Monday, August 10, 2009

Chrysler Proposals

I. Executive Summary


This proposal is presented to Cerberus Capital Management, LC, Daimler AG and the United Auto Workers to convert Chrysler Holding LLC to a substantially employee-owned and controlled company. 

At this hour, both Chrysler and General Motors are awaiting government review of austerity measures and have requested funding to stay afloat while car sales are down.  These measures have been negotiated with the UAW, however they have not been submitted to the rank and file for approval.  Additionally, both companies are behind in their funding of the health care trust fund, which is designed to allow them to shed long term obligations.  Traditionally, when employees are asked to give substantial concessions in order to save the company, they receive an increased ownership stake.  This case should be no different, although the approach I am proposing differs in one key respect – when Chrysler returns to profitability, the workers will be much better off than under any similar restructuring. 

In the short run, too much austerity will be counter-productive, especially if it is copied in other industries.  Systemic austerity will result in consumer uncertainty, making the purchase of durable goods – especially automobiles – an impossibility.  The measures proposed here will begin to literally pay dividends to employees as soon as sales increase, so that austerity measures are not permanent.  If such measures are replicated in other industries, the economic downturn could be shortlived.

Unlike traditional Employee Stock Ownership Plans, we propose taking advantage of existing pension assets to avoid extreme debt loads, which would occur under almost every other scenario to capitalize Chrysler.  We also propose several avenues for cost reduction, including the health care sector, which will set the standard for cost reduction for all of industry while maintaining quality of service and benefit levels. This is especially important in light of the recent shifting of responsibilities for health care costs from the company to the Union.  Our proposals avoid many of the pitfalls of other Union buy out plans, most notably United Air Lines, by changing the Union culture to welcome innovation and cost control while changing the Management and Professional cultures to introduce democratic structures more appropriate to employee-ownership than the traditional principal agent model and by linking compensation to results rather than position.  These innovations will provide the edge Chrysler needs to succeed in today’s troubled times. 

Prior to the current bridge loan, discussions took place regarding the merger of Chrysler and General Motors.  The proposals offered here are as applicable to such an arrangements as they are to Chrysler Holdings alone.  Finally, many of these proposals include the use of TARP funds, both because private financing will likely not be available to accomplish these proposals and to create assets which provide taxpayers some degree of security compared to an unallocated loan.

This proposal offers the following twelve propositions in the areas of Health Care, other Consolidation and Pay and Benefits reform:

1.  Purchase of health care providers for employees and retirees, including hospitals, managed care organizations, pharmacy operations and medical and nursing schools.  These new employees would receive same ownership and salary considerations as covered UAW employees and management.  Request additional TARP fund loans to finance this proposal.

2.  Inaugurate Medical Savings Accounts/Lines of Credit to pay or finance deductibles, alternative medicine and out of plan and optional health care.  Raise deductibles and credit limits based on income level.

3. Purchase dealerships with stock and cash and operate directly, considering employees within the Company pool.  Request additional TARP fund loans to finance this proposal.

4.  Move toward the point where the overwhelming majority of shares are held by the employees.  Convert 33% of current UAW and company pension trust funds for labor, professionals and management to Company stock.  67% will be held in reserve for pension benefits for spouses and surviving widows who will not have stock voting rights.  The stock shares will be voted by retirees and current workers or their proxy representative.  Create ESOPs for labor, professionals and management to make up the balance of the employee stake.  Request additional TARP fund loans to finance this proposal.

5.  Leverage Longevity Pay with a portion of dividends from equity shares.  Decrease wage levels accordingly (which then increases profit, some of which goes back to savings).  Establish a rate structure for government contracts whereby compensation over base pay is paid in stock and the stock purchase is built into the burden rate.

6.  Provide scholarships to all workers and dependents to 14th grade in university, community college, or private secondary school, as well as trade school for the non-college bound in exchange for a percentage cut in wage representing the average college and private school tuition costs experienced company-wide per employee for students in these situations. 

7. Recruit professionals and managers at 15th grade and provide tuition, room, board and books and supplies, as well as a stipend.  A percentage of tuition costs will be assumed by the firm, a portion by the United States and a portion by the student through loans which will be paid back automatically on a two years of work for every year of school basis.  During this time a smaller pension fund accrual will be distributed, until the educational repayment period is exhausted.  Students who do not complete their educations and/or their service requirement will be liable for the repayment of a student loan for the entire 1/3 share of tuition costs accrued and not yet repaid.  Request additional TARP fund loans to finance this proposal.

8.  Provide additional dividend paying stock to professional and management employees to provide a dividend to further compensate them for discounted value of their education expenses and cut salary equally.  For example, the discounted value of engineer X’s education was $Y.  Provide $Y worth of equity and then reduce the salary of X by the dividend stream produced by that stock.  Request additional TARP funds to finance this proposal.

9.  Increase incentives for innovation and performance by a healthy multiple of the current incentives and cut average salary for professionals and managers accordingly.  Develop rules for team sharing of incentives where applicable, including objective determination of rewards by an outside source.  Performance awards come in both cash awards and stock grants to capture the value of the lasting impact of innovation on profitability.

10.  Provide $500 per dependent per month (spouses and children under 20 unless emancipated earlier) and cut the base wage of each employee by the average dependent payment (with a floor for younger lower wage employees).

11.  Provide reduced interest rate mortgages.  Use TARP funds to leverage interest reductions.

12.  Provide housing for younger company employees who are not yet ready to purchase home or who are still in training.
 



Purchase by Chrysler, the UAW Health Trust Fund, Fiat (and G.M. if a merger is attempted) of health care provider organizations for employees and retirees, including hospitals, managed care organizations, pharmacy operations, group practices and medical and nursing schools.  The employees of these enterprises would receive the same ownership and salary considerations as covered UAW employees and management (see proposals below).  Request additional TARP fund loans to fianance this proposal.

Rationale:

Relying on outside providers requires reimbursement of their marketing costs and profit.  Including these services within the company limits these costs.  Additionally, medical malpractice becomes a matter of internal company discipline rather than outside litigation, greatly decreasing legal costs.  Company facilities are large enough to justify dedicated medical facilities for employees.  An added benefit is that covered medical facility employees, both doctors and SEIU members, would become a ripe market for the purchase of other Company products.  Finally, unexplained opportunities for cost control will present themselves with absorption of this major cost driver in the cost of labor.

Company ownership of pharmacies will also allow for more flexibility in purchasing drugs and increase the bargaining power for the benefit of the Company and its employees.

Using TARP funds for this purpose will provide the United States with real assets as security for much needed capital.

Implementation:

The Project Team will form a strategic alliance with the SEIU, which represents nurses.  It will identify SEIU serviced facilities which are geographically accessible to Company facilities and begin acquisition talks.  Facilities can be public, private or religiously based (Baptist Healthcare and Catholic Health Association).  The Project Team will also identify state and private medical and nursing schools which might be in financial difficulty to begin purchase talks. 

The Project Team will assess the value of buildings and grounds, as well as the value of the enterprise, then make offers leveraging the deal with both Company stock and UAW and SEIU pension assets.


Inaugurate Medical Savings Accounts/Lines of Credit to pay or finance deductibles, alternative medicine and out of plan and optional health care.  Raise deductibles and credit limits based on income level.  The total cost of high deductible insurance, medical savings accounts and medical line of credit contributions will be capped at current monthly health care expenses for comprehensive insurance coverage.

Rationale:

One major cause of the rise in health care costs is the lack of an incentive for cost control.  Comprehensive plans hide the impact of cost escalations for doctor visits, malpractice costs and pharmaceuticals.  The proposal to absorb medical facilities will mitigate some, but not all of these costs.  To make consumers smart shoppers, they must be accountable for more of the cost of care.  In order to do this effectively, however, out of pocket costs should not be increased directly, as this will be unacceptable to employees.

Implementation:

The Project Team will devise a health care proposal to mitigate direct impact of higher co-payments for prescriptions and office visits to include both medical savings accounts funded by both the company and the employee and medical lines of credit, which would be funded by the employee up to an annual limit, after which the company would fund non-optional costs.  Optional costs are items not traditionally funded by health care plans, such as massage therapy, experimental therapy and alternative medicine, as well as uncovered office visits for certain types of health care.

The Project Team will work with providers to create a single swipeable health insurance card to access to medical savings accounts, medical lines of credit and catastrophic insurance.  Such a card will decrease the need for insurance specialists in individual provider offices and prescreening for insurance at associated pharmacies.  The Project Team will propose the allotment of services between these three legs of the plan for negotiation, agreement and ratification. 



Purchase dealerships with stock and cash and operate directly, considering employees within the Company pool.  Request TARP fund loans to finance this proposal.

Rationale:

This increases the stock ownership pool and allows dealership workers to unionize and to gain the benefits of a larger pension plan.  It also expands the health insurance pool, including younger workers who will decrease average costs.  Finally, it allows for a more seamless information flow between dealers, manufacturing and engineering, potentially improving product quality. 

