this week that he has no plans to resign.

Read more: http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081...

[Faygo Kid]

1. Whatever it takes. We CAN'T let the auto industry tank.

Fuck Charles Krauthammer and his love for the financial industry.

We are bailing out the goddamn hedge fund managers, and we can't help the U.S. auto industry?

Screw that. Millions of people are at risk here.

God damn you, George W. Bush. God damn you to hell.

[defendandprotect]

13. CEO's out -- we own them -- and ONLY electric cars ---

NATIONALIZE oil industry while we're at it --!!

[OhioChick]

17. I agree.....Whatever it takes. n/t

[pipoman]

22. What US auto industry?

Isn't it true that most models produced by the embarrassing 3 are actually made outside of the US? In addition to firing the suits, there should be required a plan for production of quality energy efficient vehicles and a requirement that a certain percentage of all vehicles produced be manufactured inside the US. Why should US tax dollars be spent to export more jobs?

[goforit]

2. Just the CEOs??? The entire management teams!!!! And they need to give 3/4

of their salaries back to the company.
And they need to unlock their pattants on High Gas Milage Engineered cars
which they have had for the last 40 years.

The Dodge Champ got 60 miles to the gallon back in the 1960's early 1970's
So Sen. Levin ......You ain't just jiving with a bunch of ignorant turkeys ....Ya know???

[WriteDown]

4. Order to the Big 3:

Do not under any circumstances make anything RESEMBLING the Dodge Colt!!!!! May be one of the ugliest cars in history. Please continue your production of the Chevy Volt though.

[defendandprotect]

14. How many people know that .. 60mpg in '60's ...!!!

[customerserviceguy]

24. That's not what I remember

The Plymouth Champ and the Dodge Colt were "twins", cars that were essentially identical, yet sold under different nameplates. I had a 1983 Colt, and while it did get good mileage, it wasn't anywhere near 60 MPH.

They were imported by Chrysler from Mitsubishi in Japan, so they're not really American engineering. Also, Chrysler found a way to screw them up, my particular Colt had THREE DIFFERENT transaxles for that year, when it went out, it was quite expensive for my mechanic to find a good used one to replace it with. One of the good things about a Japanese car from a Japanese company is that they kept powertrain configurations over a number of years, this made for a greater pool of used parts to find replacements from.

[Joe Bacon]

3. Senator Levin, split the boards 50/50 between labor and stockholders!

and cap anybody's pay to no more than 5 times what an assembly line worker makes!

[Drum]

8. Perfect

[aquart]

5. IF need be??? Make it mandatory.

[MannyGoldstein]

6. Bing - Bing - Bing! We Have A Winner!

We should absolutely get rid of the top few execs at each - they've clearly led the companies into a ditch. If we get rid of all of the execs, the organizations would not be able to function at all any more.

[last1standing]

7. This is a bigger statement than many here would understand.

Michigan politicians NEVER criticize the auto companies or their management. At least they don't if they want to continue being Michigan politicians. That is what makes this statement so interesting and powerful. Believe me, the rest of Congress will understand this.

If GM, Ford and Chrysler fail, you might as well cut Michigan off from the electrical grid because there will be no one and nothing left to use it. The auto companies, their subsidiaries and spin-offs account for a tremendous amount of our state's GDP. When you add in those who gain their living from the money earned by auto industry employees then you're accounting for the vast majority of all income. Therefore, they wield more power in this state than anyone else, including the powerful deVos family.

Besides all of that, as much as they may grumble, the employees love their companies in the auto industry. They have pride in their work and the product they create. They don't like to hear anyone say something back about their company. The politicians know this very well.

Now, for Carl Levin (a man I support for Senate Majority Leader) to make this statement means that either he's had enough of the management of these companies and is going to do what's best for the state regardless of what the CEOs want, or he's already spoken to enough board members to know that they're on board with ousting the current management structure for the sake of viability. Either way, he's working for the people of Michigan. We can trust that.

[Raschel]

11. You make some very good points. I'm looking at this from a different angle now.

As you pointed out the auto companies and unions wield ALOT of power, and the Republicans are actually going for the dismantling of this power structure, US citizens be damned.

Makes sense to me now how they will throw billions at AIG, Freddie and Fannie, AMEX, etc., and not be willing to help the automakers.

Those who vote against this are going for absolute power.

[sufrommich]

21. It's a huge statement coming from Levin,no other politician has

the clout he has.He also has tremendous support from labor here,which makes me wonder if there have been behind the scenes discussions about how to dig us out of this hole. Saying something like that out loud is stunning.

[harmonicon]

9. they ought to resign anyway

I'd swear these guys are trying to run these companies into the ground. Could any one possibly do a worse job?

[salguine]

10. "If need be"? Any kind of assistance for the Big 3 MUST be on condition that

not only the CEOs but all of upper management, also, has to go.

[Buns_of_Fire]

20. "upper management" including the current BoDs in their current makeup, of course.

Otherwise, I truly believe the companies would be right back to where they are now in a couple of years.

[blue_onyx]

12. I would fine with this

Help the auto companies get through this difficult time with a bailout, get some new people who will bring new, ideas, designs, and leadership, while at the same time saving tons of jobs. Sounds good to me.

[natrat]

15. especially Lutz, what a dick

[vssmith]

16. Saw Lutz interviewed a couple of weeks ago--very arrogant

I cannot see that someone who has aided in breaking a company has that much to be arrogant about.

