Sunday, May 24, 2015

Sergio to Mary: One World Car Company, Baby!

That Italian rascal!

We sometimes suspected there is a shared secret desire to form a One World Government Car Company.

(Of course, the prophecy news is proclaimed printed on Pentecost Sunday!)

This calls for interpreters in case the foreign tongues aren't understood.

But what about the statement: "end the current two-tier wage system by phasing out the top wage rate as veteran employees retire?"

Whoa!  No matter the tongue, that's something there's no need to interpret.   'Top wage rate' is crystal clear to everyone in any tongue.   PB
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From the New York Times:

In the middle of March, Mary T. Barra, the chief executive of General Motors, received a lengthy and unusual email from one of her direct competitors, Sergio Marchionne.

Ms. Barra had never met Mr. Marchionne, the C.E.O. of Fiat Chrysler Automobiles.

And she was in no way expecting their first contact to be an offer to discuss a potential blockbuster of a merger.

The email, according to two people with knowledge of it and reported for the first time here, laid out in detail how global carmakers needed to consolidate to save money and suggested that a combination of G.M. and Fiat Chrysler could cut billions of dollars in costs and create an automotive superpower...

“I think it is absolutely clear that the amount of capital waste that’s going on in this industry is something that certainly requires remedy,” he said.

A remedy in our view is through consolidation.”

It’s not often that a chief executive announces to the world that his company is eager to find a merger partner.

Some might even consider it a sign of weakness and, in fact, F.C.A.’s stock dropped about 10 percent over the next two days.

Rather than rally support, Mr. Marchionne’s passionate appeal only highlighted the difficulties that lie ahead for Fiat Chrysler...

Mr. Marchionne also appears headed for a confrontation with union leaders in this summer’s contract negotiations because of F.C.A.’s rampant hiring of lower-paid workers.

Alone among auto chiefs, he wants to end the current two-tier wage system by phasing out the top wage rate as veteran employees retire...
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Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/24/business/detroits-chief-instigator.html?

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