Word: gm
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...countries will serve only to enrich the profiteers and impoverish the rest of us. China pays low wages and has weak environmental standards. Its practices keep the poor poor. That isn't progress; it's modern-day slavery. Gerd Schönthaler Remscheid, Germany Car Trouble Your article "How GM Can Fix Itself" did a fine job of enumerating the problems created by General Motors' management [Dec. 5]. But it didn't address why advisers say hourly workers should take cuts in pay and benefits when the automaker frequently touts the quality of its products. If assembly-line workers...
...lived in Flint, Mich., for 27 years and worked for GM. The company's problem is simple: arrogance of the worst kind. Its management will not listen to others. GM cars are poorly designed. Corporate officials and the outdated, unionized workforce can't get along. The result is a company with two antagonistic groups--an unhappy union and an overbearing management. LOU RIFE Nashville, Tenn...
Your article "How GM Can Fix Itself" did a fine job of enumerating the problems created by General Motors' management [Dec. 5]. But it didn't address why advisers say hourly workers should take cuts in pay and benefits when the automaker frequently touts the quality of its products. If the workers are putting cars together so well, they should not be the ones to suffer in a restructuring. SANDY McLENDON Marietta...
...overseas firms seem to thrive, building profitable cars with U.S. workers, while Detroit languishes? For example, in the first quarter of 2005, Nissan made $1,603 on every vehicle sold in North America, while GM lost $2,311, according to Harbour Consulting. For starters, the transplants, generally with reputations for higher quality than American brands, don't offer the deep discounts that U.S. makers employ. And foreign manufacturers don't carry the legacy costs that drag U.S. companies down. Workers at foreign companies' nonunion shops make roughly the same in wages and benefits as unionized employees in Detroit. But Asian...
Thanks to newer technology, the foreign manufacturers are more efficient too. The Big Three are closing the productivity gap; GM takes 23 hours of labor to produce one vehicle, down from 32 hours in 1998. But that's still longer than Toyota's 19.4 hours per vehicle and Nissan's 18.3. The real question, of course, is what kind of cars Americans want. Honda's timing at East Liberty was near perfect: its fuel-efficient Civic rolled off the line just as consumers were looking for ways to save on gas costs. "We're in a battle for survival right...