GM told: Cut every salary

[shugah]

GM told: Cut every salary
Kerkorian's message: Fix must start at top, aide says
January 11, 2006

Billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian sent a stern message to General Motors Corp. on Tuesday -- cut wages from the boardroom to the factory floor, chop costs by selling the Saab and Hummer brands, and adopt a sense of urgency to survive.

With GM burning through $24 million of cash a day, the company will run out of money in 1,000 days or sooner unless executives make tough decisions now, Kerkorian aide Jerome York said in a speech delivered on GM territory at the Renaissance Center.

"This situation calls for the company's going into crisis mode, adopting a degree of urgency that recognizes if things don't break right, the unthinkable could happen, that time is of the essence," York told the Society of Automotive Analysts. The society represents those who advise stockholders on automotive investments.

http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2005601110463

[Demeter]

1. Well, Duh

As long as the hierarchy is cut back below the assembly line, GM will be all right. (As if)

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

2. Please sell Saab...

...to a company that doesn't suck. Pretty please?

[trogdor]

3. Gee whiz.

Saab did a fine job of making Chevrolets.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

8. I just want to see them base their cars...

...on something other than the godawful Vectra platform, and stop using GM rubbish bin parts in the interior.

[mikeytherat]

5. Well, SAAB's inline-five is currently (under)powering Hummer's H3,

so I guess they have to be sold as a package deal.

Yep, that's one of the ways GM made the H3 affordable -- they put a 220 horsepower straight-five engine into a 4700 pound vehicle, essentially turning the accelerator into a thermostat. I mean, the H1 and H2 Hummers were not exactly bahn-burners, but the H3 can't even get out of its own way.

mikey_the_rat

[schrodinger_I]

12. I hope they never buy BMW or Porsche

I love having some cars with decent engineering
that are not made by a sucky company. I say let GM
go out of business. They can't engineer a decent vehicle.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

14. I doubt they would or could.

BMW is in the business of buying up other marques anyway. Mmm... If BMW bought Saab, then maybe they'd get back to making cars with the same build quality as the ones they did in the 80s. I miss my old 900.
::sniffle::

[Blue_Tires]

15. in their defense

The Corvette Z06 is easily the best performing, best engineered car built in the U.S. (Bowling Green, KY, with union labor)

and yes, I've been a Corvette fan since childhood

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

16. Have you read Jeremy Clarkson's review of it?

There is a great deal in the news these days about the forthcoming election in America, in which an incoherent man with eyes that are suspiciously close together is up against a man with an enormous chin. Why? We aren’t treated to daily updates from the elections in Lesser Micronesia, or Holland, so why are we inundated with every last utterance from these super-buffoons?


I think there's a car review in it somewhere...

http://driving.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,12529-1235587_3,00.html

[Blue_Tires]

23. i haven't read it

personally, i'm not a fan of clarkson---i'm aware of his credentials and qualifications, but his reviews are usually shite, because he'll spend a whole column stating that he hates a car, but not WHY he hates it, and his wit is lacking whenever he tries to be glib or funny

[Blue_Tires]

31. try here

http://www.topgear.com/drives/CB/A1/roadtests/03/01.html

[Tight_rope]

30. "They can't engineer a decent vehicle."!....High 5 on that quote!

No :cry: from me

[Toots]

4. Let's see the CEO makes two hundred million dollars and the floor workers

make $16,50 an hour. Cut the CEO's salary in half and they will still be making way more than their performance dictates they should but cut the workers pay and they are done done done. If you don't support your employees then you don't deserve to be in business.

[dogfacedboy]

6. I can't possibly think of ANYONE

on this entire planet that does anything worthy of the salary of $200,000,000.00
per year! Outrageous!

[dapper]

9. yeah but....

If you cut those 20,000 workers salaries in half, then you save $160,000, 1
of Which, $150,000 can go towards raising the CEO's salary
and $10,000 can go towards his travel.

No problem!

:-)

Dap

[customerserviceguy]

10. I don't even mind it as much

when the CEOs make big bucks for running a successful company, but to get paid millions of dollars for running a business into the toilet? Something is radically wrong with that, I cannot even see the pro-capitalist types in favor of it.

[maseman]

17. Let's get out the calculator

If we cut his $200 Mill salary in half to $100 mill that would save the company $281,000 PER DAY! Roughly $8.3 mill per MONTH! OK, that won't solve all their problems but it is one hell of a start. I own a Pontiac and it is a pretty good car. Not as durable as my wife's Honda, but I do like the car.

[yppahemnkm]

22. 200 million?

Are you sure its 200 million? I have never heard of a 200 million dollar annual wage.

[Threedifferentones]

29. Alot of CEOs make a very good salary in cash and then get

HUGE amounts of bonus money in the form of stock options. If the CEO of GM does indeed make 200 mil a year it is likely that most of that figure comes from stocks.

[Yupster]

35. No that number is wildly off

Here's a paragraph on the saubject from Investor's Business Daily


"Wagoner made nearly $8.5 million in total compensation in 2003, including a $2.2 million salary, a $2.8 million bonus and $3.3 million in incentive pay tied to stock price. His total compensation fell to $4.8 million in 2004. GM already has said executives will get no bonuses this year and the company's stock price has fallen, so Wagoner won't get much more than his base salary in 2005."

Not that I'm going to be sending him a donation, but 4.8 million is a lot different than 200 million.

[Waya]

7. Ah...

Wilbur Ross is probably rubbing his hands together gleefully already. He wants to expand his Steel, Coal and Textile Empire into Automobil manufacturing and probably can't wait to start his International Auto Group. Damn Vultures!

