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CAW Boss Buzz Hargrove: "I Told Rick Wagoner It's Not a Question of If You're Going to Have to File [for Bankruptcy], It's a Question of When"
by
Robert Farago
(IC: employee)
Published: July 29th, 2008
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Breaking news from TTAC contributor Samir Syed, who just finished lunch with Canadian Auto Workers President Basil "Buzz" Hargrove. In a stunning admission, the union boss said he told GM CEO Rick Wagoner that a bankruptcy filing was inevitable. But wait! There's more. Buzz reckons ALL of Detroit's automakers are going down. "I don't see how they can survive in their current form." Samir's full report on his chin wag with the outgoing union boss will appear on Wednesday's TTAC editorial page.
Robert Farago
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Published July 29th, 2008 12:44 PM
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Is car manufacturing stateside going the same way as it did in the UK (with the exception of Nissan) i.e. dead as a dodo
Honda and Toyota each can build between 400k and 500k vehicles annually in Canada. That is more than Ford and likely more than GM or Chrysler will build this year. The market has shifted to non-union. Notice that Ford when they announced new investments last week there was nothing for Canada. The Big 3 have been moving production from Canada to the USA and Mexico. Such is the legacy of Buzz.
A big part of the problem at GM is loyalty. Buzz is loyal to his members, who elected him, and was trying to get the best deal for them. The managers at GM on the other hand are annointed and only loyal to themselves. The decisions they made over the last 30 years have been made to increase their bonuses not make the company better as a whole. Filling management positions, from the factory floor to the Ren Centre with new minted MBA's with no loyalty to the company, no knowledge of the car business and no people skills wasn't a very good long term plan.
Potemkin, The idea that Buzz is all about loyalty, and that the GM managers are all just mercenary is baseless and unfair. Buzz's loyalty is just as bought and paid for as any of the others. If he could cut a deal for a better gig tomorrow he would do it. I see no reason to assign any of his actions to loyalty at all. Instead, I think he likes the job and all the perks. He is a celebrity in Canada for one thing, and he gets to stick it to the man on a regular basis. On top of all that he gets a salary. As for hiring new MBA's, maybe they have to catch them while they are young and naive. Otherwise, they would know better than to hire on at GM.