Implementation:

The Project Team Real Estate Advisor will value the complete real estate portfolio of Dealer Franchises.  The Project Team, with the cooperation of the Company auditor, will, determine the financial value of each dealership, less net land value, and recommend the number of shares to be exchanged for the ownership of each franchisee.  The Company will tender offers to each franchisee.  The Project Team will secure the services of an arbiter for any disputes.  The Project Team will make clear that failure to convert will result in the loss of the franchise relationship.

The Project Team will calculate the size of franchisee pension assets to be absorbed into the UAW pension fund and Company stocks.  The Project Team value these contributions accordingly as part of the negotiation process to purchase franchises.

The Company will enroll franchise service personnel into the UAW and sales and financial personnel into the appropriate professional group so that these groups may vote their individual shares.

Using TARP funds for this purpose will provide the United States with real assets as security for much needed capital.



Concentrate a portion of pension fund ownership in newly created Chrysler stock.  Convert 33% of current UAW and company pension trust funds for labor, professionals and management to Company stock.  67% will be held in reserve for pension benefits for spouses and surviving widows who will not have stock voting rights.  The stock shares will be voted by retirees and current workers or their proxy representative.  Create ESOPs for labor, professionals and management to make up the balance of the employee stake.  Request additional TARP fund loans to finance this proposal.

Rationale:

This provision gives Company employees a stake in the cost savings proposals cited above, while still maintaining a secure pool of diversified shares for surviving spouses, who should not have voting rights.  Retirees are given voting rights because their experience with the firm will be valuable.  Further, by giving them a voting share and making their pension profits dependent upon the profitability of the Company, they have an incentive to support these changes while management has an incentive to provide high enough benefits to keep the retirees happy.

Implementation:

The Project Team will calculate the total number of accumulated work hours for current workers in each sector (including health care and dealership employees added to the Company under the first three proposals) using payroll and dealership data. 

The Project Team will calculate the retiree sector share based as the number of total hours worked times one-half the total amount of pension assets already used divided by one-third of their total pension assets for retirees and survivors based on life expectancy using employee benefit and pension fund data. 

The Project Team will use these totals to calculate the ownership stake for each sector. 

The Project Team will determine the value of 33% of each pension fund for each sector, including 401(k) funds and existing ESOPs.  Upon agreement between labor and management, the pension advisor for each sector will convert these funds into stock of the Company, holding the remainder in diversified assets. 

The Project Team will determine the difference between the shares owned by each sector and the ownership stake agreed to above.  Retirees shall be entitled to 100 percent coverage in of their ownership stake in voting stock (which equals 33% of their total pension assets).  The Project Team will make arrangements to create an ESOP trust to purchase the necessary shares for each sector.  As private sector financing is almost impossible to come buy, TARP funds will be used to finance the ESOP Trust.

The Project Team will draft proposed language to amend ERISA allowing trustees to vote for the total best interest of the beneficiary rather than just the best fiduciary interest.

Using the sector calculation rules above, the Project Team will determine individual entitlements based upon work hours to date, which shall be reviewed by labor, management and professional society representatives for agreement and ratification.

The Project Team will education Union leadership and the rank and file on the ownership mindset required to effectively discharge their new role within the company.


Leverage Longevity Pay with a portion of dividends from equity shares.  Decrease wage levels accordingly (which then increases profit, some of which goes back to savings).  Establish a rate structure for government contracts whereby compensation over base pay is paid in stock and the stock purchase is built into the burden rate.

Rationale:

One of the main economic drivers behind job loss for middle aged professional workers and union job loss to overseas plants is the cost of longevity pay, which increases salary based upon tenure.  It is more expensive to get older, but funding this expense with wages provides an incentive which can lead to disaster for many workers.  Transferring a portion of this pay to ownership dividends by funding stock rather than pensions allows a portion of these payouts to be distributed prior to retirement, while a percentage may be reinvested for future retirement earnings and enhanced voting power.  Lowering the wage allows more funds to be diverted toward stock grants and dividends.  Additionally, paying some of these dividends now provides a direct incentive toward increased productivity and even increased automation, as well as making health plan changes more palatable for the rank and file employee.

Implementation:

The Project Team will calculate what portion of the current salary structure for professional, management and union employees is due to longevity and the dividend stream required to replace this amount at various levels of seniority, yielding stock grant amounts for each level.  The Project Team will calculate the stock grant and salary for each employee and will present the package to a review team made up of labor, management and professionals for review, agreement and ratification.  Note that stock grant shares shall be non-transferable until retirement or termination, but dividends may be payable immediately.

