Word: gm
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...GM has to put existing converters on its cars, Vice President Ernest Starkman warned, "the prospect of an unreasonable risk of business catastrophe and massive difficulties with these vehicles must be faced." By "massive difficulties" he meant that the cars would be hard to start, would break down often and, most dangerous of all, perhaps stall while moving, because the antipollution device reduces engine efficiency...
...strike fund by selling off gilt-edged securities. The company was General Motors, whose annual sales would constitute a gross national product bigger than that of, say, Switzerland or South Africa if it were a country instead of the largest business corporation on earth. When the U.A.W. struck GM for two grim months in 1970, the U.S. economy nearly stopped dead in its tracks...
...book is at its insider's best ex plaining the charade. In one of the strike's darkest hours, GM could easily have arranged a bruising raid on the union's strike fund by demanding some $23 million to keep up payments on the workers' health and life insurance plans...
Instead, management agreed to advance that sum to the U.A.W. in a short-term loan - in effect helping finance the strike against itself. The company's explanation: GM stood to lose more in public relations points than it could gain at the bargaining table had it ruthlessly pressed its advantage. The real turning point came not through patient haggling but during a secret meeting between Woodcock and GM Chairman James M. Roche, at which both resolved that the strike must be ended before Christmas. After terms had been accepted by the union leadership, GM Head Negotiator Earl Bramblett - doing...
...their ultra-American patriotism, the cadet seniors had saved up their base pay for four years in order to buy the ultimate symbol of traditional American brute power and gaudiness, a Chevrolet Corvette. GM's domination served as a fitting contrast to Cambridge, where such automotive monstrosities are rare and BMW's and Volkswagens are the only cars one seems to see. The fact that I have a BMW, however, makes the validity of this analysis open to serious doubt...