OK, I'm reposting this letter simply because I couldn't get the archive link to the original post to work.  Bleh.

OK, I put pen to paper (really, fingers to keyboard), and fired off a letter to Steve Miller, CEO of Delphi Corporation.  As well as sending it to the NY Times, Washington Post, LA Times, Detroit Free Press, and a couple of other people.  It won't make a damn bit of difference, but it did make me feel better...

Dear Mr. Miller,

As you have been straightforward with your employees to this point, please allow me to be straightforward with you as well.  I took the time the other day to read the opening day presentation that was presented to the bankruptcy court outlining the reasons Delphi was forced to file for Chapter 11.  I didn’t find any references to the accounting scandal that cost this company in excess of $4.7 billion.  I was more than slightly disheartened to find that the majority of Delphi’s financial ills are being blamed on our uncompetitive labor agreements.  I find this, in some ways, to be very deceptive.  Let me explain.

It’s been said that when you know better, you do better.  I believe a very good argument could be made that if our unions had a true financial picture of Delphi when our last contracts were negotiated, we could have taken steps to prevent this current debacle.  It would have been irresponsible to negotiate for today, if we truly had a picture of what jeopardy tomorrow was in. 

Many locals, in fact, have competitive hiring agreements in place.  I, myself, was hired under such an agreement.  The unions have, in many cases, readily cooperated with management to reduce costs and keep our business viable.  So to portray the cancer that is eating away at Delphi’s viability to be the unionized work force, is a sham.  We were never given the opportunity to truly bargain in good faith, and with good information.

If the unions are to be held accountable for accepting generous labor contracts, then management should bear responsibility of offering them when they knew they could ill afford them.  Someone had to know what kind of financial shape Delphi was in long before this year.

These beliefs that I hold, however, do not change our current situation.  This bus has truly been driven off into the ditch, and your first key to righting the ship is to impoverish the hourly workforce whose sacrifices built this company to the giant that it is today.  That is, sir, just a bit of a slap in the face.    

To suggest slashing someone’s pay in excess of 60%, eliminating benefits and thousands of jobs in the process, is, well, more than “fairly dramatic”, as you put it.  Perhaps such monumental proposals would be easier to bear if there were hope of bringing new business to these areas with the savings created by the cuts, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. 

To the objective observer, one might think that the ultimate plan would be to eliminate all domestic production and reap the whirlwind overseas.  I’m not too sure myself, but it seems more likely than not.  It was the profits made here that allowed Delphi to create its vast global empire. 

I read somewhere that have said that you are aware of the stress these kinds of developments can create, and want to try to “soften the blow” to the affected employees.  How, exactly, does one soften the blow of devastating the standard of living that it has taken a lifetime to create?  To be brutally honest, once you leave Delphi, you can return to your semi-retirement in Oregon, a wealthy man.  Should we successfully emerge from Chapter 11, what’s left of the United States work force will be leaner, more productive, but much poorer. 

It is heartbreaking to me that tens of thousands of my fellow hourly employees are in the same state of mind that I find myself in.  We are scared.  We find ourselves hanging on to the empty shells of what our dreams for the future used to be.  The atmosphere that is created by this uncertainty in our workplace is nothing short of toxic.  You urge us to keep our customers first in our thoughts and continue to produce world-class quality products.  We’re doing it, but it is becoming increasingly difficult. 

If the reality that “life is going to be different” isn’t already too much for many of us to bear, we must also bear your insults in the media.  You speak of us as though we were ignorant, robotic human assets that aren’t worth the wage we’re being paid.  I take great offense to that.  Many hourly employees have taken advantage of countless hours of training made available to us.  I am personally certified as a Six Sigma Green Belt (manufacturing), as well as one of our location’s hourly trainers for the IUE-Delphi Quality Network Problem Solving.  All of these programs are intended to make our employees more efficient.

In closing, Mr. Miller, I would like to thank you for taking the time to read my letter.  I doubt anything I have said will change the course of what is to come, but at least I will know that I have had the chance to speak my mind.  You cannot realistically say that we are the bane of Delphi’s financial existence.  Nor can you say that bankrupting tens of thousands of union employees is the cure.

Thank you for your time,

Spencemo

Delphi Packard Plant 15