[lbo-talk] Junkyard dog hits Motown

[Russell Grinker]

There's a long and sordid history of labour movement attempts to buy up rust
bucket engineering and car companies in an attempt to save jobs. There was
the infamous Triumph Meriden workers' coop in Coventry that tried to run the
bankrupt Triumph works and failed. It seems clear that what capital can't
succeed in doing under market conditions is hardly a job for labour. Coop
members ultimately just end up cutting their own wages and conditions until
things go belly up anyway. 

Back on the subject of why American car companies are moribund: did they not
go the same way as old Brit industry, preferring to play the financial
markets rather than innovate? Interestingly, here in SA, GM's cutting edge
products are all Korean (and compact) these days. You hardly see a large
American car or pickup (apart from Daimler Chrysler's Jeeps and a few 
Mpvs - but their factory is in the town where I live). Japanese and Korean
SUVs and pickups have however got much bigger. Long gone are the days of
huge farmers in tiny Nissan 1400 pickups. And now cheap Indian-made
vehicles, including their own SUVs, are starting to make inroads here.

-----Original Message-----
From: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org [mailto:lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org]
On Behalf Of Wojtek Sokolowski
Sent: 16 May 2007 04:01 PM
To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Junkyard dog hits Motown

Doug:

I really don't know what I'd do were I in their shoes. I've never  
gotten a good answer out of labor radicals, who can't get more  
specific than "resist!"

[WS:] Yeah, the radicals seem to be stuck in a rut.  But if you want out of
the box thinking - why did not the union buy the share of the damned thing?
It was sold cheaply.  Or bargain for stock options - which would give them
at least some say about company policy - or at least more than making a
ruckus in the streets.

Wojtek

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