Letter to General Motors

Snopes ^ | 12/2008 | Gregory Knox, President Knox Machinery

[tje]

The first letter is one sent out by the President of GM, the second is a response.

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

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

From Gregory Knox,

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 onto 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 still the masses 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, 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 4 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 really isn't worth $750,000!

People who jump across a border really don't deserve free health care benefits!

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

That couple whose combined 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 is has and doesn't live beyond its means and 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

[tje]

The link is to the snopes article, appears to be real. I did to a search.. Didn't find it. It's a good read.

Verified on Snopes: http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/knox.asp

[tje]

Link title is incorrect, my mistake. It’s really from StrangeVehicles.com.

[pnh102]

The arrogance of GM, Chrysler and their employees never ceases to amaze me. Some of these people literally think that they are God's gift to auto manufacturing and that the entire country will come to a screeching halt if they went down.

The American driving public gave up on GM and Chrysler long ago. Either both companies work to make themselves relevant once again or into the "ash heap of history they should go."

[gieriscm]

Mr. Knox, like other small business owners, gets it.

[CRBDeuce]

what I've seen over the years in these union shops can only be described as disgusting.

A UNIVERSAL truism...from my first job in 1963, thru the next 40 years, Always true. First company, destroyed by going union several years ago. Last company, destroyed by union in Philadelphia, kept non-union plants, still going, after a couple 'fire-sales' to foreign companies. Unfortunately, foreign companies are also 'union', so rampant 'entertainment' available to our US non-union employees!/rant

[RGSpincich]

Dear Mr. Knox,

Being right is not enough. Put it in a smaller box if you want it delivered.

[billhilly]

I love this guy and agree with everything he wrote. In the 80s I got a new Cadillac every two years. The last one was a 1990 model. That was the end of my General Motors affair. I am now almost twenty months into my latest Toyota, an Avalon Limited, and it is a far superior car to any of the Cadillacs I owned.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

If it wasn’t so true and so dire, I’d call it refreshing.

[Texas Fossil]

Thanks for the link. Powerful and effective letter.

I wrote an e-mail to his company for Gregory J. Knox, thanking him for his comments.

Snopes said very little about the letter, other than it was genuine.

I read some of the Left’s responses (via Red States) and it was really lame. There is no response to the truth.

[Chode]

the unions kept out the automation that brings quality and consistency for years... and they still make bad product.

[RayChuang88]

Either both companies work to make themselves relevant once again or into the "ash heap of history they should go."

Fortunately, Ford has already start the process of reinventing themselves to essentially have a product line like that of Ford of Europe (very smart move, given that Ford of Europe products are well-liked even with fussy European buyers). And Chrysler tying up with Fiat is just as smart move, because the current Fiat product line has come a LONG way from the old "Fix It Again, Tony" days, if you've seen the Grand Punto and Bravo lines now sold in Europe.

As for GM, they may have no choice but to negotiate a planned entrance into Chapter 11 reorganization in order to shrink the company to a manageable size with a proper product line.

[hiramknight]

Having had the opportunity to visit many of the big three's engine plants, dealing with management AND union workers, I can wholeheartedly attest that there is not a shred of exaggeration in Mr. Knox's assessment of the situation.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

I don't doubt that at all.

During college, I worked two Summers in a GM Assembly Division plant.

What I saw there curdled my milk and boiled my blood.

A saw horse is blocking access to the mens' room. A Supervisor asks a guy walking by to do him a quick favor and grab the saw horse and just place it out of the way behind some nearby lockers.

"That's not my job" comes the reply. "That's made of wood. You'll need to call a carpenter to deal with that."

WTF?