Ford CEO Alan Mulally announced a plan early in the day to sell corporate jets and take a $1-a-year salary if his company has to tap into a hoped-for $9 billion “standby” federal loan.
GM CEO Rick Wagoner also pledged to pay himself just a dollar.
Reached on Tuesday at his office in Washington, Tester said he was pleased the top brass had got the message, but said much more is needed from Detroit's Big Three before Congress is ready to sign off on another high-priced taxpayer bailout.
Still, he said, the salary is “more than just symbolic. They need to have some skin in the game.”
Tester serves on the Senate Banking Committee. Top brass for the Big Three appealed to his committee two weeks ago for a $25 billion federal package, saying the American auto industry may not be able to weather the ongoing economic storm without help.
When they appeared Nov. 19, all three had come to Washington on private jets, costing “$20,000 just to get here,” Tester said.
Near the end of the four-hour hearing, Tester asked each if they would be willing to follow the lead of then-Chrysler CEO Lee Iacocca, who didn't take more than a dollar in compensation in 1979 when his company needed federal help to survive.
At the time of the hearing, Tester said, the CEOs seemed “wishy-washy” on the idea.
This time, the three CEOs are foregoing air travel altogether and are driving the 520 miles to Washington to Banking Committee hearings this week.
Tester said he is still going over the Ford and GM plans, which were released Tuesday, but he said that asking a Montana taxpayer who earns $35,000 to “bail out the guy who makes seven, eight figures is a non-starter.”
The matter goes before the Banking Committee on Thursday.
Tester, who in October voted against the $700 billion tax bailout of the nation's banking sector, said lawmakers' experience with that federal lifeline has given him some lessons on how an automotive bailout, should one materialize, ought to work.
For one thing, Tester said, it needs to include more federal oversight. The financial bailout package has changed dramatically since lawmakers passed it.
Twenty-five billion dollars “is a lot of dough,” Tester said. “We need to make sure we're not back here in a year” doing it again.
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Pete wrote on Dec 3, 2008 3:05 PM:
" well...that's nice Jon, but it does not solve any problems - it just makes lawmakers that much more inclined to give them billions. Not what I would call a fair trade. "
Robb Brovold wrote on Dec 3, 2008 7:18 PM:
" Facts are facts. The government has absolutely no business going into the private sector. The market should decide who will sink or swim. Isn't that the capitalist model? The market will decide? Evidently not anymore. We are all doomed once the government takes an interest in private sector interests.
I am a Union employee, and I can tell you that the unions these days are more about letting the laziest people make the most money. The Unions used to stand for more than that. I used to be proud to be a union employee, but now I have nothing positive to say about them.
Not all union people are lazy. As I said, I'm a union employee, and I work very hard for my money because the work I do serves the whole community. I look beyond my own self interest to make my community a better place (and take a huge pay-cut over private sector business.)
Buy American or you're only perpetuating the problem. Believe it. "
I am a Union employee, and I can tell you that the unions these days are more about letting the laziest people make the most money. The Unions used to stand for more than that. I used to be proud to be a union employee, but now I have nothing positive to say about them.
Not all union people are lazy. As I said, I'm a union employee, and I work very hard for my money because the work I do serves the whole community. I look beyond my own self interest to make my community a better place (and take a huge pay-cut over private sector business.)
Buy American or you're only perpetuating the problem. Believe it. "
FeeBee wrote on Dec 4, 2008 8:45 AM:
" $1 a year, that's just the ticket to attract competent forward thinking management to the Big 3!!! Tester is a short sighted, knee jerk, union lover who doesn't want to lose those union votes for his Dem brothers and sisters and is protecting the status quo management that has lead to this debacle... "
mike jones wrote on Dec 3, 2008 9:11 AM: