General Motors Recovery

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General motors in on the of the biggest auto makers in the United States. It holds about one percent of the United States employment. The company which sold over 219,000 vehicles in November of last year only was able to sell 155,000 cars and truck to the American Public declining 41 percent compared to last year. GM car sales of 58,786 were off 44 percent and truck sales of 96,091 were down 39 percent. The steep decline in vehicle sales was largely due to a significant drop in the market’s retail demand compared with last year, and continuing economic uncertainty that has affected consumer confidence. The market shares for General Motors have always been low, but recently it has plunged to a 20 percent starting from 1980. I have included a graph which shows the decline in all of auto industry. GM, of course, is no ordinary company. With sales of $193 billion, it stands as an icon of fading American industrial might. After all, GM's payroll pumps $8.7 billion a year into its assembly workers' pockets. Directly or indirectly, it supports nearly 900,000 jobs -- everyone from auto-parts workers to advertising writers, car salespeople, and office-supply vendors. When GM shut down for 54 days during a 1998 labor action, it knocked a full percentage point off the U.S. economic growth rate that quarter. So what's bad for General Motors can be bad for America as a country. General Motors is in big trouble, but not as big where the congress help or a change in company would not change. Yes, it will affect jobs for a while, but it should pick back up in a few years, if not months. If the bailout go through it’s not going to do anything for General Motors all. It’s going to keep them going for “what” about 4 to 5 more years. Than a... ... middle of paper ... ... a unforeseen event that take place in their life or in a companies products or assets. The way General Motors might be able to fix themselves without the help from the government is by asking the union to disregard their contract and life time retirement payments rather than starting a fight. Nothing is going to be available for the unions or the head of General Motors if the company goes down the drain. The only thing is from the stats before the union has never agreed to a huge give back in the middle of the contract, but it did so in 1980 when the federal government demanded concessions as a part of its Chrysler bailout and again in for ford in 1981. GM's Kowaleski responds that there may be ways to get what GM wants while giving the union something in return: "Do not underestimate the breadth of scheming that can go on to come up with a win-win for everybody."

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