<p>This is wrong on so many levels, I don’t even know where to begin.</p>
<p>UAW members took a pay cut averaging upwards of $25,000 a year ($28/hour to $12 & $14/hour) and will be paying steeply higher insurance costs. </p>
<p>GM just agreed to pay $200 million in bail-out costs.</p>
<p>And the man “leading” American Axle gets $15.7 million for the year … with $8.5 million of that a bonus for getting the UAW concessions.</p>
<p>Of course, Dauch’s family does not actually live in the real world. Dauch’s son recently left AA’s top management ranks for a lucrative position elsewhere … but another Dauch son joined the top ranks at AA around the same time. In other words, s***s to be you … be hey, I’m okay.</p>
<p>This is small compared to other cases where the shareholders and workers were left with nothing, but executives pocketed everything. Some executives even even borrowed from banks in the companies name to finance their compensations. Compensation should be tied to company performance; if you make more money for the company you are paid more, if you don’t make money for the company you are paid less. </p>
<p>These people should pray that I don’t ever get selected to the SEC.</p>
<p>I thought making a profit is part of his job, so the company lost a huge sum of money under his watch, instead of getting fired, he cut workers and reduce wages and now get a big fat bonus when it should be all a part of his job ? ??!!!</p>
<p>The board must be in his pocket and he is an extremely good salesman.</p>
<p>Boards are supposed to be independent. Else they get sued nowadays for not being vigilant enough to look after shareholder’s interests enough. Don’t know who is supposed to look after the interests of joe worker though, wait, I forgot, it’s the unions.</p>
<p>BTW - John McCain has said that he would take measures to make CEO’s accountable. That very topic was addressed in the most recent commercial I saw. You know McCain hates this kind of corruption; I’m encouraged that McCain would try to do something about this sort of thing - He’d be shouting Dauch’s name from the rooftops and few would try to continue to get away w/ such behavioir.</p>
<p>Yep, munchkin, it is the unions and they do a pretty good job of it, particularly given the current state of the law which is skewed heavily towards business and against workers and those seeking to represent the interests of workers. </p>
<p>For example, if an impasse is reached in negotiations, an employer is permitted to impose its “final offer”, no matter how outrageous and unfair it is, and the workers have no recourse but to go on strike. But if they go on strike, they can’t get unemployment compensation benefits and the law permits the employer to permanently replace the workers so that they have no jobs to come back to. When it is suggested that a system of “interest arbitration” be created in which an outside expert would hold hearings and decide what is fair in a contract, it is employers that always refuse. In fact, employers have no legal obligation to even participate in contract mediation with the Federal mediation and Conciliation Service.</p>
<p>If workers want to be represented by a union, an employer is allowed to have “captive audience” meetings with employees during the work day where scare tactics are used to influence workers not be be union represented. But the unions who have been asked to represent employees are not even allowed on the open air employee parking lots to talk to employees about their concerns and issues.</p>
<p>And if a union is successful in negotiating a contract with a decent living wage, a pension and affordable health insurance for a worker and the workers family, the public excoriates the “greedy union and workers” while corporate executives get away with murder in their compensation packages.</p>
<p>Until there is a change in the legislative climate, until there is a change in the executive branch that controls the appointment of the members and heads of the agencies that are supposed to protect workers, like the National Labor Relations Board, until our government and public opinion are no longer pro-business and anti-worker, the kinds of abuses that the OP described will continue.</p>
<p>We have something that hits a lot closer to home: the student loan industry. There are articles on a UBS insider that sold his personal stake and the company stake in Student Loan auction-rate securities because he knew that they would tank. These were sold as cash equivalents to their own clients.</p>
<p>These people that work in banking that make a ton of money have to take it from someone else. I know that there are a lot of high-school students that are interested in IB because it pays so well but I wonder if they understand that it has to come from somewhere.</p>
<p>Shouting their name from the rooftops doesn’t seem to do much. Look at Mozillo - he seems to be pretty shameless to me. Some folks have been living with a seared conscience for quite some time.</p>
<p>^^ Yeah, but if the POTUS calls you out (maybe in The State of the Union Address), it might have some effect. McCain is just irrascible enough to DO that!</p>
