True story and cautionary tale

A man was on the board of a Fortune 500 company where one of the unions was on strike. At the board meeting, the directors discussed the strike ‑‑ how difficult the union was, how difficult the work rules were, how they felt that to be competitive, they had to bring the wage scales more into line. Someone mentioned the three‑year contract that the company was trying to negotiate with the union, a contract which cut out all cost of living and some other wage increases. The man asked, "If the union signs and ends the strike and there is some degree of inflation during that three‑year period, is it likely that they will be worse off than they were when they signed the contract?" The management of the company said, "Yes, that is likely."

The man knew the rules of the game in board meetings, but this time he couldn't help showing his feelings. He said, "I think it is so short‑sighted and so wrong that you give such exquisite concern to your executives. What do you think happens to people who work in the plant?  Do you think that because of the color of their collars, they are different as people, that morale is no longer important, or that their lives are no longer important. You have such a total difference in perspective in dealing with these two groups of people. I can't help but feel that American management is smart about money and stupid about people."

After he had said his piece, the man shut up. Management and the other directors were nervous and defensive in response to what he had said, but they did not change their position. After the meeting, another board member ‑‑ a much younger man who was tough, smart, and one of the country's most successful masters of multi-billion dollar mergers and acquisitions ‑‑ approached the man who had spoken out. "You were wrong about the way that you put that," he said. "It isn't that they are smart about money and stupid about people. They are not smart about money either. The difference is they care about money, and they don't care about people.                                                                

                            From personal files, 1998