Re: [Amc-list] CHRYSLER SALE

[adh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Sandwich Maker)]

" From: Archimedes <Freedom@xxxxxxxx>
" 
" 
" Joe Gray <Jgray_55@xxxxxxxxx> said:
" 
" >HMMMMM...Maybe it is a fair turn of events...since Chrysler treated AMC so crappy in 87-88??? Hate to see another American company go away though!! But..They DID treat AMC like crapola to be disposed of!
" 
" 
" I'm not sure that's true, in retrospect.  Chrysler kept a lot of AMC
" alive after the buyout.
" 
" What was worth keeping wound up being worth billions to Chrysler, but
" AMC never had the capital to set the ball in motion and get the value
" out of them that Chrysler did.  AMC would never have made any
" breakthough on these things; they simply didn't have the money to make
" them work.  For instance:
" 
" []
" 
" - the 4.0.  This engine was so good for its time that it survived the
" buyout and kept right on powering Jeeps through 2006 - twenty years
" after its basic development was completed.

not to mention it was a freshening of a design almost 25 years old
then.  imho a major reason engines like it and the ford 300 are gone
now is that as flat-tappet pushrod engines they inherently need
high-zinc oil and couldn't easily be reengineered for low zinc.

and don't forget the 2.5, intermediate stage between the 4.0 and
199/232/258.

" I know there are some who won't like the idea, but in a downturn, you
" can't expect to keep getting paid the equivalent of $85 per hour in an
" industry where there are people getting paid $10 to $15 per hour
" elsewhere, and still have a job in a few months.  Autoworkers have
" literally priced their labor so high that their industry has no hope
" of being able to compete.  Line workers are as much to blame for a
" failing industry as the executives.

there is massive antagonism between union and mgmt; cooperation is
virtually impossible.  neither side will give ground willingly for
fear they'll never get it back, even when they're facing a 'prisoner's
dilemma'.

i used to think this was all in the past, as ancient as the auto
unionization riots of the '30s - until i got to bell labs and saw what
happened every time the ibew and cwa contracts with western electric
came up for negotiation.

i thought it was an incredibly stupid idea at the time and i believe
hindsight has proved me right*, but i believe lucent went to an
all-service business model - closing all its factories including the
one i'd been at and shedding about 2/3 of its workforce - primarily
to get out from under union wages.  my group was established in a
commercial building away from the factory at a time when it was
bursting at the seams with business, but we stayed away after space
became available; union rules made it more expensive than where we
were.

*unless the true objective was always to sell lucent off so that
sr. mgmt. would get massive bonuses/buyouts in the process.
________________________________________________________________________
Andrew Hay                                  the genius nature
internet rambler                            is to see what all have seen
adh@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx                       and think what none thought
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