Politics... email sent... XTS built in Oshawa for your dreams...

"Manwich - now Keto-Friendly" (manwich) 11/27/2018 at 20:06 • Filed to: None

2

13

Sent this email to relevant government ministers at the federal and provincial level... as well as the union:

Hello,

I was thinking about the awful news about the closure of the Oshawa, Ontario auto assembly plant.

I was thinking... The Canadian government gave GM lots of money to preserve jobs back in 2009.

Apparently GM still owes the Canadian government $1 billion from the 2009 bailout, no?

Well here’s my idea... the Canadian government should put a lien on GM’s Oshawa property, plant and equipment. And the only way to make it go away would be to keep the plant open... or pay back the money owed.

And if they close it anyway, then they don’t get to profit from the sale of the property or equipment that is on site... unless they want to pay off that loan that was intended to save jobs first.

That way we either keep the plant open or get more money out of GM that can be used to help the workers.

Feel free to use this idea in your fight to keep the plant open.

I wish you all the best.

Regards,

*******

One of the people I emailed was Doug Ford. But since Doug Ford probably runs his office on the stupid-cheap, I got this message back:

Delivery has failed to these recipients or groups:

!!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!!
The recipient’s mailbox is full and can’t accept messages now. Please try resending this message later, or contact the recipient directly.

*****

If the decision to close the plant is reversed, I’m pretty sure that Doofus Doug Ford will have little or nothing to do with it.

Anyway, I’m curious if this idea I have will gain any traction.

Spanfeller is a twat > Manwich - now Keto-Friendly 11/27/2018 at 20:19

5

Hey. Ford.

Since you canceled that huge plant in San Luis Potosi, how about you also pay back all the tax cuts we gave you to build here?

Sincerely,

Mexicans. 

Chariotoflove > Manwich - now Keto-Friendly 11/27/2018 at 20:54

0

I like it.  

The Dummy Gummy > Manwich - now Keto-Friendly 11/27/2018 at 21:18

0

Is the property worth more than a billion? My guess is that it’s not. You’re better off going after in market sales. 

someassemblyrequired > Manwich - now Keto-Friendly 11/27/2018 at 21:24

0

Curious that Ford execs met with Trudeau yesterday, and I’d wager a bet Ford of Canada picking up the pieces was on the agenda .

Manwich - now Keto-Friendly > The Dummy Gummy 11/27/2018 at 21:57

0

I'm not sure what the property is worth. I do believe there is more value to keeping the plant open.  But if that's not gonna happen, well...

The Dummy Gummy > Manwich - now Keto-Friendly 11/27/2018 at 22:18

0

I understand that, but if you’re going to entice use the proper leverage.

Manwich - now Keto-Friendly > The Dummy Gummy 11/27/2018 at 23:32

0

The first priority is to try to preserve the jobs and make cutting the jobs less fiscally palatable.

Collecting the debt is secondary to that.

The Dummy Gummy > Manwich - now Keto-Friendly 11/28/2018 at 08:16

0

You aren’t going to achieve that with a lien on a property that would be less than cutting the people is my point.

Manwich - now Keto-Friendly > The Dummy Gummy 11/28/2018 at 09:00

0

Well I see no reason why it couldn't be done in conjunction with other measures other people think up.

The Dummy Gummy > Manwich - now Keto-Friendly 11/28/2018 at 09:20

0

I don’t think you understand how willing companies are to walk away from properties. But I’m done with this circle.

Manwich - now Keto-Friendly > The Dummy Gummy 11/28/2018 at 10:19

0

No... I understand how companies are willing to walk away from properties. I’ve seen it first hand.

All I’m saying is that if the union and Canadian government fail to have the closure decision reversed, given the debt GM still owes, one of two things should happen:

1. The $1 billion debt meant to help save GM’s ass for the purpose of protecting jobs is to be repaid. But if GM renegs on that, then...

2. The money that comes from selling off the property should go to the government, not GM.  And to make that happen, the government needs to slap a lien on the property.

And the land values Oshawa isn’t like the land values you have in Detroit. It’s likely not $1 billion. But it isn’t Detroit-levels of pocketchange either.

And as I said... this can be done in conjunction with some other lever, like the market sales lever you alluded to. Though I consider using a lever like that potentially much more risky/dangerous in terms of unintended consequences, economically speaking.

Do you want to elaborate on your thinking related to “going after in market sales?”?

You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much > Manwich - now Keto-Friendly 11/28/2018 at 13:58

0

What benefit does it give to anyone to force a company to keep open an unprofitable plant making unprofitable product? You may save the jobs in the short term, but long term you risk bankrupting and shuttering the entire company.

Manwich - now Keto-Friendly > You can tell a Finn but you can't tell him much 11/28/2018 at 14:39

0

Except the company in question is actually quite profitable right now WITH the Canadian and US production in place. It’s really a question of where future product will be allocated.

So what you’re saying doesn’t hold water.

T he “old GM” wasn’t brought down by what you say. It what dragged down the old GM was the huge unfunded pension liability, strategic errors when it came to future product (“fuel economy doesn’t sell!  Nobody wants hybrids!”) and a huge problem of making products that competed with other products it made ( mostly resolved now... except for the Chevy-GMC thing) .