Posted on 04/30/2006 6:51:38 AM PDT by ncountylee
Ponying up more than $100,000 of their own money, three dozen General Motors Corp. dealers nationwide this month bought full-page newspaper ads imploring the public to give GM a chance.
''For the good of everyone, they must succeed and they need our help,'' the ad read. ''We pledge ours. We hope you will do the same.''
For most of GM's 98-year history, that kind of plea would have been unimaginable. But now, the company long synonymous with U.S. industrial might is scrambling to avoid something else once unimaginable: bankruptcy.
GM executives, including Chief Executive Officer Rick Wagoner, say they have no intention of filing for bankruptcy protection, and no need to do so.
On Thursday, the company reported a $323 million first quarter loss, a sharp improvement from recent quarters and an ''important milestone'' in the automaker's turnaround plan, Wagoner said.
But some veteran industry analysts say GM's fundamental problems of high labor costs and falling market share are so severe that there is a serious risk that the auto giant will enter Bankruptcy Court in the next few years. Any number of events could be the tipping point — another surge in oil and gasoline prices, a recession brought on by rising interest rates or a strike by GM's main parts supplier, which already is reorganizing under Chapter 11 of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.
Super-sized problem
For the world's largest automaker and its vast constituencies, the prospect of a bankruptcy filing is so daunting that even many of Wagoner's critics hope his revival program works.
A GM bankruptcy filing would be the largest in history, challenging Wall Street, organized labor, politicians and the legal system to deal with the fallout.
GM's 147,000 workers in the United States and 460,000 retirees would face the prospect
(Excerpt) Read more at mcall.com ...
The unions have destroyed GM.
But I'm sure that, as long as the Unions have to get their Lions--and I do mean LIONS--share of General Motor's profits...
....then GM's demise is Inevitable.....which does not comfort me in any way.
The headline should read:
The Inevitable: A General Motors Bankruptcy
Thank the union!
This really is sad.
The United Auto Workers destroyed the Big Three auto companies, but they also did it to themselves, especially GM. They were arrogant. They thought they had a monopoly. They thought they could make those deals with the unions and then charge customers what it took to pay for them, because they had no competitors.
As the biggest and most successful of the three (in its heyday), GM often agreed to expensive contract settlements because that was a good way to screw their competitors and increase their advantage.
They were wrong.
Cooked their golden goose.
I would like to buy one of their new cars in 6 months to a year. Would there still be a warranty if they go bankrupt? Will the taxpayers bail them out, like they did Chrysler?
Whats that saying Gm is realy a health car provider or something like that
All the unions got all they could while the victim was still alive.
100 years ain't bad. Someone will make a killing in the bankruptcy sale.
AND the soft management assisted them.
I was suprised when even The Wall Street Journal detailed that it actually
was GM managment/negotiators that suggested the "jobs bank" concept.
Maybe it was a desparate ploy to overcome an impasse with the union...
but when a management endorses paying highly-paid employees to NOT
work...that management needs to find another line of work.
If GM tanks, it's gonna' provide grist for a thousand books and
doctoral theses.
Couple that with an inability to export and you have ever-decreasing market share.
GM's inability to export has been brought on by a copule things - of course the higher labor costs but also our tax system which builds the cost of our US tax system into exports. Our income tax is not border-adjustable as most countrys' systems are. THe labor costs plus a 20% price inflation due to tax costs put GM out of the export market. THey haven't really even tried to make a go of selling overseas because they wouldn't be able to compete price-wise.
Let's try this statement...we'll see how it works...
GM, allowed the unions to destroy it.
How's that?
Hmmmm...that wasn't the tune that my GM dealership was singing to me when they were replacing a defective exhaust valve in my Chevy S-10 after only 35,000 miles, and a leaky oil pan gasket at 60,000 (which required lifting the entire engine out of the chassis. "We don't understand your frustration, sir," I was told by the service department, "things break...!"
Well, as far as I'm concerned, let GM break, while I ride around in my wife's new Toyota!
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