I'm not a fan of Michael Moore, but I liked his 1989 movie "Roger and Me". It showed how out of touch the management of General Motors had become just as the Japanese automakers were turning up the heat. Now Mr. Moore has lashed out against GM again, this time for its announcement that it would close more plants and lay off additional workers...
"GM has turned the American dream into an American nightmare," he's quoted as saying on a radio talk show in Michigan. He right to some degree, but laying all the blame on the management team is just as stupid as saying it's all the UAW's fault. GM should have been building better cars a long time ago, but the UAW should have seen the writing on the wall too. By sticking to its unrealistic pay and benefits package, the UAW only made GM's mistakes that much harder to correct. Digging in and fighting for wages that they knew couldn't be sustained just prolonged the inevitable. I would be interested to hear Micheal Moore's plan for a revival at GM. It would probably include something about building more desirable cars and nothing about bringing down the cost of making them. It would be another American nightmare, it would just take him longer to wake up from it.
ateixeira says:
10:18 AM, 11/23/05
I really don't think he's qualified to judge exactly what went wrong and how to fix it. GM is an easy target I guess.
easym1 says:
04:52 PM, 11/23/05
I believe that one big problem for GM is the perception of reliability. People are willing to pay more as long as they don't suffer repair cost and the hazzle of going back to the dealership over and over for repair. It's not worth the headache. On the other hand, the perception on Japanese car are good quality and a bang for your dollar. GM and other North American manufacturer will have to prove that the car they produce are at par if not better than the Japanese manufacturer...and these will take time...One good example is Hyundai and Kia. In the early days, they produce garbage. They were able to sell their next genaration by assuring buyers's that this time it is better...How did they prove that? They gave everyone up to 10 years warranty and 100,000km...Most people took their chance knowing that they don't have to face humongous cost of repair in 10 years and some don't even plan to keep it for that lenght of time.. Because of that, many buyers bacame return client. Not only Hyundai and Kia proved reliability, they end up attracting more buyers who would are normally buying Japanese..
pf_flyer says:
07:06 AM, 11/27/05
Moore is 100% pro-union and that's all well and good. I'm sure had he been around back in the day, he would have fought just as hard for those folks who had been making buggy whips and who were being forced out of work by the changing market conditions.
jtelesky says:
04:55 PM, 11/27/05
Michael Moore is as political as the rest of them; he uses shock to get attention...no more no less.