[Danchi]

18. Get rid of all of them

My husband works for Chrysler but just till the 30th of this month. After 32 years (begin as a work study student in college) of working he was offered early retirement. Considering Chrysler has another big lay off planned for next month it's an offer one can't refuse. People who have refused early retirement are only laid off the next time layoffs are going on and they receive only half of what they would have received had they taken the retirement package. So it really isn't an offer if you want any of the money you've put into your retirement package. He was planning on retiring in a couple of years anyway but he wanted the time to work on establishing a second career because he still young. The company has been mismanaged since before the Germans (Damien-which is what employees called them, not Daimler) left. The killing of Chrysler began with the Germans. Calling them Germans has nothing to do with race, it's more of a cultural reference.

Auto companies are a sub-culture in and of themselves and there are differences between American, European & Asian companies. Daimler didn't understand that and brought their own consciousness here to impose on the western Chrysler employees. When they couldn't make it work because their shareholders felt their profits were too low and the union workers wouldn't take concessions they dumped the company on the first group that could come up with the cash. Cerberus. Cerberus killed the essence that was Chrysler. Their first mistake was keeping Tom LaSorda, the man who made many of the major mistakes under Daimler. Their second mistake was to lie to the employees to get concessions. Next they brought in that guy(Nardali) that ran Home Depot into the ground. Now you have the dumb & blind being lead by lead by someone dumber. It went downhill from there. They tried to run an auto company like an investment company. I guess they thought if they broke it Mr. Home Depot could get a discount on nails & glue at a discount because of his big stock options and golden umbrella he received from Home Depot and fix it. They gave my husband a project, a component to go into one of the vehicle, to build with no resources, no money and 1 engineer. When they realized they would need to invest some money to build this component it was decided to outsource it to Nissan. They have been trying to outsource a lot to Nissan but Nissan wanted more money than they wanted to put out so things have just gone undone. They have been laying off experienced people left & right-people who know the auto industry and how to build cars. The business culture of America has turned into one that rewards failure. Like that woman that was on John McCain's campaign from Hp. She was the biggest failure in that company's history yet she walked away with a golden umbrella that is just obscene. Nardali was a failure as are many of the auto-executives but they all have safety nets.

I am with Carl Levin on this one and there isn't too much I agree with him on. All the CEO's resign. All the executives give up their bonuses before any loan money is given to them. All top level executives take pay cuts and the stock holders will just have to suck it up and receive less the next few years. That's the cost of doing business with stupid greedy people.

[customerserviceguy]

26. Thanks for the background from the "inside"

but we need to make sure that they (and future management) don't get golden parachutes for running a company into the ground. I don't mind paying successful people for taking risks and producing excellence, but giving out megabucks for incompetency has GOT to stop. Your example about Carly Fiorina (McLame's campaign lackey) was right on, I spend some time studying freeptards, and even they were 98% disgusted with her.

[nightrain]

19. yeah, the CEOs and the SUV designers should go...

What we need are some practical vehicles, not huge-mobiles. US needs to make something. We need energy-stingy vehicles. Get going on it, it's 30 years late! Stupid CEOs-- more interested in profit than people or the environment.

[pipoman]

23. I don't believe that the US makers would be in this position

if they had not made parts sales such a huge portion of their bottom line. I strongly believe they have for decades been engineering faulty parts into their vehicles to insure future parts sales. This is the main reason that reliability cost them vehicle sales. There was a colossal misinterpretation of their Japanese competition back in the late 1970's. They thought that the reason they were loosing market share was because Japanese cars were cheaper, when in fact they were loosing market share because Japanese cars were more reliable. It wasn't until the mid to late 1980's before they began readdressing the quality issues, by then it was too late, they had already destroyed their base and credibility. Once the tidal wave of movement to the more trouble free Japanese cars began because of the massive defects intentionally engineered into their cars in the late 70's and early 80's, they were never able to recover.

[WriteDown]

25. Very interesting theory....

Just look at the average life of a American made water pump compared to a Japanese counterpart. Something that always bothered me.

[customerserviceguy]

27. Yep

not only do they sell the expensive part, but the service departments of the dealerships pick up a lot of business as well. And you can't have the guys at the Jiffy Lube replace them, either. Parts have gotten so difficult to replace that even a lot of independent mechanic shops can't afford the large amounts of specialized training needed to repair cars, so you're stuck going back to a dealer.

[pipoman]

30. Several years ago

I worked in a dual Ford/Toyota dealership. Vehicle sales were around 2 to 1 Fords at that time. There were 6 to 1 Ford mechanics. Ford average service ticket was just over $300 while average service ticket on Toyota was just over $125 this included warranty tickets and scheduled maintenance tickets as well as major mechanical. There was always at least a 3 day advance schedule on Ford and usually 1 day on Toyota. I understand things are better now but there is still a lopsided difference in favor of the Toyotas. It was apparent to anyone working in the Ford/Toyota garage at the time (can't speak for now) that this was intentional because the same problems plagued the same model year after year while problems discovered with Toyotas were often remedied mid-year never to be seen again. In fact many service bulletins issued by Ford would cover more than one model year while Toyota service bulletins would often only cover a few months of production.

I am not trying to bash Ford here and certainly do not blame the good people who worked hard for years building these products. I do believe it was a conscious decision/business plan at the top.

edit: I do own 3 Toyotas and a 2001 Ford F-250 which I bought with 20k miles on it, it now has 250k hard miles and I have had very few problems with it..a great truck.

[noonwitch]

28. I don't think Mullaley should be out at Ford-he didn't cause their problems

he's the guy they hired to clean up the mess created by Jacques Nassar and compounded by William Clay Ford. Why the company ever put WC in charge, when he had such a poor track record with the Lions, is beyond me.

I think Mullaley is the right guy at this time.

[Vidar]

29. Levin's my senator. Not bad, Carl, not bad at all!