let's rally for the big three

[Kid_Again]

Wait a minute. Let me get this right. It's time for ME to give back something to GM? Exactly WHAT do I owe a multibillion dollar company that was mismanaged by the likes of Roger Smith and Rick Wagoner and the UAW? I OWE THEM? In the 50's and 60's, GM could do whatever it wanted to - and it did. AND it made a ton of money doing so. So, now the tables are turned, the South gave away the bank to the foreign manufacturers (but Marysville is not EXACTLY the South) and me as a taxpayer has to help fix that problem? I don't think so. Hey UAW guys...HOW LONG was it that you paid NO health care costs whereas I've been paying those costs since I started working?

 

[catbert]

No one held a gun to management's head to sign contracts with such generous benifit packages. My guess is, based on performance, upper management got overcompensated way beyond union workers. I say all this as a business owner who faces these same issues daily.

What he said. GM rolled over 16 times in union negotiations. The current workers are paid within a dollar of the transplants, on average, and the job bank has been suspended until the contract can be rewritten. I didn't see Rick Wagoner take a pay cut until Congress made it a part of the package. There is plenty of blame to go around, and the Unions don't deserve all the blame. You could hire a lot of production workers for Ricks $16m plus.

P.S. I was a labor negotiator for most of my professional life - all on the management side. I know GM has had actuarial tables of how much the legacy costs of these contracts would be since the 50's. They chose to ignore the long term in favor of the short term. That is exactly the reverse of the Japanese philosophy. When I worked for a Japanese company the business plan called for losing money for 11 years, or until there was little or no competition, whichever came first. No competition came first.

 

[redvett]

I worked for GM before there was paid health benifits and soon will be paying for them again.
BTW GM & all the other MFR's,banks & business's wouldnt be in this mess if the banking business CEO's (crooks), wouldnt have allowed the poor lending practices like sub prime loans and stopped our economy dead. Soon Toyota,Honda and many other MFR's and business's will be doing the same thing. Some already have in the UK.

Wait a minute. Let me get this right. It's time for ME to give back something to GM? Exactly WHAT do I owe a multibillion dollar company that was mismanaged by the likes of Roger Smith and Rick Wagoner and the UAW? I OWE THEM? In the 50's and 60's, GM could do whatever it wanted to - and it did. AND it made a ton of money doing so. So, now the tables are turned, the South gave away the bank to the foreign manufacturers (but Marysville is not EXACTLY the South) and me as a taxpayer has to help fix that problem? I don't think so. Hey UAW guys...HOW LONG was it that you paid NO health care costs whereas I've been paying those costs since I started working?

 

[killain]

I would never blame this situation on the Union, but they get their share and management(If you can call it that) gets their's. Look, who the hell ever came up with the idea that Hummer was a great marketing icon and that GM would make a ton of money on this brand? Snoop-dog or some hip-hop gangster rapper consultant? GM spent many years and almost 2 million dollars in design and redesign and redesigns, ect, starting and stopping the C-5 Corvette program before 1997 the year that the car finally came to be. The Japanese take around 36 months to take a car from paper drawings to one sitting on the production floor. General Motors management can waste more money on absolutly nothing and it's very well documented. Which is why the US Congress resented the bunch of carpetbagger CEO's flying down to Washington because they had frittered away billions and wanted Uncle Sam to bankroll the idiots party a while longer. I don't blame the union, but the union is going to have to play the hand their dealt if they'd like to continue on as a union. As far as management, I really doubt they have the intellect or insight to salvage the company in the long haul. I just don't see it happening with the current players at the lead.:ugh

 

[Kid_Again]

What catbert said! AND, who, 'zactly, taught the Japanese the principles of Statistical Process Control for manufacturing efficiency? Uh, that would be us. Please don't blame the subprime mess for GM's downfall, In the 60's, they had SO much cash, they could have become a bank. They pissed it all away.