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I agree with you and @jrwoodruff that management also deserves blame; their focus on short term metrics stops them from negotiating reasonable contracts (if the
by dreamux 16y ago
I agree with you and @jrwoodruff that management also deserves blame; their focus on short term metrics stops them from negotiating reasonable contracts (if they don't strike this quarter I get my bonus, etc.)
As for the assemblers preventing innovation, its much harder to pump cash into R&D when your assembly costs are twice that of your competition.
And as for ford doing well relative to GM and Crysler, you're basically saying they're doing good compared to bankruptcy. I like ford (especially their current lineup), but they've fallen a long way from their massive dominance of a few decades back.
To be clear, I agree with you (this reply seems a little ranty), the entire auto industry is a mess; a large part of these inefficiencies I feel comes out of dealing with unions - and I see the same things happening with teachers.
- rjbond3rd 16y agoI hear you. But to put your last statement another way, a large part of these inefficiencies comes out of having to create unions in the first place, to counter the abusive employment practices of management. I think it's a two-way street. Auto unions are corrupt now, but they were obviously created as a reaction to some pretty bad behavior from management. The worst, most unnecessary, most counter-productive unions, in my limited experience, are at universities :)