Rick Wagoner has been through hell and back with GM. This is not the first time there has been a call for his head. This has been going on for years. The reason GM kept him is he did an exceptional job in all of the markets, except North America. They are profitable every where else because they are not forced to use the imbecilic UAW model for business â with idiotic rules such as give a UAW member full pay for up to a year after they are laid off including full medical and dental.
They have not been too big to fail since the 80s. Their market share in North America has crashed year after year. Wagoner fully understood this. In 2005 he issued a letter I never forgot because he shut a plant where I had many friends. In it he made it clear this was going to continue until a workable business plan was adopted with the UAW. He stated unequivocally in that letter GM would not survive this decade unless progress was made on the critical UAW issues. He never had any hopes he just did his duty to the company to try to get these astronomical employee costs under control in the U.S. GM at this point is nothing more than the UAWs big health care provider. If GM goes bankrupt 10s of thousands of retires will be back on Medicare without a safety net.