<p>This is an example of wanting to have it both ways. Republican administrations tend to support big business and give those businesses free rein and plenty of tax incentives to focus on profits. Those businesses don’t owe a duty to anyone but their shareholders. Part of being business friendly is being labor unfriendly since the labor unions’ duty is to the workers. Therefore, you support big business by gutting labor unions. That is the situation we have today. Now, do we really expect those same big business supporters to tell the companies what they can’t and can pay their leaders? Whether we find it distasteful or not, this guy did his job - his job was to fight the unions and cut costs and the government has made that extraordinarily easy to do. The most that has been discussed is to give the shareholders a say in what these guys are paid. McCain may support that now but he hasn’t in the past.</p>
<p>I understand layoffs and cutbacks to remain competitive and all that. I don’t get that the pain is not shared evenly and the person who is supposedly at least partly responsible for the company not doing well is REWARDED for cutting the benefits of others. </p>
<p>That board is giving the message that they have no money to pay joe worker’s insurance/wages, but found $13 + million BONUS for the head honcho. </p>
<p>ETA: I disagree with the previous post that a CEO’s job is to cut costs - his job is to MAKE MONEY which means either increasing revenue or cutting costs, preferably the former. That guy lost money last year.</p>
<p>“Yeah, but if the POTUS calls you out (maybe in The State of the Union Address), it might have some effect. McCain is just irrascible enough to DO that!”</p>
<p>Mozilo has been all over the news with his links to politicians already. Do you really think that he cares? Do you think that the top guys at Enron, WorldCom, Global Crossing, care about shareholders, customers, vendors, etc? Everyone else is just an income stream. For your next bonus. Or stock option grant. For those that aspire to go into management, could you handle laying off your employees? How about thousands of your employees? You have to be able to turn your heart off to be able to do something like that.</p>
<p>Shame as a social engineering tool is pretty worthless today.</p>
<p>Guess they watched “Wall Street” (Greed is good) too many times.</p>
<p>Y’know, I don’t mind CEO’s, etc. making lots of $$$; it’s when that is accompanied by massive layoffs & salary cuts for the avg. workers that it’s so despicable.</p>
<p>This is when I hope there really is a hell.</p>
<p>I think that it depends on who you thought was the hero. I suppose that some could have considered Gecko the hero and some could have considered Bud the hero.</p>
<p>munchkin, I agree completely that his job is to make money, but in the particular situation the company was in, his job was to get the company through the labor negotiation. Axle has downsized drastically in the last decade. The company has moved much of its manufacturing to Mexico and will likely expand there. The workers blame NAFTA. The companies blame the UAW.</p>
<p>I agree with munchkin. I don’t dispute that cost cutting is a necessary evil. However, I absolutely feel that the pain needs to be felt across the board. I guess I have this idea in my mind that everyone should play fair … silly me. </p>
<p>I have a very good friend who is a high level executive in the auto industry. He makes ridiculous amounts of money … and my H, an engineer in the same company, keeps getting back-door pay cuts in the form of benefit cuts with no corresponding pay increases … at the same time as he is doing the job of what used to be many more employees. We fully understand the need to make changes … but we would be a lot more comfortable with our declining lifestyle if we didn’t know that they guys at the top just keep getting more & more. It’s not like the guys at the top are the only ones doing work that benefits the company. In my perfect world, everyone would feel the pain equally.</p>
<p>Oops, that was meant to be tongue in cheek, but it’s bound to come across as offensive. Sorry to those I’ve offended.</p>
<p>Let me actually answer the question. I went to school with quite a few people who ARE CEOs of large corporations. My H & I chose a path that did not lead to fancy jobs & riches, but led to us being very happy. We did not pursue the path to the top, because we are not comfortable with doing what it takes to get there (we hate moving, for one!). Not everyone wants to be the top dog at a major corporation. That does not preclude us from commenting on their performance … particularly when one of us has a pension plan that includes stock in the offending CEO’s corporation.</p>
<p>I think that the other stuff is far more of an issue. I’ve worked at corporate headquarters and have been put in uncomfortable positions by management before and I think that you have to check some of your morals at the door to work at the upper levels of large corporations. One can get a lot of satisfaction at building a product and seeing it ship to customers.</p>
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