amvaugha is immaculate: blog 
it's called free speech- i'll say whatever i want!
ford ceo will work for $1
Published Dec. 2, 2008
WASHINGTON - Ford Motor Co. is asking Congress for a $9 billion “stand-by line of credit” to stabilize its business, but says it doesn’t expect to tap it.
Unless one of Detroit’s other Big Three auto companies goes bust, Ford expects to have enough money to make it through next year without government help, it said in a plan that projected the firm will break even or turn a pretax profit in 2011.
Detroit’s automakers, making a second bid for $25 billion in funding, are presenting Congress with plans Tuesday to restructure their ailing companies and provide assurances that the funding will help them survive and thrive.
General Motors Corp., Ford and Chrysler LLC said they would refinance their companies’ debt, cut executive pay, seek concessions from workers and find other ways of reviving their staggering companies.
The Big Three executives also are offering a series of mostly symbolic moves to burnish their images, badly tattered after they arrived in Washington D.C. last month on three separate private jets to plead for a federal lifeline for their struggling companies. All three companies offered separate plans for hearings that will be held Thursday and Friday.
That approach the auto executives took last month led Democratic congressional leaders to declare they didn’t come prepared to justify their pleas and they told them to go back home and ready a new plan.
This week, the automakers are going out of their way to show deference to lawmakers and a willingness to flog themselves for past mistakes. “I think we learned a lot from that experience,” Ford CEO Alan Mulally told The Associated Press in an interview.
Mulally said he’d work for $1 per year if his firm had to take any government loan money. The company’s plan also says it will cancel all management employees’ 2009 bonuses, scrap merit increases for its North American salaried employees next year, and sell its five corporate aircraft.
And for this week’s appearances here, all three company chiefs will skip the lavish travel arrangements. Mulally is coming by car from Detroit for this week’s second round of congressional hearings on government help for the Big Three. GM Chief Rick Wagoner will drive a Chevrolet Malibu hybrid sedan for the 520-mile trek from Detroit to Capitol Hill, spokesman Tony Cervone said Tuesday. And Chrysler LLC CEO Robert Nardelli won’t travel by corporate jet, but a spokeswoman declined to elaborate on his travel plans, citing security reasons.
*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*Well thank goodness for these guys. I mean how difficult must it be to have to sell all 5 private jets. And to drive from Detroit to D.C., Oh the humanity! I mean I don't know what I would do if I had to ride that far in a car. We need to thank our lucky stars for such selfless men like these. I know i'm thankful.
*Sarcasm over*
GIVE ME A BREAK!!! Again you're pizzing on my head and expecting me to say, "Thanks for the rain." These people make me sick
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I think if you actually looked into it, you'd find that Mulally's one of the smart ones who was gifted at both engineering and management whilst at Boeing (one of his main accomplishments was the first all-digital flight deck for 757/767 and commonality between the types allowed the first dual-certification for pilots to qualify on both types simultaneously).
Unlike most corporations, you don't get the Boeing Commerical Airplanes CEO job if you're a loser. And you certainly don't get serious consideration as a potential Boeing CEO if you're not absolutely top-notch (considering who else had that job...legends like William Allen and T Wilson!).
Unlike Waggoner (ego!) and Nardelli (angel of death who nearly killed Home Depot), Mulally tends to take a very reasoned approach to problem solving and really turned Ford around when he arrived in 2006.
If he thinks he won't need the bailout money, I'd be inclined to believe him.
December 2, 2008 4:18 p.m.
Probably about all he's worth.
Now to get all the execs to deny their bonuses...I mean how can one qualify for a bonus when the company's in the red anyway? Must be that new math.
God bless.
Rev. RB
GOLO member since July 2, 2007
December 2, 2008 4:07 p.m.
GOLO member since September 17, 2008
December 2, 2008 4:03 p.m.
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The union bosses and their surrogates in Congress have made it perfectly clear they're not interested in being a willing part of the solution.
They still want an impact wrench driver to pull down $70K+ plus outrageous benefits when the market clearly does not value those skills that much.
The only thing I've seen that even comes close to a "concession" is a willingness to defer a pension contribution (but not eliminate it!) and to talk about the travesty called "the job bank" where people contributing ZERO to productivity are pulling down a full pay voucher.
That's why I'm thinking the union should not get a vote on this one. They should be thrown out on their heads and reasonable compensation agreed.
December 2, 2008 3:59 p.m.
Well now, that's mighty white of him.......
GOLO member since March 14, 2008
December 2, 2008 3:56 p.m.
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The devil is in the details though. Mulally may well agree $1 in base salary but if compensation isn't computed to account for the stock options and other bennies that don't directly show on the pay voucher, the $500K "limit" is an utter joke. Using his last year's pay as an example, he'd still earn $19M in deferred income!
That being said, he's at least one who seems to have a more viable plan than GM or Chrysler going "give us the money".
Too bad he won't be allowed to eviscerate the union contracts that are just killing his expenses and don't allow him to compete with the Japanese.
Wanna bet that any agreement that allows the union to survive will ensure that the union bosses keep their full pay and the workers get screwed?
Any takers?
December 2, 2008 3:55 p.m.
December 2, 2008 3:53 p.m.
You can also thank unions pumping up Joe Autoworkers salaries as well. It isn't just the big boys making all the dough.
December 2, 2008 3:49 p.m.
also, regarding their bonuses, if these bailouts are structured similar to the financial industry bailout, the companies will receive decent penalties for executive compensation in excess of $500 thousand.
i'm not taking up for these guys 100%, i believe they have lived in excess. i will tell you this though, i would not want the ceo of a company i invested in wasting his time driving 500 or so miles in a malibu. he has more important things to focus his time on, and he needs to be in a more secure environment.
GOLO member since March 31, 2008
December 2, 2008 3:40 p.m.
GOLO member since July 7, 2007
December 2, 2008 3:33 p.m.
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