BusinessDead End in Detroit for White-Collar Workers
By BILL VLASIC and NICK BUNKLEY
Published: February 17, 2009
"The resolve of Detroit’s white-collar workers has given way to grim resignation as General Motors, Ford Motor and Chrysler have announced more and more job cuts."
This article is sobering... My dad was a white collar GM worker. He died back in 1989 when he was 52, so he'd have been retired by now, but still...I love cars and I love the auto industry and this is a crappy time...
GM will keep at least one loyal customer, though unfortunately she's not one who the company stands to make much money off of: my mom. She can buy GM cars at "employee cost" through the GM Family First employee purchase program (as can my brother and me), but really - in this market? GM dealers are hardly working off of big margins and it's not like there is a lack of supply that is boosting up prices. Rather, the lack of demand for GM products has ground the price of GM's offerings into the dirt. Sad, sad days.
And with Bob Lutz bowing out as head of GM's global product development at such a watershed moment... It's now only a matter of time until the company is compelled to declare bankruptcy, though hopefully something viable emerges from the ashes. Poorly managed for too many years with endless production runs of vehicles that did not appeal to a wide enough market segment? Yes. But still, this company is close to my heart - it was the company in which my father (God rest his soul) built his career. It deserves better than what we're seeing.
GM will keep at least one loyal customer, though unfortunately she's not one who the company stands to make much money off of: my mom. She can buy GM cars at "employee cost" through the GM Family First employee purchase program (as can my brother and me), but really - in this market? GM dealers are hardly working off of big margins and it's not like there is a lack of supply that is boosting up prices. Rather, the lack of demand for GM products has ground the price of GM's offerings into the dirt. Sad, sad days.And with Bob Lutz bowing out as head of GM's global product development at such a watershed moment... It's now only a matter of time until the company is compelled to declare bankruptcy, though hopefully something viable emerges from the ashes. Poorly managed for too many years with endless production runs of vehicles that did not appeal to a wide enough market segment? Yes. But still, this company is close to my heart - it was the company in which my father (God rest his soul) built his career. It deserves better than what we're seeing.
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