More observations on this automotive/manufacturing crisis.... The latest spin from the news departments reports that the Auto Execs are willing to work for $1/year until the industry recovers.That's good but, where was this attitude back in the 70's when the Japanese were clobbering the industry with well made cheap gas sippers?

Furthmore, what happened to corporate support? If such a thing as the automotive industry crisis were to happen in Japan, there would be reports of mass suicides of corporate executives! Why? The corporate culture is different over there. The management branch of most Japanese companies take their jobs more seriously.Companies like to brag about their corporate culture so much, why doesn't that corporate culture have any leeway toward keeping the culture alive at the expense of the individual at the executive level instead of the current attitude of keeping the culture alive at the expense of the individual at the "bottom" of the corporarte totem pole? Companies and corporations are quick to ferret out workers at management and below that don't produce, why isn't there such a mechanism to eject execs that don't produce? 

Furthermore, the UAW is willing to make some concessions to make the automotive industry more productive. The UAW realizes it's all about jobs for Joe and Josette Blow. They know that if Joe and Josette have jobs, not only will they buy cars, they'll buy houses, furniture, clothes, and refrigerators...which are made by other average Joes & Josettes who will get paid and go and buy ...cars! 

The Exeutive branches of the automotive industry has had a bizarre relationship with the people that make the cars since Henry Ford in the 30s. While it is true that Henry Ford started out with good ideas and happy workers the company really started making money, management lost touch with what life was like down at the plant... unions were formed to protect workers that had been mistakenly been treated like the machinery they worked on!

Monopolistic atttitudes permeated the major manufacturing bases in this country... and when people complained enough change was made, but none of those changes affected the mindset of management, especially at the excecutive level!

(Personally, I think that every group of CEO's, CFOs and executive PIA's that run major corporations should rotate out of those offices and hit the production floor for six week shifts, to experience what the blue collars or non management workers experience. And the executive types should have to do this as part of their employment contracts! It should be part of their golden parachute clause... "to receive X amonunt in compensation, one must work X number of hours in customer service, manufacturing, ... etc)

Maybe after having experienced how executive attitudes affect the production floor, changes would be made as far as the execution of business decisions that affect workers, like production quotas, or the effect of outsourcing for parts and materials, Something to think about....