Obama Administration forced GM Chief Executive Officer to resign

[geochem1st]

"“We cannot, we must not, and we will not let our auto industry simply vanish,” the president said at the White House, announcing new and final deadlines for the No. 1 and No. 3 U.S. automakers to remake themselves. “But we also cannot continue to excuse poor decisions. And we cannot make the survival of our auto industry dependent on an unending flow of tax dollars.”

If plans for automakers fail, the administration is prepared to let them slide into a structured bankruptcy that he said would make it easier GM and Chrysler clear away old debts and emerge as smaller, leaner operations.

The administration forced the resignation of Wagoner before announcing its conditions for continued support. Fritz Henderson, GM’s president and chief operating officer becomes CEO. GM is also replacing most of its board and must increase reliance on producing more fuel-efficient vehicles, under findings of the administrations auto task force. Chrysler CEO Robert Nardelli was allowed to keep his position."

Obama Says GM, Chrysler Have One Last Chance to Restructure - Bloomberg.com


.....but the Financial Industry which received far more Tax dollars is left with the same CEO's intact.

 

[VictorB]

Obama Outlines Plans for GM, Chrysler - WSJ.com

GM boss steps down at White House’s request - Autos- msnbc.com

 

[frankthomson]

wonder what his severence pay was????????????/

 

[TeleDog]

The same thing has happened during republican administrations.

Democrats, republicans, they're the same, they can't turn their backs on those CEOs and their big, fat wallets... they simply owe them too damn much! lol

Don't bite the hand that feeds, or so they say.

 

[Jason]

The same thing has happened during republican administrations.

Democrats, republicans, they're the same, they can't turn their backs on those CEOs and their big, fat wallets... they simply owe them too damn much! lol

Don't bite the hand that feeds, or so they say.

You got it.

There's nothing more sick and depraved than politics.

 

[Cas]

He should be fired by shareholders, NOT a government official.

This is getting out of hand. Government is going way beyond what its powers should be.

GM should of went bankrupt to begin with. Bush should of never bailed them out, and Obama should not be continuing to. But a US President pressuring a public company CEO to resign is insanity.

It would of spawned smaller companies to grow and invest in new technology and fuel efficiency that GM failed to deliver over the last 10 years.

JMO.

 

[geochem1st]

He should be fired by shareholders, NOT a government official.

This is getting out of hand. Government is going way beyond what its powers should be.

GM should of went bankrupt to begin with. Bush should of never bailed them out, and Obama should not be continuing to. But a US President pressuring a public company CEO to resign is insanity.

It would of spawned smaller companies to grow and invest in new technology and fuel efficiency that GM failed to deliver over the last 10 years.

JMO.

I agree with you on the firing.

However, I feel that letting the GM collapse would have triggered hundreds of billions of dollars in Credit Default Swaps to become do instantly, in addition to the failure of GM's support companies, and the massive unemployment resulting from the company failures (predicted at around 2 million people)... plus the Credit Default Swaps becoming due on the failed support companies... more hundreds of billions of dollars, that would have put an unimaginable strain on the economy.

Since the end of 2008, GMC Financing has cleared a lot of its debt and the street is talking about a 'surgical' bankruptcy for GM... which is a completely different scenario.

 

[kernelofwisdom]

Too bad for GM.

Really, is there any point in the government backing a manufacturing company in the United States? It's not a good bet by any means. Things are tough for manufaturers and they're getting tougher.

Foreign competition does it cheaper. And in this case, China has not yet entered the fray. But someday they will, and someone will put their badge on their cars and they will sell.

We are overregulated and overpaid relative to foreign competition. The country becomes increasingly hostile to the lowly craft of making things people use. The jobs aren't sexy enough. They're dirty. They don't pay enough. They pollute the environment. When they make money they reward overpaid management. They don't pay enough taxes.

The projection for industrial infrastructure capital investment in this country, excepting energy, is marked for continued decline. That's not surprising.

This country used to be an industrial, financial and military powerhouse. It seems set to give up the industrial part. What we will be next I don't know.

 

[Mr Insane]

He should be fired by shareholders, NOT a government official.

This is getting out of hand. Government is going way beyond what its powers should be.

GM should of went bankrupt to begin with. Bush should of never bailed them out, and Obama should not be continuing to. But a US President pressuring a public company CEO to resign is insanity.

It would of spawned smaller companies to grow and invest in new technology and fuel efficiency that GM failed to deliver over the last 10 years.

JMO.

Goverment is also to blame for putting GM in the problem it is with some ridiculous regulations.

 

[Cas]

Goverment is also to blame for putting GM in the problem it is with some ridiculous regulations.

And lets not forget unions. Which unfortunately, will grow in power as well in the next four years.

 

[geochem1st]

Too bad for GM.

