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Automotive News [sub] reports that the exit of 5,000 salaried employees in the past week has created “chaos” within Chrysler, and bankruptcy rumors have suppliers considering cash-on-delivery demands. According to Chrysler spokeswoman MaryBeth Halprin, “the claim of chaos is unwarranted. There is certainly in this first week without 5,000 employees a transition taking place,” she said in an e-mail to Automotive News. “This is an opportunity to continue the transformation of our company, rethink work processes and focus on core function.” Right. For more on ChryCo’s “transformation,” check out this story from the NYT.
9 Comments on “Bailout Watch 262: A Chrying Shame...”
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How are Arlo Guthrie and that idiotic video relevant to Chrysler’s–actually the D3’s–predicament?
Arlo lives in a time capsule, an aging 60’s hippie revolutionary. Does he really think Chrysler’s situation is consistent with his world view that all-powerful corporations enrich themselves by abusing labor and consumers? (This is not to criticize his father. Woody had a wonderful talent, even if his political judgment was poor and he was a lousy parent.)
The video features a collection of cartoons and posters right out of a Marxist’s scrapbook. It seems none of the artists would admit that the D3’s problems arose out of weakness, not power.
Ditching 5,000 white collar employees means that a whole lot of know-how got thrown out the door. That large of a wholesale firing doesn’t allow for selectively “pruning dead wood”. Chaos is to be expected.
I didn’t post the video as an endorsement of the images, I just wanted to give the song a shout-out. It’s funny, and it also points out that Chrysler’s been here before. How many bailouts does one company get?
Also, sometimes its good to just laugh at the situation.
Chrysler still using the 5,000 number huh? “Unnamed sources” say almost 8,000. Ok somewhere in the middle but greater than 5,000.
Well, I thought it was funny. But then again I kept imagining the Three Stooges taking the place of the Three…. um…. CEO’s at the Congressional Hearings.
Congressman Dingell: “Will you guarantee the American taxpayer that you will be a good steward of their money.”
Curly Nardelli: “Soy-tenly!!! Nyuk! Nyuk! Nyuk! I’ll treat dem monies as well as my corporate jet! Hey, Sinatah! How’d ya like that Viper and that cocktail party we threw for ya!
Dingelldork: Aahhh… Mr. Nardelli, We are LIVE!
Curly: Woo! Woo! Woo! WOO! (Starts smacking his face and barking like a rabid dog, Curly Nardelli style)
Ed’s right. You gotta laugh… and start shorting the dollar.
The Chrysler that is asking for money today, though, is a different company than the one that asked for money under Iaccoca. There was a profitable company, then Bob Eaton, then being repeatedly bashed in the head by Daimler, and finally a sale to a heartless private equity company in there.
I firmly believe that if the Chrysler of the 90’s had decided to go on a quality and durability rampage instead of running away from their mess and into the arms of Daimler, they would be pointing and laughing at GM and Ford right now as they groveled at the feet of Congress.
They had the hard part down: The designs. Just about every car they bloody made in the 90’s was a hit… Until people actually started buying them and realized how cheaply made they were. Designing takes creativity. Better quality is just using better materials and examining your own work. Not hard at all.
But, they didn’t do that, so here we are.
“Chrysler spokeswoman MaryBeth Halprin:
There is certainly in this first week without 5,000 employees a transition taking place, …”
Well, at least she’ll have a job after C11. With outstanding sentence construction like that, she has a future writing mock-Shakespearean plays.
Had to read it three times to get the gist. Perhaps saying “with 5,000 fewer employees” might make some sense, if the sentence weren’t back to front and inside out in any case. PR talk. Rubbish from beginning to end. Up is down, down is up and all is brilliantly blue in the world.
Does he really think Chrysler’s situation is consistent with his world view that all-powerful corporations enrich themselves by abusing labor and consumers?
Actually, yes. If you think about it, a select number of very wealthy people are, or already have, made out like bandits before driving the economic truck into a brick wall, and are now making hay off the cure.
Look, it may sound rhetorical and, yes, more than a little bit Marxist, but it doesn’t mean it isn’t actually happening. Very rich people get richer, poor people stay poor and the middle class gets gutted. If you don’t think it isn’t happening, you’re living in very fortunate circumstances.
wmba:
Halprin is taking a course in “Weasel Words 101” and is being tutored in “Advanced Corpocracy 301” by Nardelli himself.