Green Options › Forums › What's Going On in Green? › Environmental News and Politics › GM reportedly considering job cuts and brand sales
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

GM reportedly considering job cuts and brand sales

post #1 of 6
7/7/08 at 10:04am
Thread Starter 

At last check, GM's stock, a component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, gained 4% to $10.54 but are still off by 71% in the past year.


Facing steep vehicle sales drops amid soaring gas prices and plunging consumer confidence, the Detroit giant is likely to present job cuts and other cash-raising steps to its board of directors in early August, according to the Wall Street Journal.


These potential measures are part of a broader re-evaluation aimed at returning the company to profitability in 2010, the paper reported, citing internal projections.


GM recently put its Hummer division up for sale and could soon put one of its eight remaining brands on the chopping block, saving billions in development costs for vehicles that have trouble moving off the lots, like those from Buick, Saturn and Saab.

In fact, the sale or shut down of any one of its brands, excluding core nameplates Chevrolet and Cadillac, is on the table, The Journal reported.
 
[To read the rest, head over to GM reportedly considering job cuts, brand sales by Shawn Langlois, MarketWatch, July 7 2008]

 

Reply
Reply
post #2 of 6
7/25/08 at 2:20pm

wow, sounds bad, thanks for sharing, hope they can turn it around and turn it green

Reply
Reply
post #3 of 6
7/29/08 at 9:30am
Quote:
Originally Posted by KayMMIV:

wow, sounds bad, thanks for sharing, hope they can turn it around and turn it green

 

Not likely. Turning a company like GM around requires a complete culture shift. No company of this size has ever achieved that. I think the big 3 US automakers will vanish in the next two decades, or become minor players at best. They are dynosaurs of a different era and they will have the same fate as the big steel mills. The wheels of disruption are already in motion and nothing can slow them down anymore. Game over.

 

Reply
Reply
post #4 of 6
7/29/08 at 11:05am

I can understand that, but here's hoping that things can change. I would much rather not have the social stress and upheavel that would come with that for the people that have jobs thorugh these companies, although if the result was more US based business that wasn't taking money out of the economy i guess that would be better, but i doubt that's what will happen. I am getting tired of the obvious being ignored, when will the US catch up with the rest of the world and start giving incentives for companies to keep business and money in the US. That's what why other countries have the import tariffs they do. argh.... lol, that is too big of a topic to really address here well though, the whole situation just frustrates me, i'll hop off the soap box now ;-)

 

Quote:
 

Originally Posted by PeterA650:
Quote:
Originally Posted by KayMMIV:

wow, sounds bad, thanks for sharing, hope they can turn it around and turn it green

 

Not likely. Turning a company like GM around requires a complete culture shift. No company of this size has ever achieved that. I think the big 3 US automakers will vanish in the next two decades, or become minor players at best. They are dynosaurs of a different era and they will have the same fate as the big steel mills. The wheels of disruption are already in motion and nothing can slow them down anymore. Game over.

 


 

Reply
Reply
post #5 of 6
7/29/08 at 2:06pm

Ever since WWII, this country has been using its money to import talent. Einstein, Von Braun, the list goes on and on ... the US simply does not produce enough talent from within for several reasons. I am an import myself.

 

It's those key imports that have managed to keep America competitive. But in a changing post-9/11 world, the rate of such imports has declined dramatically. As a result, fewer bright scientists from countries like India and China earn PhD's in the US and contribute to US-owned intellectual property development. Increasingly, these scientists find opportunities in their home countries or Europe.

 

I'm sorry to be so blunt, but the autoworkers of the 60s, 70s and 80s with their boneheaded unions, generous pay, and nice pension plans did not deserve their wealth. They were overcompensated. The economic value of their labor was far below their total compensation and their contribution to innovation was ZERO. If you want to understand why the auto industry collapsed, look no further.

 

 

Reply
Reply
post #6 of 6
7/29/08 at 4:25pm

Yeah, like I said I agree with your point about the auto industry (my comments are more wishful thinking on part of social upheaval), and understand it, I was speaking more broadly on my little soapbox there at the end.

 

I can understand that talent gets imported and that's actually why I called to a halt since the discussion is so much farther then what this particular thread is about. That issue for me goes much farther then importing talent and the industry in general and lands at the feet of government and education and sponsoring our own talent, we have it but we don't seem to encourage it as we could.

 

I personally no longer feel like the government in America is in place for the good of the US and is run more like a business corporation, there to be in power and stay in power and help out those who run it and who can keep it in power, not there for the general good. It doesn't do much good to rant about it because there's not much good talking does about it.

 

I just try to vote the best I can and support the organizations that I think might be able to do something about it, but I must admit in my darker moments I feel we might be beyond real hope. Like all other great powers in history a point comes, and what fallows is seldom pretty. I understand that can me years and decades in the coming, but still I feel the same pattern has begun in the US.

 

 

Quote:
 

Originally Posted by PeterA650:

Ever since WWII, this country has been using its money to import talent. Einstein, Von Braun, the list goes on and on ... the US simply does not produce enough talent from within for several reasons. I am an import myself.

 

It's those key imports that have managed to keep America competitive. But in a changing post-9/11 world, the rate of such imports has declined dramatically. As a result, fewer bright scientists from countries like India and China earn PhD's in the US and contribute to US-owned intellectual property development. Increasingly, these scientists find opportunities in their home countries or Europe.

 

I'm sorry to be so blunt, but the autoworkers of the 60s, 70s and 80s with their boneheaded unions, generous pay, and nice pension plans did not deserve their wealth. They were overcompensated. The economic value of their labor was far below their total compensation and their contribution to innovation was ZERO. If you want to understand why the auto industry collapsed, look no further.

 

 


 


Edited by kaymmiv - Tue, 29 Jul 2008 23:27:31 UTC
Reply
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Environmental News and Politics
Green Options › Forums › What's Going On in Green? › Environmental News and Politics › GM reportedly considering job cuts and brand sales