[hatrack]

11. Look - the Von Crap Family! "Cut Every Salary, Offshore Every Job . . .

Bump up Lutz's salary
Though he's one dumb slob!!

Then you can have footage of GM executives walking over mountains of rubble and line workers' bodies as they make their break for tax-free freedom in the Enchanted Kingdom of the Golden Parachutes.

:puke:

[PatGund]

13. One more.....

Sell Saturn to an automaker who actually cares about that brand. Saturn started out as different and betterm but in the last 5 years, GM seems to want to destroy anything that made Saturns good cars, and make them instead in another GM generic piece of shit.

[Dulcinea]

27. Hear, hear!

I loved my '97 Saturn...only traded it in to get the mommy minivan.

I won't buy another one unless GM leaves it alone!

[zann725]

18. Kerkorian did such a "job" on buying/selling/buying MGM. But then again,

these GM employees recently all got "employee discounts" on their purchases of GM cars, didn't they? Maybe (according to Kerkorian), that WAS their "bonus"/employee "golden parachute."

[joeunderdog]

21. This, from "Billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian"

Yes, his first name is billionaire.

How much did he say he was kicking in?




Typical. Sell out the employees so that the stock is able to show good numbers for the investors who have never worked an hour for the company. Thank Walmart for that mentality. Employee benefits scare off Wall Street.

Shop Costco and BJ's who have shown the other business model can turn a profit and pay living wage.

[zann725]

44. Go back and google Kerkorian's "manipulations" of MGM assets...

I was there at the time. He sold off the film library, gutted the place, sold it, then bought it back later...and as I recall, sold essentially the only thing left a few years later (the Trademark name "MGM").

He's a heartless 'bottom-feeder.' It took MGM (production entity) a good 20 years to recover from his pirate-ing.

Kerkorian,like Donald Trump, is a "product" of the glutonous "80's."

[llmart]

24. Employees of the big three have always gotten employee

discounts. It's nothing new. And it really isn't that great a deal, or at least I don't think so. It does help some and of course, takes the "dickering" out of buying a car, but just so those of you who aren't tied to the auto industry know, it's not like employees get $10,000 off or anything.

P.S. My hubby works for Chrysler.

[Kokonoe]

19. Does anyone think the cartel is trying to destroy union jobs in

retaliation for ads against dim son in the last election. Was not union money a big issue in right wing talking points. I'm no expert, just who decided GM was junk loan status causing disinvestment by law from pension funds etc.. Just wondering.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

20. Gonna see a few golden parachutes popping open soon

They can't cut boardroom wages prematurely...

[katty]

25. GM just doesn't get it-even as the hour glass runs out

[barb162]

32. what's "it"

[sarcasmo]

26. Kick and Nom. GM is going down the same road as Delphi. File

Bankruptcy if the workers don't take a salary cut. Let's not forget to give the CEO a great buyout package. Corporate ASSHOLES the whole lot of them.

[Chemical Bill]

28. How about they outsource...

the CEO's job to China, and get somebody for about 30K per year.

Bill

[barb162]

33. They sure waited long enough. They should cut the top 20 execs

salaries by about 90% and they will still be extremely wealthy

[barb162]

34. I hope they stay in business. If they don't it will have a terrible

ripple effect throughout the economy

[Nomen Tuum]

36. They will go bankrupt to dump their pension and health care costs.

This is what Kerkorian really wants, along with management.

That will be a lesson those Reagan Democrats in Macomb County won't forget!

[oneoftheboys]

37. When benefits are factored into the equation,

an assembly line worker makes $78 an hour. This is unsustainable.

The ride on the gravy train is over for the UAW.

[shugah]

38. $78 /hr?

how do you arrive at that figure?

[Name removed]

41. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Blue Diadem]

40. I'd like to see that broken down.

I keep hearing these large benefit figures but I've yet to see the break down of how much goes to insurances, pensions etc.

[stepnw1f]

39. Once Again... The People Will Pay

The wealthy won't and yet it was their own fault to begin with. Look at the vehicles these assholes make?

"Here ya go buddy. Buy a Hummer or this here gas guzzler while oil and gas prices go up, up, up..."

Great diea, assholes!

[superconnected]

42. HAHAHAHHAHHAHAHHAHAHAHHA

After cutting salaries,laying off the blue collar workers, and moving factories to mexico for years, looks like the management and the executives are now going to be hit by those policies.

Managements nearly always safe, especially upper level managment who instill these policies. Looks like it's going to bite them in the ass.

And GM made invented the precident for cutting workers and moving factories out of the country when it was in record profits. Remember the movie Roger and Me.

An investor is doing this, not a ceo. Amazing in a sick greedy blood thirsty corporate way.

we'll see more of it.

The greedest at the top biting even the people who thought they were safe, who helped him make his billions by wallmart-level labor policies.

Just Beautiful.

On second thought, they've got the dumb ass lowly workers willing to take the cuts to help them. Some how I don't think the Executives are going to take much of a cut. They're even cutting out of the retired peoples pensions. How does that billionaire sleep at night.

Bastards.

[SoCalDem]

43. Don't you just love how super-rich CEOs are always in favor of paycuts

as a way to solve "business plan" shortfalls? :puke:

[Penndems]

45. Kirk Kerkorian isn't a "car executive"

He runs resorts in Vegas. General Motors isn't the MGM Mirage.

Get a Lee Iacocca-type in there to turn that company around. I want somebody in the executive suite who's lived and breathed the automotive industry his/her entire life.

Either that, or good-bye GM.