Posted on 06/01/2009 3:22:27 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
When United Auto Workers (UAW) union chief Ron Gettelfinger announced the end of GM's two-day strike in the early hours of September 26, 2007, it was the beginning of the end for the world's largest car manufacturer.
The agreement to end the first US nationwide automotive strike in 31 years, which saw General Motors' then 73,000-strong US workforce walk out, was the final death knell in the company's 101-year history.
The strike had occurred not over the future of those employees however, but rather of the fate of GM's 460,000 retired workers whose continuing eligibility for healthcare benefits had placed a $50bn (£30bn) noose around GM's neck.
The deal to end the strike saw GM management swap those liabilities in favour of the creation of an off-balance sheet healthcare trust, worth $20bn.
Although the agreement ended the short-lived strike, it placed an additional one-off burden on GM's already ailing balance sheet, forcing the company into a situation from which it could never recover.
The events of the 20 months that have followed culminating in today's Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing have all stemmed from that decision, a decision which was necessary because of years of died-in-the-wool union practices in a domestic industry being fast usurped by overseas competitors.
If GM's founder, Billy Durant, had lived to see this day, he would not have been a happy man. Durant, who originally made his fortune making horse-drawn vehicles in the late 1800s, formed General Motors in 1908 having been appointed as general manager of Buick in 1904.
In quick succession he merged the now defunct Oldsmobile, Pontiac and Cadillac marques into the GM family, and started the company with a fervent belief no unions.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
The UAW simply refuses to build quality vehicles.
Also, SUVs and trucks are what sustained the American auto industry for a long time (since the early 90s). Why? Because the Big Three lose $$ on nearly every car they sell. Again, that is thanks to UAW labor costs.
Yes, because it is not the American Government any more. We cannot reward bad behavior, nor collaborate with a conqueror.
About $20 billion in our tax money has already been wasted on GM. At least $50 billion more will be given to GM to waste this year. This is a welfare program for the UAW, allowing the Socialist Obama and his Socialists in Congress to buy votes, using our tax money (and the ballooning national debt). GM has made junk for decades, and will have even less incentive to make decent products now that it has unlimited federal money to waste. There is no need for them to compete or worry about profits, so GM will be even more inclined to ignore consumer demands.
Who is his right mind would buy a GM car or truck?
Yes, because it is not the American Government any more. We cannot reward bad behavior, nor collaborate with a conqueror.
Sorry..I need coffee. Jumped over some of that and somehow though you said "Boycott the government owned company".
I'll shut up till I wake up. I'm just too disgusted to think clearly.
GM's operating arrangements and business structure developed over the course of several decades because it was put in place by a three-part group that all benefitted in one way or another: the UAW got lucrative contracts, management got well-paid positions with little responsibility to deliver profits, and elected officials got the votes of all parties in exchange for government contracts to produce fleets of mediocre civilian vehicles and more military vehicles than the Pentagon could even use.
General Motors has been a government-run industry for years. Today's bankruptcy and pending reorganization just make it official.
UAW mission accomplished!
“it is not the American Government any more. “
You must have read the Pravda article the other day.
“it is not the American Government any more. “
Yes! Because the NWO, which is running the show, wants us in streetcars that don’t existt.
The union thugs have taken their hand out of GM’s pocket and put it in ours!
I tried not to, but it was like driving by a bad accident. You don't want to look but you have to.
NWO?
Get ready for the “Mother of all Incentives” to buy Government Motors cars. You will pay for GM cars whether you buy one or not.
New World Order
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