Really, is there any point in the government backing a manufacturing company in the United States? It's not a good bet by any means. Things are tough for manufaturers and they're getting tougher.

Foreign competition does it cheaper. And in this case, China has not yet entered the fray. But someday they will, and someone will put their badge on their cars and they will sell.

We are overregulated and overpaid relative to foreign competition. The country becomes increasingly hostile to the lowly craft of making things people use. The jobs aren't sexy enough. They're dirty. They don't pay enough. They pollute the environment. When they make money they reward overpaid management. They don't pay enough taxes.

The projection for industrial infrastructure capital investment in this country, excepting energy, is marked for continued decline. That's not surprising.

This country used to be an industrial, financial and military powerhouse. It seems set to give up the industrial part. What we will be next I don't know.

I'll have to disagree with you here. I don't believe that its the 'country' being about mfg jobs not being sexy enough, or not paying enough. It IS a dirty business and I believe that the environmental controls set upon business are one of those things that keep us from being a Third World Country, along with job safety, and child labor laws.

The problem with our loss of manufacturing has more to do with Free Trade vs Fair Trade. There isn't a single job in the USA, not just mfg'ing, that can not be done cheaper in some Third World Nation.

Is IT not sexy enough or too dirty? No, but its being outsourced at a breakneck pace. I watch it happen every day. With Free Trade policy as its written every job is fair game to be outsourced to somewhere that will do it cheaper. If you compete with people who live in grass huts, you too will live in a grass hut eventually.

 

[kernelofwisdom]

I'll have to disagree with you here. I don't believe that its the 'country' being about mfg jobs not being sexy enough, or not paying enough. It IS a dirty business and I believe that the environmental controls set upon business are one of those things that keep us from being a Third World Country, along with job safety, and child labor laws.

The problem with our loss of manufacturing has more to do with Free Trade vs Fair Trade. There isn't a single job in the USA, not just mfg'ing, that can not be done cheaper in some Third World Nation.

Is IT not sexy enough or too dirty? No, but its being outsourced at a breakneck pace. I watch it happen every day. With Free Trade policy as its written every job is fair game to be outsourced to somewhere that will do it cheaper. If you compete with people who live in grass huts, you too will live in a grass hut eventually.

That isn't even disagreeing. That's exactly right. Free trade is not fair trade. In my opinion, if we believe the regulations and pay and other things are necessary for basic humane manufacturing, then we ought to tariff items that don't meet those costs before they are allowed for domestic sale. Otherwise, we are signing and delivering the death warrant for our industrial base. In fact, that's what we are doing. Eventually we will have clean, but empty, factories.

What kind of future for car manufacturing can there by here when China will eventually have our ass by underpricing us right out of the game, free of enviromental, wage and health and safety constraints?

I'm all for environmental controls and living wages. Manufacturing and construction is what I do. I want my employees safe and to have good lives. I also want to keep them, and myself, employed. However we are running out of industries to turn to as things keep getting kicked off shore. As you say that's true of IT as well.

 

[djlogan33]

"“We cannot, we must not, and we will not let our auto industry simply vanish,” the president said at the White House, announcing new and final deadlines for the No. 1 and No. 3 U.S. automakers to remake themselves. “But we also cannot continue to excuse poor decisions. And we cannot make the survival of our auto industry dependent on an unending flow of tax dollars.”

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
All the US Car Makers should be forced to fire the UAW.

Labor Unions have outlived their usefulness.

USA has the engineering and technology to the BEST cars and trucks in the world.
The UAW has their hands tied.

Even the President of GM can not stand up to the UAW.

Washington (OBAMA) should not give the US car Manufactures any money until they fire the UAW.

The UAW is responsible for the majority of GM’s problems:
• Too high of a pay (average $74/hr with benefits, compared to Toyota workers @ $47/hr)
• Will not produce a quality product – no incentive (UAW protects workers)
• Will not work faster & more-productive – no incentive (UAW protects workers)

I have had friends and family brag about sleeping while working overtime and making over $100K/year with less than a high school education.

They should by forced to fire all the UAW workers on a Friday and ask them to come back Monday and apply for their same job at half (fair) salary WITHOUT a union.

The car manufactures would show an immediate cost savings the very first week,

I stopped buying US cars and trucks years ago because of all the problems and loss in resale values.

That why I drive a Toyota pickup and a BMW sports car.

 

[Harpozep]

"“We cannot, we must not, and we will not let our auto industry simply vanish,” the president said at the White House, announcing new and final deadlines for the No. 1 and No. 3 U.S. automakers to remake themselves. “But we also cannot continue to excuse poor decisions. And we cannot make the survival of our auto industry dependent on an unending flow of tax dollars.”

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
All the US Car Makers should be forced to fire the UAW.

Labor Unions have outlived their usefulness.

