Wednesday, March 16, 2005

Leaders who flip-flop will slip in market, get the ax, or both

By Daniel Howes / The Detroit News

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What's next on the "ready-shoot-aim" parade -- General Motors decreeing that it won't sell cars and trucks to any soldier or sailor who drove a Toyota or voted for John Kerry?

GM, of course, is not that dumb. Insulting customers and impugning their private political expression, especially those serving the country in wartime, is no way to make a sale, reverse sliding market share or build good will -- even with many union members.

Perhaps GM Chairman Rick Wagoner should tell that to United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger, whose only wise move in barring "politically incorrect" Marines from a UAW parking lot was admitting he was wrong, badly in fact.

Gettelfinger's reversal notwithstanding, the self-inflicted damage to the UAW's reputation is done. How does it credibly persuade Toyota workers in Kentucky, many of whom probably voted Bush-Cheney like the rest of Kentucky, to vote UAW?

Not very easily. Might as well end the local organizing campaign and call it quits.

In trying to stiff the Marines, the union signaled that its petty political concerns trump the needs of the armed forces, the sanctity of the voting booth and the monthly sales of the companies that employ most of its members.

As much as the Bush-bashing UAW's "no-foreign-brands-here" dogma resonates in Big Three communities, GM, Ford and Chrysler would be hurt first by any personal boycotts over the UAW-Marines fracas, and UAW members would be hit second.

Nor does it say much good about the state of leadership around here that Gettelfinger is only the latest prominent leader to issue a bone-headed policy and then be forced to recant it after a furious public backlash fueled by talk radio and the Internet.

Gov. Jennifer Granholm wouldn't honor the state's commitment to pay $500 scholarships to high school graduates because the state couldn't afford it, because it was a John Engler promise and because the state couldn't find the families.

Then, faced with a political brouhaha and evidence that those families could be "found," she flipped, just like she did on displaying the Ten Commandments in public buildings. Her pattern: Flip. Backlash. Flop.

Or there's Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his red Lincoln Navigator. No, he said, the city didn't spend $25,000 amid a wrenching budget crisis on a one-year lease for the family ride. Then it did.

If this is what passes for leadership, these leaders are increasingly out of touch with those they're supposed to lead. They look poorly informed, poorly counseled (if counselable at all) and more interested in issuing decrees like modern-day Caesars.

In business, CEOs who act that way sooner or later get shown the door by their directors, get a swift whack from the markets, or both.

In politics and Big Labor, the bosses tend to treat last week's screw-up as old news. They retool and move on, hoping the voters (and, yes, union members are first and foremost "voters") forget, and they convince themselves that prominent flip-flops are evidence of sober judgment.

No, they just got caught.

Daniel Howes' column appears Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays. He can be reached at (313) 222-2106 or dchowes@detnews.com.