ellives

The signature at the bottom should say: About General Motors: General Motors Company, one of the world's largest automakers, traces its roots back to 1908 and was killed due to the greed and avarice of unions worldwide and the ineptitude of management and its inability to respond to union labor demands. With its global headquarters in Detroit, GM employs 219,000 people in every major region of the world and does business in some 140 countries. GM and its strategic partners produce cars and trucks in 34 countries, and sell and service these vehicles through the following brands: Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, GM Daewoo, Holden, Opel, Vauxhall and Wuling. GM's largest national market is the United States, followed by China, Brazil, the United Kingdom, Canada, Russia and Germany. General Motors Company acquired operations from General Motors Corporation on July 10, 2009, and references to prior periods in this and other press materials refer to operations of the old General Motors Corporation. More information on the new General Motors Company can be found at www.gm.com. In Europe, GM sells its vehicles in over 40 markets. It operates 10 vehicle-production and assembly facilities in seven countries and employs about 50,000 people. More information on GM can be found at http://media.gmeurope.com and http://www.gmeurope.com. GM Europe executive blog at http://drivingconversations.com.

And so now the vultures swoop in...

Bloomberg article By Doron Levin and Jeff Green March 29 (Bloomberg) -- General Motors Corp. Chief Executive Officer Rick Wagoner will step down after more than eight years running the largest U.S. automaker, people familiar with the situation said. The people, who asked not to be named because the announcement hasn’t been made, didn’t give a reason why Wagoner, 56, is leaving. Wagoner said as recently as April 19 that he didn’t plan to resign. To contact the reporters on this story: Doron Levin in Southfield, Michigan, at [email protected]; Jeff Green in Southfield, Michigan at [email protected]

I agree. Oldsmoboi's edit wasn't bad either.

Tough to argue the sentiment even though the author is careless with his writing. I also suspect he's a bit slanted. He tried to compare GM and Chrysler as car companies when in reality they are very different. I think Rick should go too. Results are all that matters and his results have been nothing but abysmal.

Your probably right. My neighbor told me tonight that his financial advisor told him to get out of the stock market and into cash because the whole banking industry is a big Ponzi scheme and the NYSE is going to 6000...

I have thought about this situation long and hard and I would make the case for helping salvage GM if two things happened: 1. The UAW was purged from GM completely. No unions workers employed by GM. Done. Over. Bye bye. 2. The Company was brought private. It is a ridiculous scenario under which those dirtbags in congress tied the continuation of loan support by requiring a business plan. This shows just how stupid and clueless about business those idiots are. Give us a business plan that makes you viable and of course your competitors can all see it. Red Ink Rick needs to grow a pair and give Dodd and the rest of the motley crew in congress the big FU if that's what they wanted. Just walk away and let those idiots deal with it. If these two things happened, GM would have a shot of survival. Otherwise, "stick a fork in 'em honey. They're done."

If Bush wasn't such an ashtray he could have avoided all this. Obama is another well-intentioned occupant in the White House who has never created or built a single thing in his life so doesn't understand the issues involved in doing so.

Just more dirtbag lawyers looking for a payday. They should all be lured on to a cruise ship, taken out to sea and thrown overboard.

Personally I think the whole country has an attitude of entitlement that is going to be a tough pill to swallow when they're out on the street. They'll all go begging to the government to give them a handout so they can sit at home and bitch about how bad things are. Eventually they'll figure out that all these manufacturing jobs that have been flooding out of the country over the last 20 years carried their "entitlement" right out of the country too. When you're a country that doesn't make anything, there is no wealth being created so you're stuck with nothing but 8 buck an hour Walmart jobs. Try buying a $200k house on that. Oh that's right... all those $200k houses are now worth $100k. Funny about that.

I contract can never say "they can not" because we all know they can. What it *can* say is "if they do, we're going to come down on everyone with a hammer." This is the way the contract is written. Personally I wouldn't even waste my time even talking to Gettelfinger. His job, role, and organization are so over. The time has finally come to say "this is what you're getting now get back to work and shut up about it or find yourself another job. There are 100 people waiting outside for yours if you don't want it."

What it really says is "if they do, this is what happens."

Even the UAW isn't stupid enough to pull a string that says "strike" on it that's tied to the trigger of a gun that's pointed at their own heads. I suppose the one positive outcome of a strike WOULD be the end of the UAW. I was listening to CSPAN this morning and they had on a speaker who was head of Lockheed Martin at one time and he pointing out an oft cited statistic that we've all heard that the US spends more than almost any other country (we're #3) and our students perform at the lowest end of the testing scales. Hearing it again, made me wonder all over again why this is the case. We generally have a high standard of living, and usually the schools have the resources they need (despite their bitching to the contrary.) I realized the reason is that the teachers are unionized too. I'm not sure why it took me so long to make the connection but it seems fairly obvious to me now - duh.

