Comments on: CAW’s Basil “Buzz” Hargrove Gets Canadian Gong

By: blowfish

blowfish — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 23:21:56 +0000

Yes & no, is like a good defense lawyer who got a Muderer free, one side he didnt deserve the win, another side he has saved the dude from the chair.

He did what he supposed to do, I guess is going for a good time not long time.

But should he had not negotiated a high wage for workers the bg 2.8 are still going to fail. Reason cars are made lots cheaper in Mexico or else where.
If the direction is not well focused then the big 2.8 can very much head dead onto the Iceberg at full steam ahead.

Now is time to gave him OC, next yr when Oshawa will be running on 2 cyl then bestowing hm OC is a bigger joke, or contrary allow him to do the Hara Kiri to preserve his Honour.

By: drummergirl

drummergirl — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 19:06:54 +0000

Wow. A lot of people have had the wool pulled over their collective eyes when it comes to Buzz Hargrove! Has anyone heard anything about the miscarriage otherwise known as the collective bargaining in the Magna deal? Where workers don’t have the right to strike? Where “union reps” are chosen by management and paid by the employer??? What a joke. Buzz is selling out his own members. Not to mention the underhanded raids he organized and conducted several years ago on members of Service Employees International (mostly health care workers–yep, he wanted to take over that sector, too). Instead of organizing new manufacturing sector workers, he was attempting to steal health care workers who were already happily organized!! Just a few insights into good ol’ Buzz’s character–yep, here’s a man who definitely deserves the highest civilian honour!

By: ra_pro

ra_pro — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 16:37:11 +0000

I have to agree with others here. Buzz was a good leader for his flock, he got them the best deal possible and that’s the end of it. The main problems for all domestics are not the costs including labor costs. We saw that in June when their sales have collapsed not because of costs but product, Honda was up slightly because even in tough times good products sell.

By: Robert Farago

Robert Farago — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 15:49:50 +0000

rev0lver :

Just a correction, the text should read :

“The Order of Canada is Canada’s highest civilian honour”

Text amended.

By: rev0lver

rev0lver — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 15:47:55 +0000

Just a correction, the text should read :

“The Order of Canada is Canada’s highest civilian honour”

PS Thanks for spelling honour the correct Canadian way.

By: troonbop

troonbop — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 15:13:59 +0000

The order of canada is utterly devalued – i fully expect to get one soon.

By: jkross22

jkross22 — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 14:59:19 +0000

I knew nothing about Buzz except what I have read here. Seems like his work over the years and the recent problems are good examples of unintended consequences. While it’s not his fault GM has fallen, he has been a contributing factor to the inability of GM to right itself financially.

By: mel23

mel23 — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 14:36:34 +0000

If Wagoner had done his job as well as Buzz has done his, we wouldn’t be talking about the death of GM.

By: psarhjinian

psarhjinian — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 13:40:33 +0000

Hmm…

This is the first Order of Canada newsbyte I’ve read that hasn’t mentioned Henry Morgentaler.

By: George Labrador

George Labrador — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 13:36:56 +0000

Buzz deserves the Order of Canada imho, his Job as a Union leader is to get the best contract he can for his members, if the Manufacture was willing to give him great contracts, dont blame Buzz, blame the leaders of the Auto Industry who thought there was no end in sight for the “gravy” train of there Business.

By: Cammy Corrigan

Cammy Corrigan — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 13:31:11 +0000

Buzz’s career is nothing unusal. It’s a simple story of someone rising to power on the wave of loads of good work he/she has done. Then, when they reach the top, they start to believe they are invincible and their downfall begins.

This is nothing out of the ordinary.

Juergen Schrempp rose to power at Daimler on the work he did in Mercedes-Benz South Africa. He stayed when other withdrew and forced Blacks and Whites to work together, paid them fair and equal wages (no preferential) and created good communities for everyone to live and work in. He received the highest honour from the South African government (Post-Apartheid, naturally) for this work.

He, then, took the CEO throne at Daimler and that’s where it started to go wrong. He believed in his “Welt AG” dream, despite others telling him it was a bad idea. We all know how that ended.

History will judge Jurgen Schrempp for his abysmal failure as a CEO (In fact, he was voted the worst CEO of any company, in a survey), but lest we forget he did do some good at Daimler.