There’s precious little good news in G.M.’s just-released annual report:
The General Motors Corporation has substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern if it fails to stem its losses and generate cash, and it may be forced to file for bankruptcy protection, the automaker said Thursday.
In its 2008 annual report filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said there was “no assurance that the global automobile market will recover or that it will not suffer a significant further downturn.”
G.M. has requested up to $30 billion of government loans to survive the industry downturn.
So much for all that bankruptcy is not an option, huh ?
I am so tired of hearing about the bailouts of these companies. They rode the RICH band wagon for years and never bothered to tuck some money away…so why the hell should I or anyone else care if they don’t make it. The started out small and grew to BIG, spending that money like it would last forever…well at this point I’m tired of knowing that my grandchildren for the next 10 generations will have to pay for some rich snobboy SOB who couldn’t curtail the companies spending.
Payback for the garbage the Big Three automakers put out in the late 70’s and 80’s, and how they screwed the American public for so many years.
In my previous career as a computer chip layout designer, I have worked for Motorola, Intel, and General Motors (Was Delco Electronics then, now Delphi), among others.
The UAW mandated that it’s current workers, with zero experience working in chip manufacturing fabs, was allowed to bid on jobs because of their seniority alone. Many UAW workers, broke parts intentionally, so that management had to authorize overtime, at time and a 1/2, to meet production schedules.
IC masks (Can’t make a chip without them) would suddenly disappear from the fabs, (Only one way in or out of a fab), so that we had to reorder them, which mandated more overtime for the UAW workers.
Delco had janitors, that were making in excess of $100,000 a year due to the overtime, and their pay scale, which was based on seniority.
In computer chip design and manufacturing, it’s all about maximum yield and cost. If Motorola or Intel ran their business the way the UAW worked in our fabs, they would have been out of business long ago.
I was there when GM brought in Honda and Toyota to try and sell their electronic systems/chips to other car manufacturers, because they knew way back in the early 90’s that GM was in trouble.