Maybe so, but it still feels good so in the spirit of the American Way, "keep doing it."

A sad end to a once great company that was a victim of the go-go days of false prosperity brought on by thieves, criminals and incompetents running our banks and financial institutions. You're probably right in saying they won't re-open and the "one month" time period was just a head fake designed to slow down the spiral a bit.

Hey! My 'bu LTZ is a sweet car! You make it sound like a Chevette! Not!

More whining from Ron... How about liquidating UAW assets? How about "there *are* no workers if there is no business? " But UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said it "unfairly singled out workers for concessions."

So what we're saying is "We now know what these southern states are." What we're trying to figure out, is the price.

The key word here is "profitable." I would like to see the administration go right back to the plan Corker outlined. I like his approach as it was lucid and practical. The bondholders ended up with 30% of their investment back which is better than nothing. Given the UAW was up to their tired old games, I would make one of the stipulations of the money the elimination of union representation at GM and Chrysler. While bankrupcy isn't a thrilling prospect, it would be a nice way to dispense with dealers who would be impacted and want compensation if their brand was killed. Of course at their current rate of closure, this may be a moot point. I'm wondering if we'll see any sales uptick at all in December, given the plunging price of gas.

Interestingly, the Nikkei is up by 5% right now.

While I agree with a lot of what you say, as are most things in life, it is not that simple. Don't give up on the bankers as the source of our problems just yet: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=4668112n

I don't see any need in keeping the Buick brand in the NA market. Despite the millions spent on Tiger Woods advertising, this brand still has no recognition within the younger generation. The Enclave is a great product but could easily be built as a Cadillac product. I don't see any value in reverting to the old Cadillac names. The CTS *does* have a following within the younger crowd and should not be abandoned for any reason. I don't necessarily see any value in reverting to the Eldorado nameplate as a replacement for the XLR either. In fact, I'm not convinced so many models are actually required. I'm unclear as to how you differentiate them properly (which is really the same quandary you have with the brands, i.e. how is Saturn different than Chevy?)

... oh and as far as his general premise, I totally agree. The point is to be world class at whatever product you bring to market, otherwise don't bother. While I don't care much for Jack Welch, this is one of his core principles I believe in.

I find it curious Lutz would speak up now regarding eliminating divisions. This has been obvious to many people for a while. A good leader speaks up when the groupthink would make it easier to follow the direction of inaction.

This "throw out everything but the kitchen sink" is not plausible. This behavior is representative in many ways of what got GM in this situation to begin with. They have been in reactionary mode for a long time and like every other business endeavor that gets themselves into this mode, it will fail and put them in continually worsening positions. First of all, don't you think they've sold off anything of value they have, which is reasonably liquid? Real estate takes a great deal of time and energy to sell and when the overall market is down (an understatement) you're getting pennies on the dollar. Besides, GM does not have the kind of time required to sell real estate and anyone willing and able to buy is going to lowball offers. I agree, it's time for GM to pare down divisions. The market has known this for years and the products offerings in the "non-core" divisions reflect this. Consumers have a tough time understanding why Pontiac, Buick and Saturn even exist. They understand the concept of "Joe Sixpack brand" and "Luxury brand" but that is pretty much the limit of their attention span. Heck it's amazing how few people even understand Cadillac and Chevy are GM brands. This is a fundamental marketing concept GM doesn't or is unwilling to understand. Either way it's time for changes in their marketing team. Beyond all this, they have a need to shed a good chunk for their debt (as has been discussed by some of the congressmen such as Corker) in order for them to have a viable business. The number I heard bantered about yesterday was 30 cents on the dollar for bondholders. GM simply can't continue to operate in status quo mode and everyone is going to need to pay a price to make GM viable. The UAW needs to simply go away. I have said this over and over and most take my arguments as simply anti-union ranting. The reality is, a union has no place in the automotive industry. Toyota, Honda and Nissan have proven this quite clearly. The UAW simply adds to the overhead cost of building automobiles and brings absolutely no value to the business. Sorry Ron but you're out of a job. Hopefully you know how to run an air ratchet. Interestingly I have a family member looking to relocate his business from the Northeast to the South Carolina area and they were courted by the state business development folks. When the sat down the first time to discuss assistance the state would be willing to provide for the move, the very first question they had was "are you a union shop?" The answer was "no and we never will be" to which the state responded, "good, because if you were, this meeting would be over." They don't want unions down here and they are doing everything they can to make sure they won't be here. As a result, any business operating here will have an immediate cost advantage vs. a union shop elsewhere.