Word: gm
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 2000-2009
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Washington over whether to bail out the ailing U.S. auto industry has shown, that distinction is as tired and broken as the Big Three's business models. In fact, the political game of chicken that ended Friday with President Bush announcing a temporary $17 billion aid package for GM and Chrysler to stave off the immediate threat of bankruptcy has shown the rest of the country what the South has known for years: led by foreign carmakers like Toyota and Mercedes-Benz, Dixie is now Detroit's rival in auto production...
...When Southern politicians like Alabama Senator Richard Shelby blocked a $15 billion congressional bailout for Chrysler and GM, they gave their constituents something just as valuable as pork: some regional self-esteem, if not outright revenge. The Big Three automakers, Shelby insisted last week, "have basically failed" because of their bloated, rigid and outdated manufacturing methods, while the South's lower costs and more flexible management schemes are the new exemplar...
...More than a few northerners feel the South - supposedly the last bastion of red, patriotic values - is being hypocritical by bending over backward for Germans and Japanese at the expense of U.S. companies. To make the point, a retired GM engineer this month set up a website called boycottalabamanow.com. But southerners ask who the hypocrites really are. "When the textile industry went down in the South and we were accused of being behind the times, we didn't ask for a bailout - we just had to reinvent ourselves," says John Jeter, a South Carolina author whose family owns a small...
...Gettelfinger, the UAW's president, has also suggested the union is particularly opposed to putting any more pressure on retirees. "The big sticking point for retirees is that we already paid for our health care. Why should we have to pay again?" says GM retiree Greg Shotwell...
...GM President Fritz Henderson acknowledged the "Term Sheet" on the rescue package does require the automaker to obtain concessions from the union. But privately, union officials are saying that they didn't sign the term sheet, so they don't feel bound...