The Project Team will draft proposed changes to ERISA which prevent or penalize the distribution of dividends held for retirement and present these to policy makers.

The Project Team will draft proposed changes to the FAR to assure that firms who undertake this reform are not penalized and present these to policy makers.


Provide scholarships to all workers and dependents to 14th grade in university, community college, or private secondary school, as well as trade school for the non-college bound in exchange for a percentage cut in wage representing the average college and private school tuition costs experienced company-wide per employee for students in these situations. 

Rationale:

A major driver behind the need for longevity benefits is the need to fund education for ones children.  Removing this cost from the family budget eliminates the need to pay higher wages for longevity.  Additionally, group purchasing of education allows greater buying power, thus limiting the explosive growth in education costs.

Implementation:

The Project Team will examine the company benefits office and recommend its optimum size to handle the additional workload for this task and will provide supplemental staff for the project period to train permanent and temporary benefits employees.  Each employee will be able to register his or her dependents in this program.  The Project Team will form relationships with all schools near company facilities and negotiate payment arrangements which are more advantageous than individual students can make.  The Project Team will also assess the requirement for additional university instructors to meet these needs and will create a recruiting program for experienced and retired professional employees to serve as adjunct faculty members in these institutions. 


Recruit professionals and managers at 15th grade and provide tuition, room, board and books and supplies, as well as a stipend.  A percentage of tuition costs will be assumed by the firm, a portion by the United States and a portion by the student through loans which will be paid back automatically on a two years of work for every year of school basis.  During this time a smaller pension fund accrual will be distributed, until the educational repayment period is exhausted.  Students who do not complete their educations and/or their service requirement will be liable for the repayment of a student loan for the entire 1/3 share of tuition costs accrued and not yet repaid. Request additional TARP fund loans to finance this proposal.

Rationale:

The best and the brightest students are often overwhelmed by the prospect of the cost of higher education.  Offering employment prior to graduation allows Human Resources to lock sooner.  Doing so also removes the rationale for providing higher salaries due to the possession of higher education, as the now employee-owned company assumes the financial risk of the educational experience and allows these students a higher standard of living than is currently possible.  It also imposes a dose of realism on the personal level, so that students may be less likely to indulge in risky behavior with the responsibility that comes with a career.  For those who do not get the hint, employee assistance programs can be utilized at an earlier age.

Implementation:

The Project Team will devise a plan to begin campus recruiting at an earlier age, including proposed salary levels for students and entry level professionals, new loan instruments and revisions to existing loan instruments.  This effort will also dovetail with Proposal 6 in the forming of relationships with universities in order to obtain discounted tuition and fees. 

The Project Team will work with the Departments of Education and Labor to create a pilot program to partially fund tuition, since a vast quantity of current financial aid arrangements will no longer be needed if such a plan were adopted industry-wide.

Note that this program will also be used to fund nursing and medical education in company sponsored facilities described in Proposal 1.

It will be necessary to increase funding for Employee Assistance programs, which will become available to student-employees.

The Project Team will generate materials to recruit and screen rank and file workers who are capable of pursuing advanced education but who have lacked the opportunity to do so.   The Project Team will devise a program to allow current employees to transfer their educational debt to this program, thus providing them with a level of additional financial security.  TARP funds will be used to leverage student loans, which may not be available from the banking system at this time.


Provide additional dividend paying stock to professional and management employees to provide a dividend to further compensate them for discounted value of their education expenses and cut salary equally.  For example, the discounted value of engineer X’s education was $Y.  Provide $Y worth of equity and then reduce the salary of X by the dividend stream produced by that stock.  Request additional TARP funds to finance this proposal.

Rationale:

The benefits to providing higher education should result in lower salary costs, but not less compensation.  Additionally, current professional and managerial employees are paid premium salaries for their educational attainment.  A portion of these salaries can be reduced and replaced with stock dividend payments.  This takes additional incentive away to outsource professional duties to India or to bring in lower wage H-1B workers.  Such a provision also spreads salary cuts to the white collar sector, which is required to reduce the resistance of UAW and SEIU personnel to wage concessions.

