I don’t think that GM and Ford can scale back. Because I thought per union contracts, if they idle plants, they still need to pay people.
I wish though if they do idle a plant, they would make a rule to have those folks idled to be doing something like either
1) get retraining
or
2) do some community service
Toyota started doing this. When they started idling plants in the U.S., they paid people to go do community service and or get retrained while the retool the plant for other productions.
The theme that constantly happens is the GM/Ford is cutting non-union, salaried workers. That usually means brass that is doing design, technology, and product improvement. That’s not good for GM/Ford’s future. I’m sort of sad to see this, because for awhile, I thought they were finally going to turn around. They’re product mix isn’t that bad (at least where they wanted to go with stuff). Now there’s things perculating that the Chevy Volt is put on hold (I guess because of the lower gas prices).
That’s the problem with all automakers. They really aren’t commited to alternative fuels. The moment oil/gas takes a nosedive, it’s not gonna be good for these alternatives…Automakers are going to stop investing in alternative energy stuff.
