Posted on 07/15/2008 8:12:34 AM PDT by yankeedame
DETROIT — General Motors said Tuesday that it would reduce labor costs for salaried workers by 20 percent, eliminate its quarterly dividend and further reduce truck production to ensure that it has enough cash to finance its turnaround for at least two more years.
The moves, which include selling at least $2 billion in assets and borrowing as much as $3 billion,... would stop providing health care coverage to salaried retirees at age 65...reduce its salaried work force and freeze base pay for salaried employees through 2009... executives will no longer receive discretionary cash bonuses.
Analysts have said the automaker needs at least $10 billion to $15 billion in new capital... G.M. shares down to a new low of $8.85 ... It was worth more than $40 a share as recently as October.
Last week, Mr. Wagoner said that G.M. had enough cash and borrowing power to last through 2008.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
THE END
The dividend has been the lifeblood of widows and orphans forever. Sure hasn’t helped keep the stock price up lately.
They did this to themselves with decades of taking costumers for granted and decades of poor cars. While their cars have improved a lot lately it’ll take a lot to win back the folks they pushed to Japanese cars. Those folks, like me, are very content and they will need to offer a clearly superior product to have a chance to win me back. Why switch if something works? Especially to a company that sold you the worst car you’ve owned.
They also screwed up by putting too many eggs in the big truck basket. That bubble was bound to burst eventually and they were badly unprepared.
Social Security faces a similar problem in about 10 to 20 years.
When are the citizens of this country going to wake up.
When will we stop allowing the Democrats and the MSM to destroy this country in order to gain power.
The real dividends are from GM preferred
This is also true but most of blame goes to the money hungry unions.
For the first time in 30 years I own a GM vehicle. Leaks oil (and other unidentifiable liquids), has 1/3 the miles of my Japanese car, but runs like it has 3 time the mileage. I don’t feel sorry for them.
I get really tired of the bashing of General Motors on this site. GM directly or indirectly employs almost a million people in this country and supports another half-million retirees.
Can I ask which model you have?
The happiest day of my life was when I traded my 97 Saturn SC2 for a Honda Accord.
I do however own a Chevy Silverado but that is a different class of vehicle.
Greedy Unions coupled with poor management killed the golden goose.
My last 3 vehicles have been GM’s and I have had it with subsidizing unions. I really think the best thing they could do is take GM into bankruptcy and emerge without the union albatross. Otherwise I will shop elsewhere.
Plus GM needs to fire their chief designer.
This is what happens when management fails on a massive scale.
The unions didn’t help with their outrageous demands where groundskeepers make $100k per year and 12,000 people get paid for literally sit around doing nothing because they demanded that no one lose their job when GM automated a lot of the older plants. GM needs to declare bankruptcy and ask a judge to eliminate all the crazy contracts where auto workers get paid a fortune for installing windshield wipers.
I'll be surprised if any of the US auto makers survive.
In fact I'll be surprised if the country can get past all this without ending up just another 3rd world type of country.
Nothing about drilling here would have helped GM. They were taking on water when gas was cheap. Just plain a poorly run company.
Oil is down 6.80 and gasoline down 18 cents. GM did this.
I think that somewhere in the late 60's, GM and the other two lost sight of the fact that a new car is a major purchase for a customer and that it's very difficult to make payments on a loan for a car that has turned into something you hate. My first new car in 1978 was a GM product. It was also the last American car I ever owned.
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