Implementation:

The Project Team will audit each professional employees’ educational expenses and calculate their net present value and the value of dividends resulting from a stock grant of that value.  The company will fund that value with a stock grant debiting Retained Earnings and lower the salaries of these workers by the amount of the dividend stream resulting from these stocks, some of which being reinvested to produce an increasing dividend from this program.  If Retained Earnings are not available for this purpose, create an Educational ESOP or other debt instrument for this purpose, which may involve proposing amendments to ERISA.  In this case, a portion of the dividend stream will be required to repay the ESOP financing, which will be provided using TARP funds.  The Project Team will arrange for any necessary financing for such an ESOP. 


Increase incentives for innovation and performance by a healthy multiple of the current incentives and cut average salary for professionals and managers accordingly.  Develop rules for team sharing of incentives where applicable, including objective determination of rewards by an outside source.  Performance awards come in both cash awards and stock grants to capture the value of the lasting impact of innovation on profitability.

Rationale:

Current incentive systems reward creativity mostly by salary, offering only small performance incentives for patents and other innovations.  The result is a clear message that creativity must be according to the master plan and innovation outside of these lines is not allowed.  The result of this paradigm is the loss of global market share, with Toyota now leading all American automakers in both sales and innovation, particularly in the area of fuel economy.  Reducing base salaries while increasing performance awards will encourage outside the box thinking for engineering and management, as well as for line workers, who might be sources of innovation.  Introducing group incentive plans will increase collaboration and will guard against group sabotage by jealous co-workers.  Finally, objective determination of awards and using outside evaluators guards against the perception that performance awards are used to reward conformity or based upon management favoritism.

Implementation:

Create a task force with Union locals, professional associations and management to determine performance benefit rules, facilitated by the Project Team.  This task force will negotiate an agreement establish procedures under which rewards are calculated and create a permanent staff to estimate and a permanent body to review these awards.  The main criterion to earn an award is an increase in the profitability of the enterprise, either in terms of innovation/sales generation and loss avoidance.


Provide $500 per dependent per month (spouses and children under 20 unless emancipated earlier) and cut the base wage of each employee by the average dependent payment (with a floor for younger lower wage employees).

Rationale:

Aside from health care costs, the major driver behind the movement of jobs offshore is high wages.  A major driver behind the desire for high wages is the need to support growing families.  The education benefits cited in Proposal #6 will reduce much of this need.  Further subsidizing families directly will target resources to those who most need them for the time they are needed, making domestic workers more competitive in the long term as direct pay is reduced in favor of payment for innovation and stock ownership.

Implementation:

The Project Team will work with the payroll department to calculate wages for all current workers.  First, the amount of money in the dependent benefit pool will be calculated using tax withholding and insurance information.  Tax benefit and cost figures will be included in this calculation.  Second, the average dependent cost per worker will be calculated (both net and gross).  Third, these factors will be applied to current wage and salary levels to generate a proposed net and gross salary for each worker and class of workers.  The results of this salary study will be presented to the labor, professional and management sectors for discussion, negotiation, agreement and ratification.

The Project Team will also propose legislation to increase tax benefits for dependents at the federal and state levels and will mobilize labor and management organization efforts to bring these proposals to policy makers.


Provide reduced interest rate mortgages.  Use TARP funds to leverage interest reductions.

Rationale:

A major cost driver in the need for higher salaries is the cost of housing.  In the current economy, many workers are unable to find credit for the purchase of housing, regardless of credit worthiness.  Additionally, some workers are ignored by mainstream financing or preyed upon by sub-prime lenders based on their demographics.  The provision of mortgages by the company or its surrogates, in cooperation with an aggressive stock ownership plan, provides incentives for longevity.

Implementation:

The Project Team will devise a program to purchase existing mortgages and offer mortgages for the purchase of new and existing housing at a reduced rate which will compensate the company for lost profits to non-employee shareholders, taking interest deductibility into account.  The Project Team will calculate mortgage terms to coincide with the full funding of retirement assets in the stock ownership and diversified pension plans.  The Project Team will arrange for financing through existing Credit Union and Company-owned Mortgage providers at a subsidized rate.  Use TARP funds to leverage interest rate reductions.

The Project Team will also propose legislation to allow companies to claim tax benefits for providing home mortgage interest to employees at a reduced rate at the federal and state levels and will mobilize labor and management organization efforts to bring these proposals to policy makers.


Provide housing for younger company employees who are not yet ready to purchase home or who are still in training.