USA has the engineering and technology to the BEST cars and trucks in the world.
The UAW has their hands tied.

Even the President of GM can not stand up to the UAW.

Washington (OBAMA) should not give the US car Manufactures any money until they fire the UAW.

The UAW is responsible for the majority of GM’s problems:
• Too high of a pay (average $74/hr with benefits, compared to Toyota workers @ $47/hr)
• Will not produce a quality product – no incentive (UAW protects workers)
• Will not work faster & more-productive – no incentive (UAW protects workers)

I have had friends and family brag about sleeping while working overtime and making over $100K/year with less than a high school education.

They should by forced to fire all the UAW workers on a Friday and ask them to come back Monday and apply for their same job at half (fair) salary WITHOUT a union.

The car manufactures would show an immediate cost savings the very first week,

I stopped buying US cars and trucks years ago because of all the problems and loss in resale values.

That why I drive a Toyota pickup and a BMW sports car.

There are wankers in every industry. They needed to be weeded out.

The $74.00/hr quote has been disproved time and again. Look it up, I'm tired of repeating it. The end result it that US auto workers and as a whole across the board almost make the same regardless of whether they work for Toyota or GM. It's the legacy costs of the retirees that gets figured into the old UAW figure that brings it up. It's not what the current workers earn, but those legacy costs are part of the cost of the automobile.

As I mentioned, it has been written to death, even here in these forums where we are not even supposed to talk politics. I came here to talk guitars not listen to the same old talking points.

Yes, the UAW is partly at fault for some of the domestic auto mess. That's a given, but there is way more to it than that.. Many threads here already on it. Read , have fun.....

Domestics and foreign all pretty much sunk after '73. Mercedes not withstanding
BTW, The domestic cars have gained a LOT in the way of reliability. I'm with you in that for a long while they did as a whole, suck. For me, they had a few cars in the Eighties and Nineties that were OK, and a lot since 2000.
Still a lot of uninspired designs. Looks like they try to copy the Japanese designs, Ho-hum.

The Japanese makers got things in the Eighties and have been cruising ever since. For the most part they make reliable boring cars. That seems to go over very well.

All cars are computers on wheels left out in the weather these days, so all manufactures are having some issues, even old Reliable Toyo.

 

[PABassPlayer]

 

[geochem1st]

All the US Car Makers should be forced to fire the UAW.

Labor Unions have outlived their usefulness.

USA has the engineering and technology to the BEST cars and trucks in the world.
The UAW has their hands tied.

Even the President of GM can not stand up to the UAW.

Washington (OBAMA) should not give the US car Manufactures any money until they fire the UAW.

The UAW is responsible for the majority of GM’s problems:
• Too high of a pay (average $74/hr with benefits, compared to Toyota workers @ $47/hr)
• Will not produce a quality product – no incentive (UAW protects workers)
• Will not work faster & more-productive – no incentive (UAW protects workers)

I have had friends and family brag about sleeping while working overtime and making over $100K/year with less than a high school education.

They should by forced to fire all the UAW workers on a Friday and ask them to come back Monday and apply for their same job at half (fair) salary WITHOUT a union.

The car manufactures would show an immediate cost savings the very first week,

I stopped buying US cars and trucks years ago because of all the problems and loss in resale values.

That why I drive a Toyota pickup and a BMW sports car.

GM, UAW Agree to Cut New-Worker Pay Scale, People Say (Update3) - Bloomberg.com

"Sept. 28 (Bloomberg) -- General Motors Corp. and the United Auto Workers agreed to a new class of jobs that would pay about half the current rate, breaking with the UAW's tradition of equal earnings for union members, people with knowledge of the plan said.

Under a four-year accord reached Sept. 26, all new employees would start in so-called non-core jobs such as janitorial and maintenance work and make about $28 an hour in pay and benefits, compared with $51 for present employees, the people said. They asked not to be identified because contract details haven't been released.

The new hires would retain their non-core status until they obtain an assembly-line or other higher-rated job. The two-tier system, like an historic deal to transfer retiree health benefits to a union-run fund, marks another milestone in negotiations between the biggest U.S. automaker and the UAW."

As you can see, GM has renegotiated with the UAW along with Ford. Most of that $74/hr with benefits that you quote, is really the old pay rate plus the carrying of the retirees.... not benefits for the current employees.

The advantage that the Jap companies have over the US is that the foreign-owned plants didn't start up here until the 1980s. Many of the existing ones came well after that. As of a year ago, Toyota's entire U.S. operation had less than 1,000 retirees. Compare that to a company like General Motors, which has been around for more than a century and which supports literally hundreds of thousands of former workers and spouses. As you might expect, many of these have the sorts of advanced medical problems you expect from people to develop in old age. And, it should go without saying, those conditions cost a ton of money to treat.

