100% disagree with GM statement, well 75% disagree. Where I live in Oshawa we have the main production plants for GM Canada. GM Canada started here, is still headquartered here, and our entire city is employed either directly or indirectly by the plants. You guys are whining that GM shuts down plants in the US and isn't high quality, outsourcing, etc.... The Oshawa plant is the #1 rated car/truck plant in the world as of this year, beating out all other imports and domestics, take that Toyota, Honda et al. This plant has been in the top 10 world plants for over a decade. So how does GM reward us? They promise us 2.5 Billon Dollars and instead remove our Battary Plant and ship it off to Michigan to provide jobs there, so stop whining about their loyalty to their home country. I agree that GM is mismanaged at the highest levels, they predicted a $2 billion dollar surplus for the year and were over $2 Billion in debt at the end of the first quarter. I have friends (several actually) that work for GM. My friend that I'm going TV shopping with today is middle management at one of the plants. Recently they pulled him and all managers into a staff meeting to let them know that all of their raises and bonuses were cancelled for the year. This crotch kick doesn't apply to union employees or management at the headquarters building, just the plant management. Another horror story I have revolves around the same friend. Through cost cutting and implementing some idea he had GM was set to save over a million dollars one year solely because of the efforts of my friend. He was called at home by his bosse's, bosse's, boss, a guy so high in the organization that he's around number 3 in all of Canada. He tells my buddy Mat that they are holding a special ceremony at the plant to honour all of the employees in Oshawa that had saved GM a million dollars or more and to expect a pleasent surprise at the meeting and to dress nicer than usual. Sure enough my friend dresses up to go to his ceremony and who is there but the President of GM. Not GM Canada, but GM. The head honcho,the big cheese etc. My friend has had visions of bonuses or promotion swimming in his head for a week or so. I mean you save a company a million dollars and you should get some recognition right? If a union employee had done it he'd get $50,000. What did my buddy get for his hard effort? Well he and the other 5 or 6 employees that had saved GM over a million dollars got a handshake from the president, a quick speach, and a special gift. Now let me preface the gift by saying that the president was a Duke University grad. He handed my friend a tiny stuffed Duke's Blue Devil doll that would have cost $3 to get from a carnival. Then hopped back in his limo to be driven to the airport where his private jet was waiting.
I know it sounds like I'm all over the place but here are my reasons why GM is not a horrible company IMO. Like I said, the city where I live is driven by GM. The original founder in Canada was an incredibly generous man. He sold his company to GM before the great depression. When the depression hit everyone lost their jobs so he made up new ones for as many people as he could. At one point he had something like 40 gardenrs and 30 maids/butlers up from his normal number of 3 gardeners, a maid and a butler. He was a man that took civic resposibility seriously. When he sold the plant he did so on the condition that GM never would be alowed to remove or close down all of their facilities in Oshawa. The college I went to had nothing but state of the art robotics, tons of grants and bursaries, corporate funding, and recruiting drives from guess who? GM. There is a lot of history here with GM, and much of it is good. I do understand how many could have problems with them, but I see them through rose coloured glasses.
My least favourite company is the 700 Club. When I want a group of bible thumping Jesus freaks to preach the word of god to me with one hand while they're digging in my pocket to finance their mansions and limos with the other then I'll give them a call. They might not answer though because they could be busy snorting lines off a hooker's stomach in a bus station in Toledo.