Rationale:

As mortgages are harder to get, more families are entering the rental market, which will further increase the cost of rental housing, thus pricing younger workers out of the mainstream rental market and into group housing situations which are not conducive to employee well-being.  Additionally, providing housing for students and younger employees in the process of working off an educational debt is synergistic with Proposal Number 6, where student housing costs will be provided by the Company.  Providing such housing also bridges the gap between the beginning of work and eligibility for the mortgage program in Proposal Number 11.

Implementation:

The Project Team will perform market research for apartment facilities in areas in close proximity to educational institutions and work sites with large numbers of younger employees, student-employees and trainee/apprentices.  The Project Team will survey the level of interest of these individuals for employee-sponsored housing.  Where such a need is expressed, the Project Team will perform a lease/buy analysis on likely properties, provide recommendations to the Company and execute Company decisions, offering leased housing interested individuals with rental deducted from the employee paycheck as applicable.  The Project Team will also hire building management staff as appropriate.  Undoubtedly, there are buildings which are now owned by TARP which can be sold to Chrysler for this purpose.

III.  Overall Approach

A.  Team Formation

1.  Utilize Existing Supporting Organizations

To the greatest extent possible, the Project Team will be composed of internal organizations and consultants currently supporting Chrysler, Cerberus, the UAW, the SEIU including investment advisors, mortgage bankers and underwriters.  Using existing assets will build new competencies into the current system, lessening the need for long term relationships with additional consultants.

2.  Recruit Project Consultants

Where there are experience gaps in existing support networks, outside consultants will be recruited to fill them with the consent of both management and labor, with each sector sharing the costs.

3.  Team Orientation

After the Project Team is formed, the Project Director will conduct intensive training and discussion with Project Team members, as well as leaders from ownership, management, labor and the United States, until initial buy-in is achieved.  Bindner Analytics recognizes that not all proposals will achieve leadership buy-in at first.  We believe that as initial proposals are adopted and prove salutary, then duplication will occur across industry.

B.  Assessment of Current Legal Instruments and Procedures

e remaining proposals will be reconsidered and adopted as well.
Project Team members will review all current legal instruments and procedures, including the labor contract, company procedures and government regulations.  All team member work products will be discussed in a team setting, with the Project Director or his designee facilitating these discussions. Team members will identify all current provisions which must be modified to implement project proposals, as well as obstacles that either cannot be overcome or which can only be overcome with changes to law or regulation. 

C.  Drafting of New Legal and Financial Instruments and Procedures

New language will be drafted by responsible Project Team members, working closely with the Project Director.  Work products will be discussed in a team setting, with each sector contributing work to each document and the Project Director or his designee facilitating these discussions.  Proposals for regulatory and legal reform will be brought to the attention of the Secretary of the Treasury and legislators from states where Chrysler has a significant presence.  Discussions will be complete as work products are accepted by ownership, management, labor, the United States (where applicable).  An implementation schedule will be developed by the project team, based on the ease of implementation, with “easy” items being implemented first.  Part of the implementation plan will be the development of training materials to train management, human resource and union professionals and to orient rank and file employees so that they can intelligently consider ratification of these proposals and can begin to behave as employee-owners.

D.  Training and Orientation of Management, Professional and Union Personnel

1.  Train the Trainer

Management and Labor will identify personnel to train plant managers, former franchisees, supervisors, department heads and shop stewards.  These individuals will be trained by Project Team members and the Project Director.  Trainers will then train the next round of personnel in Auburn Hills.

2.  Rank and File Training

Plant, department and union leadership at the local level will then train professionals, rank and file employees, and newly acquired employees. 

E.  Final Ratification by Union Members, Daimler AG and Cerberus

Final implementation of individual proposals will commence after ratification by union membership and ownership and upon receipt of any required governmental and private funding.

F.  Continuing Consulting Relationship

Bindner Analytics will continue to make personnel available as formerly rejected proposals are reconsidered and adopted, and as Chrysler acquires additional units which require integration into the new corporate culture and legal structures.

III.  Qualifications of Project Director

Michael Bindner is the Principal of Bindner Analytics.  He was the founder and Executive Director of the Iowa Center for Fiscal Equity, which provided proposals to the President’s Task Force on Tax Reform and the Commission to Strengthen Social Security.  He is the author of Musings from the Christian Left, which provides a conceptual outline for most of the proposals presented here.  He holds a Master Degree in Public Administration from the American University in Washington, DC and a Professional Designation in Cost Analysis and Price Analysis from the Air Force Institute of Technology.  He has contributed opinions published in America Magazine and Business Ethics and is a member of the Capital Ownership Group, an online think tank sponsored by Kent State UniversityThere is no other source for many of the proposals advanced here.