Production rates of US Auto workers vs. foreign auto makers is the same, as both use robotics extensively and modern assembly line techniques, I'll get the source for that.

Unions are not the problem. The union worker is just a tool set. How Detroit CEO's make use of that tool, in the cars they design and products they produce made for the destruction of our auto industry.

 

[Harpozep]

GM, UAW Agree to Cut New-Worker Pay Scale, People Say (Update3) - Bloomberg.com

"Sept. 28 (Bloomberg) -- General Motors Corp. and the United Auto Workers agreed to a new class of jobs that would pay about half the current rate, breaking with the UAW's tradition of equal earnings for union members, people with knowledge of the plan said.

Under a four-year accord reached Sept. 26, all new employees would start in so-called non-core jobs such as janitorial and maintenance work and make about $28 an hour in pay and benefits, compared with $51 for present employees, the people said. They asked not to be identified because contract details haven't been released.

The new hires would retain their non-core status until they obtain an assembly-line or other higher-rated job. The two-tier system, like an historic deal to transfer retiree health benefits to a union-run fund, marks another milestone in negotiations between the biggest U.S. automaker and the UAW."

As you can see, GM has renegotiated with the UAW along with Ford. Most of that $74/hr with benefits that you quote, is really the old pay rate plus the carrying of the retirees.... not benefits for the current employees.

The advantage that the Jap companies have over the US is that the foreign-owned plants didn't start up here until the 1980s. Many of the existing ones came well after that. As of a year ago, Toyota's entire U.S. operation had less than 1,000 retirees. Compare that to a company like General Motors, which has been around for more than a century and which supports literally hundreds of thousands of former workers and spouses. As you might expect, many of these have the sorts of advanced medical problems you expect from people to develop in old age. And, it should go without saying, those conditions cost a ton of money to treat.

Production rates of US Auto workers vs. foreign auto makers is the same, as both use robotics extensively and modern assembly line techniques, I'll get the source for that.

Unions are not the problem. The union worker is just a tool set. How Detroit CEO's make use of that tool, in the cars they design and products they produce made for the destruction of our auto industry.

There ya go, doing all the work again

Thanks, I just get tired of rehashing it all for the new reactionaries.
Gotta go pickup my daughter from school now. Keep the faith nbro, you are doing fine You always do.

 

[PraXis]

I flat out refuse to EVER support the UAW.

 

[redcoats1976]

I'll have to disagree with you here. I don't believe that its the 'country' being about mfg jobs not being sexy enough, or not paying enough. It IS a dirty business and I believe that the environmental controls set upon business are one of those things that keep us from being a Third World Country, along with job safety, and child labor laws.

The problem with our loss of manufacturing has more to do with Free Trade vs Fair Trade. There isn't a single job in the USA, not just mfg'ing, that can not be done cheaper in some Third World Nation.

Is IT not sexy enough or too dirty? No, but its being outsourced at a breakneck pace. I watch it happen every day. With Free Trade policy as its written every job is fair game to be outsourced to somewhere that will do it cheaper. If you compete with people who live in grass huts, you too will live in a grass hut eventually.

this is all too true...i shudder to think of what my grandchildrens style of living will be in 40 years.

 

[TeleDog]

This is a capitalist society, and we want to keep it that way. But, in a capitalist society, money and profit are the primordial goal of any business venture. You won't find true business men here who will tell you that doing good to others is what they're in business for.

Now, Congress has created absolutely no protection for the working class. There's no incentive to keep the jobs here, none. Oh you say quality, but you can also train the Chinese like you train folks in Nashville if you wanna produce quality guitars. The chinese or the indonesian are not dumber than the Americans. Gibson/Epi is obviously more interested in quantity than quality, and if the Epis were just as good as the Gibsons, there would be no reason to buy those expensive standards in the first place.

Education is another thing. Why pay more for labor here when you can get a chinese kid who will work for scraps and who is probably better educated to begin with?

There's also a problem with the mentality here. You get high school kids who tell you that they will never work at a Burger King, kids who ask for 30K starting salary at target, stuff like that. Nobody wants to start at the bottom.

And then there's the problem with taxes. Anybody who has filed for a small business knows how unfair the entire thing is.

So, why in hell would you keep production here when you can move it overseas and make a load in profits?

If you think those big business men are going to keep jobs in the U.S. because they care, well, you're wrong. They care, yeah, about their own wallet.

If you want people to care about the country, then you have to teach that. The market is not gonna give you a lesson in patriotism, in fairness, in doing good to others. The market will teach you about profits and gain.

Don't forget, if you dare talking about civic duties and patriotism, i.e. keeping the jobs here regardless of profit because it's the right thing, you can be accused of being a socialist. Oh, no, wait, I forgot the other huge problem in this country, selective memory.