Former Chrysler CEO Bob Nardelli on UAW strike

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This season is a 15. I totally believe in you. Shark Tank premieres tonight on ABC and stream on Hulu. With us right now is the guy who knows all about this industry, former CEO of Chrysler and Home Depot, Bob Martinelli, and the founder and CEO of XLR8 LLC. Bob, welcome back. Brian, thank you for having me on, and it's great to be on with the hardest working guy in media. Thank you. If you consider this work, I'll accept it, but it's fun.

But I'd love to talk to guys like you about things that matter most. For example, can you make heads or tails of why these men and women are on picket lines? Who do you side with? Well, it's not a matter of siding with either one, Brian, to be honest with you. First, let me say I fully appreciate the need for household income to try to keep up with inflation.

Yep. But the irony of this is the inflation is being created by the Biden administration. And then you got Chairman Powell trying to put it out with a hammer that's killing the middle market companies. So that's point number one. Point number two, Brian, let me just share with you, having lived through this before, a scenario.

What's going to happen? Our consumers are going to be very leery of buying any one of the big three cars. They'll be very leery of even ordering a big three car because they're not sure when they'll get it or what the quality will be when it's produced. That's point number one. Point number two, it's not 146,000 people out of work potentially with the UAW.

It's one to 10. So you've got a potential 1.4 million people out of work through the supplier network. Then you've got thousands of dealers, independent dealers, in every community that are going to suffer. They're going to have a hard time selling cars.

You can see they're now going online, trying to sell them in retail. And what the current announcement about shutting down the parts distribution, but not Ford's, and I'll explain that to you. You're going to be putting mechanics out of work because people aren't going to be able to get their car fixed. I ran through this in 07, eight, nine when the financial institutions melted down. And then finally, President Obama, Larry Summers and Steve Ratner recognized, wow, if we lose the auto industry, the economy in the United States is in the tank. And they had to come to you and find a way to save you guys, right?

Correct. Yes, they did. And in some cases it was overcapitalizing General Motors and then forcing us to do a deal with Fiat after we had just spent $7.5 billion to buy Chrysler back, reestablish it as a legendary company here in the United States. And then basically the Obama administration gave that entire business away free, not a dollar, to Fiat.

It's nuts and it still makes no sense and doesn't get enough scrutiny. Having said that, do you understand when the auto workers come out and say, we gave away too much in 08, including our pensions, and now you guys are doing better and we want more. Do you understand that?

Is that accurate? Well, we had no choice. I mean, I was blessed to have Ron Gettelfinger as the president of the UAW who understood the severity of the situation where we were trying to save the big three. And we cooperated and had open book discussions and private discussions, not like this new president that wants to be a media mogul here, but potentially doing his announcement at 10 o'clock today online.

And we tried to keep the privacy of the negotiations and not try to negotiate in the media, Brian. So what happened was, yes, we had to do some things. We had to get rid of pensions. We couldn't afford, in the case of GM, $55 billion, and that was transferred over to Aviva so the union could manage healthcare costs. Yes, we did go to a two-tier system.

Should a new employee without the skills be paid the same as an employee next to them? So we had a graduated program. We got rid of the job bank from the standpoint of people could get 95% of their wages, reading a book in a cafeteria, and basically turning down every job. We were able to get at least three strikes and you're out.

If you turn down three, then you lose that benefit. I mean, it was a plethora of benefits that we tried to clean up over and above wages. So having said that, do you think the president helped things by hopping on the picket line? And you talk about this guy, Fain. I don't know much about him. I'm not impressed with him. And I know too he's a big Bernie Sanders guy.

This guy's a socialist. Well, let's face it. He was elected on some very bold and overreaching commitments to his rank and file. He now is under tremendous pressure to deliver. So what we're seeing, Brian, is a separation and stronger polarization, both between the three big ones and the union.

And so it's a matter now of who's going to blink first, correct? I mean, if you look at this, though, Ford was not mentioned as closing some of the warehouses. Well, why is that? Well, their chief negotiator has been with Ford for some time. Bill Ford has a much better relationship with the UAW than Carlos Travares, who runs Stellatus now, and also Mary Bauer at GM. So I'm not surprised at that. But this is, again, a very strategic strike by the UAW.

They know how to cripple the industry. And again, I think, you know, the president got there and talked about we, we, we, we. What he didn't say is, hey, I am the guy killing your job by forcing prematurely instead of an evolution.

I want to do a revolution with EV vehicles. And that has further. And you saw Ford has now announced they're not going to move forward with a $3.5 billion battery plant in Michigan that was going to, Jim Farley was going to try to get 2,000, 2,500 UAW workers in that plant, Brian. So he's not doing it. He stopped it, they say, because a lot of the deals were done is really with a Chinese company or Chinese rare earth purchases from China? Well, that's true. I mean, he tried to put this in a couple of different states and they said no because of that relationship. He was able to bring it to Michigan. He got a $9.2 billion grant. And in addition, let's, let's not lose sight.

If Ford's doing so well, why have they lost $6 billion in the last two years transitioning to EV vehicles? So there's a lot of misrepresentation of facts in these media announcements, Brian. And here's your prescription. I know just the pharmacy to get this filled.

Who are you? A pharmacy benefit manager. A middleman your insurer uses to decide which medicines you can get, what you pay, and sometimes even which pharmacy you should go to. Why can't I go to a pharmacy in my neighborhood? Because I make more money when you go to a pharmacy I own. No one should stand between you and your medicine.

Visit phrma.org slash middleman to learn more. Paid for by pharma. Well, um, and there's a, there's a huge problem with jamming electric cars down America's throats. Uh, I think that's, that's pretty much an issue too.

I want you to- Brian, we saw this. We saw this with the CAFE standards when Obama wanted to go to a fleet measurement in fuel consumption and the consumer said, no, thank you. We're going to buy big cars or we're not going to buy anything.

