Evil Boeing CEO brags to analysts about his "cowering employees."

[pnwmom]

He's apologized now for his "joke." But he's really apologizing for telling the truth. This is exactly the way he and the rest of top management, most drawn from the "failed" McDonnell Douglas, view the rest of the company.

They're involved in another round of layoffs, this time eliminating the jobs of thousands of experienced, Seattle-based, graduate-level engineers (the STEM jobs everyone is supposed to aim for), so they can hire replacements, 40% of whom will be brand-new graduates, in non-union states.

http://seattletimes.com/html/businesstechnology/2024163557_machinistsmcnerneyxml.html

Boeing CEO Jim McNerney apologized Friday in a companywide message for telling analysts this week that he won’t retire after turning 65 next month because “the heart will still be beating, the employees will still be cowering.”

McNerney’s message called the remark, made Wednesday at the end of a conference call about the company’s quarterly results, “a joke gone bad.”

The comment incensed many workers, and the company’s unions were quick to pounce on it.

Machinists union international president Tom Buffenbarger issued a statement Friday decrying the “unfunny and unnecessary remarks” as a “reminder that the Jack Welch style of anti-personnel management is still alive and well at Boeing.”

SNIP

[Tetris_Iguana]

1. Disgusting

If the board had any sense, they would force him to retire.

The prick.

[pnwmom]

2. They all agree with him, so they won't. n/t

[Brickbat]

3. This par for the course with large companies like this now.

[valerief]

4. The 99% aren't humans to these narcissists. nt

[HughBeaumont]

5. Talking strictly salary . . .

McNerney makes
$75,769.23 Per Day
$9,471.15 Per Hour
$157.85 Per Minute

Enough . . . . . .. . . . . . . is never enough.

The wage is never low enough, executive compensation never high enough.

But hey UHMerica . . . put yourself into debt so you can either not be hired by this guy or be fired because enough . . .. is never enough.

There is no middle ground. It's either this or the U.S.S.R. At least that's what CNBC and Faux tell us.

[smirkymonkey]

34. Sickening.

What a repulsive excuse for a human being.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

6. Funny how things change,

I was attacked from all sides for being anti-American and anti-union for pointing out McNerney and Mulally were pieces of shit.

[pnwmom]

9. McNerney has never been pro-union so I don't know why you'd be attacked that way. n/t

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

10. Boeing brings out the 'murica in some people

The same thing happened after the GM bailout. Criticizing the jetset lifestyle of deadbeat GM executives was somehow anti-UAW.

[bahrbearian]

7. McDonnell Douglas bought Boeing with Boeings own money.

[KT2000]

8. life inside the bubble

There is a book called "Turbulence" that examined Boeing's tactics to break the workers for financial gain. They devalued loyalty, took away pride in their work and otherwise dismantled Boeing's successful structure.

And he thinks he told a joke - sick asshole.

[pnwmom]

12. Thanks! I'm going to look at that. n/t

[KT2000]

25. Try to get it at the library

as it is very expensive.
Turbulence: Boeing and the State of American Workers and Managers by Edward Greenberg, Leon Grunberg, Sarah Moore, Patricia Skora; Yale University Press; 2010

[pnwmom]

26. Thanks for the details!

[freshwest]

11. What a PIG!

[Brigid]

13. "Anti-personnel management" --

I gotta remember that one.

[DeSwiss]

14. $60,073,915.21 Total Obligated Amount

- All your tax dollars. And counting......

[center]


[/center]

[pnwmom]

15. Thanks!

[DeSwiss]

29. De nada.

Amatorem Veritatis.

[WinkyDink]

16. I wouldn't be joking if I were sending out 777's this summer.

[pnwmom]

17. There are some very unhappy union employees. This was a VERY dumb thing

for McNerny to say, even if it was true.

[NBachers]

18. I'd hate to see some abused disgruntled IT staff pull an anomyous "prank" on this guy.

[pnwmom]

20. Or some disgruntled machinist to pull a "prank" with a new plane. n/t

[NBachers]

22. Yeah, I thought about that, but there are safety issues involved there . . .

[pnwmom]

24. Of course. That's the frightening part. n/t

[greatlaurel]

33. Uhmm, You do realize that every part and work on a plane is tracked very tightly?

These workers are tracked and every action and every part is logged by every person that touches the part or works on the plane, start to finish. The amount of tracking would mean that a whole world of hurt would come down on any person that even looks funny during the manufacture of an aircraft.

These posts are highly insulting to our union brothers and sisters that work on these assembly lines. The production line and engineering people take their jobs very seriously. The people who do not get tracked and held accountable are the sociopaths in upper management where failures are created.

[pnwmom]

36. Sorry. i wasn't trying to insult union workers.

But everyone has their breaking point, even union members.

And we KNOW that things can and have gone wrong with airplane building, no matter how tight the controls are.

[MH1]

30. THIS is why it is so important to the 1% to keep the general economy down.

It's a lot less likely for a disgruntled IT staffer to take that risk with the current state of things.

I was thinking how different things are today than when I entered the job market. Back then, as a veteran, I took for granted a good job offer with full tuition reimbursement, pension, and many other perks. But the company ended up closing that plant. I later moved on. My current company is very thin on these benefits. Why? Because they can get away with it. Even good IT people - and especially those over 45 - find it really hard to move on in the first place, and are unlikely to find a company with great benefits any more anyway.

Also, be aware that companies are very careful who gets assigned to the IT support of their top executives. It would be a major eff-up for anyone who would be likely to do it, to have the ability to easily "prank" this guy as you're suggesting.

[pnwmom]

37. You're right. n/t

[SomeGuyInEagan]

19. 3M regretted him from day one

He did a lot of damage to 3M that they are still dealing with. The guy exhibits the worst qualitities of '80s slash and burn MBA business school mentality, learned at the knee of a even bigger pig, Jack Welch.

[Codeine]

21. Corporate dickbags.

One does long for a bit of the old guillotine, doesn't one?

[magical thyme]

23. what a vile person.

[Initech]

27. One of these days we are going to say enough is enough and rise up against them.

And it won't be pretty.

[Brigid]

32. And they are forgetting something:

Once upon a time, the restless and discontented had an out: emigration to a New World that at least offered some hope of a better life. Now there is no New World to emigrate to -- so guess, dear 1%, what the other option is?

[smirkymonkey]

35. Check out what is going on w/ Market Basket here in New England if you want to see an

example of what can happen when the employees demand their conditions are met for a bit of good news.

The situation is not resolved yet, but it's looking positive for the "good guys"!

[Lunacee_2013]

28. What a prick!

Some people just are not happy until they have almost everything and they bring others down. It's not enough that he has more money now then 99% of us ever will, but he also has to talk about his employees this way? He sounds like a man who is only happy when others are miserable.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

31. Boeing CEO Jim McNerney = Fucking Sociopath.