Letter from GM employee to President of GM
The President of GM sent out a letter to employees... and one of them
responded, sent this copy to his folks, who in turn, asked him if they
could circulate the letter... very interesting...

Abridged letter from Troy Clarke, President of General Motors

Dear Employee,

Next week, Congress and the current Administration will determine
whether to provide immediate support to the domestic auto industry to
help it through one of the most difficult economic times in our nation's
history. Your elected officials must hear from all of us now on why this
support is critical to our continuing the progress we began prior to the
global financial crisis...

As an employee, you have a lot at stake and continue to be one of our
most effective and passionate voices. I know GM can count on you to have
your voice heard. Thank you for your urgent action and ongoing support.

Troy Clarke
President
General Motors North America
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Here is a response from one employee (A supplier) .....
Sir:
In response to your request to call legislators and ask for a bailout
for the United States automakers please consider the following, and
please also pass this on to Troy Clark, the president of General Motors
North America for me.

You are both infected with the same entitlement mentality that has bred
like cancerous germs in UAW halls for the last countless decades, and
whose plague is now sweeping the nation, awaiting our new "messiah" to
wave his magical wand and make all our problems go away, while at the
same time allowing our once great nation to keep "living the dream". The
dream is over!

The dream that we can ignore the consumer for years while management
myopically focuses on its personal rewards packages at the same time
that our factories have been filled with the worlds most overpaid,
arrogant, ignorant and laziest entitlement minded "laborers" without
paying the price for these atrocities and that the masses still will
line up to buy our products.

Don't tell me I'm wrong. Don't accuse me of not knowing of what I
speak. I have called on Ford, GM, Chrysler, TRW, Delphi , Kelsey Hayes,
American Axle and countless other automotive OEM's and Tier ones for 3
decades now throughout the Midwest and what I've seen over the years in
these union shops can only be described as disgusting.

Mr Clark, the president of General Motors, states: "There is widespread
sentiment in this country, in our government, and especially in the
media that the current crisis is completely the result of bad
management. It is not." You're right - it's not JUST management. How
about the electricians who walk around the plants like lords in feudal
times, making people wait on them for countless hours while they drag
ass so they can come in on the weekend and make double and triple time
for a job they easily could have done within their normal 40-hour week?

How about the line workers who threaten newbies with all kinds of scare
tactics for putting out too many parts on a shift and for being too
productive (mustn't expose the lazy bums who have been getting overpaid
for decades for their horrific underproduction, must we)? Do you really
not know about this stuff?

How about this great sentiment abridged from Mr. Clarke's sad plea:
"Over the last few years,we have closed the quality and efficiency gaps
with our competitors." What the hell has Detroit been doing for the last
40 years?!? Did we really JUST wake up to the gaps in quality and
efficiency between us and them? The K car vs. the Accord? The Pinto vs.
the Civic? Do I need to go on?

We are living through the inevitable outcome of the actions of the
United States auto industry for decades. Time to pay for your sins,
Detroit .

I attended an economic summit last week where a brilliant economist,
Alan Beaulieu surprised the crowd when he said he would not have given
the banks a penny of "bailout money". Yes, he said, this would cause
short term problems, but despite what people like George Bush and Troy
Clark would have us believe, the sun would in fact rise the next day.
And something else would happen. Where there had been greedy and sloppy
banks new efficient ones would pop up. That is how a free market system
works. It does work . . . .if we would let it work. But for some reason
we are now deciding that the rest of the world is right and that
capitalism doesn't work - that we need the government to step in and
"save us".

Save us? Hell, we're nationalizing. And unfortunately, too many of this
once fine nation's citizens don't even have a clue that this is what's
really happening. But they sure can tell you the stats on their favorite
sports teams. Yeah - THAT'S important. Does it occur to ANYONE that the
"competition" has been producing vehicles, EXTREMELY PROFITABLY, for
decades now in this country?.... How can that be???

Let's see:
* Fuel efficient
* Listening to customers
* Investing in the proper tooling and automation for the long haul
* Not being too complacent or arrogant to listen to Dr W Edwards Deming
four decades ago
* Ever increased productivity through quality, lean and six sigma plans
* Treating vendors like strategic partners, rather than like "the
enemy"
* Efficient front and back offices
* Non-union environment.

Again, I could go on and on but I really wouldn't be telling anyone
anything they really don't already know in their hearts.

I have six children, so I am not unfamiliar with the concept of wanting
someone to bail you out of a mess that you have gotten yourself into -
my children do this on a weekly, if not daily basis, as I did at their
age. I do for them what my parents did for me (one of their greatest
gifts, by the way) - I make them stand on their own two feet and accept
the consequences of their actions and work them through. Radical
concept, huh. Am I there for them in the wings? Of course - but only
until such time as they need to be fully on their own as adults.

I don't want to oversimplify a complex situation, but there certainly
are unmistakable parallels here between the proper role of parenting and
government. Detroit and the United States need to pay for their sins.
Bad news people - it's coming whether we like it or not. The newly
elected Messiah really doesn't have a magic wand big enough to "make it
all go away". I laughed as I heard Obama "reeling it back in" almost
immediately after the vote count was tallied. "We might not do it in a
year or in four." Where was that kind of talk when he was RUNNING for
the office. Stop trying to put off the inevitable.

That house in Florida isn't worth $750,000.

People who jump across a border really don't deserve free health care
and welfare benefits.

That job driving a forklift for the big 3 really isn't worth $85,000 a
year.

We really shouldn't allow Wal-Mart to stock their shelves with products
acquired from a country that unfairly manipulates their currency and has
the most atrocious human rights infractions on the face of the globe.

That couple whose combined annual income is less than $50,000 really
shouldn't be living in that $485,000 home.

Let the market correct itself people - it will. Yes, it will be
painful, but it's gonna be painful either way. And the bright side of my
proposal is that on the other side of it is a nation that appreciates
what it has, doesn't live beyond its means, gets back to basics, and
redevelops the work ethic that made it the greatest nation in the
history of the world, and probably turns back to God.

Sorry - don't cut my head off. I'm just the messenger sharing with
you the "bad news".

Gregory J Knox
President
Knox Machinery, Inc.
Franklin , Ohio 45005



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