And so we, we saw they basically had to take an off-ramp with that, with that edict. I don't know when this administration is going to wake up and do the same thing. I want you to hear what President Trump said Wednesday, cut 39. Every time Joe Biden and the UAW's political leadership talk about a fair transition to all electric cars, American labor will be under siege. It's not going to work for you. It can't work.

You right? Yeah, there's, there's no question that there will be a definite reduction. If you look at the number of components that go into an ICE internal combustion engine car, it's a multitude of what goes into an electric vehicle. Basically, you have a carcass with a set of batteries.

You don't have an engine, a transmission, all of the componentry that goes into an ICE engine. But the advantage you have is you could stop at any filling station, fill up and move down the road. You don't have to wait four hours for a battery charge. And then most of all, try to find a charging station. It used to be range anxiety that kept consumers away.

And now it's recharging anxiety. So basically, you're trying to convert the entire auto industry with a technology that doesn't have the infrastructure in place, Brian, to move forward. It's so painfully obvious.

I don't understand. And then this president on day one shut down energy independence. He surrendered our energy independence. It's currently about 40 percent inflation to the consumer. So it's just the dichotomy of this is beyond the pale of common sense. It is unless you want the Saudi Arabia and Russia to decide how much our gas will cost.

It's now 90 dollars a barrel going up to 120. If you want this war to stop, that's not one way to do it. It's all related. So having said that, knowing the ramifications of what you said and the reality of those people on the picket line, do you think it helped things for Joe Biden to be on the picket line? I don't think it. I mean, let's face it while he was there, right, Brian?

15 minutes. He got desperate for endorsement. And so without that, I don't think he would have shown up. I mean, he's not showing up in any of the other areas where we have crisis like the border.

I mean, again, so obvious. If you have a leak in your house, you don't go buy more buckets. You shut the water off. With all this migration, you know, you don't try to support it all.

You basically close the border. It's it's that simple to the common man. And I just don't understand it. And here's one common argument. Sean Fain, the UAW president on Face the Nation cut 35. It's insulting that a CEO gets on air this in the last few days and says that her twenty nine million dollar salary is justified by her performance. No, it's not. It's justified by the performance of the worker on the backs of the workers and by paying them poverty wages.

And that's unacceptable in this country. So the CEOs know that's basically what they get. Do you see the perception there? Do they have a point? Brian, here's here's their point. They're not able to negotiate.

So this is this is the old playbook. When in doubt, go after the CEOs pay and the separation between the CEO and the entry level worker. So this this is this is a desperate move that we see time and time again to single out those three CEOs that, you know, that are working probably one hundred and twenty hours a week and have unbelievable producer responsibility to all the investors, to one hundred and forty six United Auto Workers. We have a similar situation in Canada where they put down the gun and said by October 9th, if they don't settle, they'll start shutting plants down in Canada. So, you know, the thing that moves this country is in peril and jeopardy right now. I want you to hear this exchange with Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg cut 37. But EVs do require fewer jobs.

What happens to those positions, Mr. Secretary? Well, you're going to see an auto sector grow on American soil where there will be more American jobs to be had. Yes, EVs are better vehicles, including in the sense that they have fewer moving parts.

They don't break down as often. They also represent a huge growth area for America to reclaim more of the sector. Remember, after a manufacturing recession under the last administration, we're seeing a manufacturing boom under this administration. This really can be a win, win, win. And to be clear, there's no going back.

I mean, this technology is coming. Well, is it number one? Is that is that the way you see the math?

No, let me let me say a couple of things. First of all, the administration continually misrepresents the return of manufacturing jobs. If you look at the job creation every month, when we look at new employees, they're mostly in the service sector.

Right. They're in hospitality. They're in airlines. I mean, if you always ask the next question of what were the top three or four areas that has created jobs in the month, one particular month was hair haircut. You know, the company that basically cuts men and women's hair had the most job creation. We saw we'll see UPS, for example, are going to go out and get 100000 jobs for the holiday season. So those are not pure manufacturing jobs. Number one, EVs will evolve.

But let's not force the evolution to create a revolution of what we've got going on today. Brian, that that's the case. Right. And you can't tell me it's got a small green footprint when you have to mine to get the rare earth to build the batteries.

And then what do you do with the batteries when they're out? We have nowhere to get rid of them. Brian, you're spot on. But here's the other point that no one's talking about. You know, I ran GE Power Systems for a number of years and I'm still working with a number of utilities and they are absolutely backs against the wall. They don't have the capacity to support the transition to EVs.

If in fact all the mandates that are out there, whether it's California and other other states, they don't have the capacity to be able to supply. Again, some of them are talking about opening old coal plants to be able to meet grid demands. So this thing, there isn't, you know, one side of the administration is not talking to the other side or basically they're blind to the issue that they're trying to create here, Brian. Right. And the president speaking speech the other night and they say declare a climate emergency. So he's dealing with somebody who doesn't, a group that doesn't think he's left enough.

What's going on with this country? Bob Nardelli, former CEO of Chrysler Home Depot and now founder and CEO of XLR8 LLC. Thanks, Bob. Appreciate your insight.

It's great. Thank you, Brian. Have a good day. And here's your prescription. I know just the pharmacy to get this filled.

Who are you? A pharmacy benefit manager, a middleman your insurer uses to decide which medicines you can get, what you pay, and sometimes even which pharmacy you should go to. Why can't I go to a pharmacy in my neighborhood? Because I make more money when you go to a pharmacy I own. No one should stand between you and your medicine. Visit phrma.org slash middleman to learn more paid for by pharma. Listen to this show ad free on Fox News Podcast Plus on Apple Podcast, Amazon Music with your prime membership or subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.