UAW Boss Ron Gettelfinger plans to retire next year, and the search is on to replace the man who led the union through the political minefield that was the auto bailout. But the union’s support for Bob King, who led negotiations with Ford, could open up divisions within the union, reports Automotive News [sub]. King followed the Gettelfinger line, offering Ford many of the same concessions it granted GM and Chrysler during the government bailout that transferred large stakes in those companies to the union’s VEBA fund. Those concessions to Ford, which would have preserved the UAW’s decades-long policy of treating the Detroit automakers equally, were rejected by the same union rank-and-file that must now ratify King’s nomination.
We and most of the European press had reported that GM Europe would give up their strange headquarters in Zurich, Switzerland, and move the whole shebang to Rüsselsheim, Germany, where Opel resides. Not quite, said an Opel spokesperson to Germany’s Autohaus. From Rüsselheim “all functions of Opel and Vauxhall will be directed,” said Andfreas Kroemer of Opel. In Zurich remains the headquarters of Chevrolet Europe.
For all the criticism that’s been leveled at GM’s finance operation, the firm’s most recent CFOs have yet to pay much of a career price. Previous CFO Fritz Henderson was promoted to the CEO’s spot by the presidential auto task force, and Automotive News [sub] reports that current CFO Ray Young has just been named VP for International Operations. Young’s departure from GM’s finance unit has been something of a foregone conclusion since GM exited bankruptcy, with reports of his imminent departure in the Detroit papers of record going undenied, and a recent acknowledgment that a search was on for his successor. In light of GM CEO Ed Whitacre’s ongoing game of executive whack-a-mole, it was tempting to believe that Young was on his way out, but apparently GM CFOs are pre-sprayed with teflon.
Let’s get small: The new 50:50 joint venture between China’s SAIC and GM may plan to launch an entry-level low-cost car for the Indian market, say’s India’s Wheels Unplugged. (Read More…)
GM’s New Chairman and CEO, Ed Whitacre may not be talking to the press about his plans for the state-owned automaker, but he’s talking to someone. Reuters reports that Alan Mulally, CEO of Ford, has already had a chat with GM’s chairman and CEO, Ed Whitacre. Mulally didn’t disclose what they talked about, but did mention his reasons as to why they had the chat. “You want to be supportive because we have a lot of industry issues that we work together,” Mulally said, “He’s reaching out just the way that I did when I came in.”
It’s easy to blame GM’s new Chairman and CEO’s recent webchat performance on the format. Webchats invariably combine the awkward claustrophobia of conference calls with the eloquent clarity of text-messaging, for a match made in communication hell. That’s no place to properly explain what the NSFW is going on with your company. Especially when you have yet to comment on the “Opel drama,” “palace coup,” “tilt-a-executive,” and “getting in bed with the Chinese” storylines (among others). Needless to say, the MSM is not amused. Nor, frankly, am I. Which is why today’s quote of the day is actually nine days old.
If you haven’t been following the drama surrounding the effort to restore dealers culled during GM and Chrysler’s bankruptcy, you might need to be brought up to speed. In essence both the cut dealers and the automakers have agreed to send create an arbitration process by which dealers could have the decision to cut their franchise reviewed by a neutral third party. The remaining conflict is over the criteria arbitrators should use to judge dealer viability, as the GM and Chrysler proposition would have forced arbitrators to use the same criteria GM and Chrysler did in the initial cuts. That would obviously have yielded the same results as the initial cull, so the dealers pushed for a set of criteria that is more favorable to their interests. Automotive News [sub] reports that a compromise has been reached in conference committee that would allow dealers to present “any relevant information” to make their case. That bill is now been approved by the House [sub] and is headed to the Senate, where its passage is “virtually assured.” But despite having all but guaranteed an independent review, culled dealers still aren’t happy.
GM was supposed to have a restructuring plan for Opel in place by the end of December, but it’s looking like that deadline is DOA. In a blog post at GM Europe’s “Driving Conversations” blog, GME supremo Nick Reilly explains:
While it is indeed exciting to see that things are coming together, bear in mind this is going to be one of the largest, most complex industrial reorganisations in European manufacturing in years. It will affect thousands of people and their families; impact plants and other stakeholders.
We are determined to do this right. We must do this right. Although we had hoped to have the new business model finalised in December, it appears that more work needs to be done and further consultations will not be rushed.
I said earlier that we would have a plan in place by year-end. Now it looks like an announcement may slip into January. This is not a broken promise. It is a pledge to do something right.
The blood is flowing like water at the RenCen, as brand-new Buick-GMC manager Michael Richards has left General Motors after nine days on the job. The Detroit News reports that Susan Docherty’s replacement left to “pursue other career opportunities.” Richards had been VP Sales and Marketing at Austin, Texas automotive firm Trilogy, and according to the DetN’s sources:
Trilogy made a strong counteroffer to keep Richards, and he was said to be considering that offer in light of Friday’s management shakeup engineered by Chairman and CEO Ed Whitacre
Chevrolet brand manager Brent Dewar has become the latest victim of Ed Whitacre’s purge of GM’s management, reports Automotive News [sub]. Dewar will be replaced by James Campbell, who had been in charge of GM’s Fleet and Commercial Operations. According to a GM release:
Dewar has elected to retire effective April 1, 2010 to dedicate more time to his family and to pursue personal interests. Until then, Dewar will work closely with Campbell to ensure a smooth transition at Chevrolet and also will be on a special assignment supporting Mark Reuss, GM president North America, in his new role.
Autoextremist Peter DeLorenzo is an interesting figure in the auto commentary landscape. Though TTAC has often taken the pioneering car blogger to task for inconsistencies (especially during bailout mania), it’s no surprise that DeLorenzo’s ability to see things as they are comes and goes. After all, the guy is the quintessential insider’s outsider: as a former marketing and ad man, the Autoextremist is always in the Detroit tent… the only question week-to-week is whether he’s going to be pissing out or pissing in. Well, this week the deluge is headed straight for the part of the tent occupied by GM’s new CEO Ed Whitacre and his activist board. And it smells of well-aged vintage Deathwatch.
But before I get into Whitacre’s executive moves, you’re probably gathering I’m not buying “Big Ed’s” act, and you’d be right. After doing some digging around Whitacre’s previous executive life at AT&T, it’s easy to come away with a highly unflattering portrayal of GM’s “interim” CEO. First of all, the “aw shucks I’m just a country boy who has a few good ideas” persona is total bullshit. In his previous executive life Whitacre was known as an arrogant know-it-all who was never wrong, never listened to reasoned advice and who brought absolutely nothing to the table of his own on a day-in, day-out basis. Shocking? Hardly. Anyone who thinks The Peter Principle isn’t alive and well in corporate America today is kidding themselves.
In a NY Times Op-Ed a few weeks back, I laid into the Obama administration for allowing GM to pretend that its $6.7b planned payback is even in the ballpark of what it owes the taxpayers. “If tens of billions in lost tax dollars is simply the inescapable price of preventing a systemic economic collapse, the White House should tell us so,” I wrote. Well, it appears that the White House agrees. Sort of. In an interview with the Detroit News, Gene Sperling, the senior counsel to Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner admitted
The real news is the projected loss [from the $82b+ auto sector bailout] came down to $30 billion from $44 billion
Well, halle-frickin-lujah. Now show us how we’re really going to get $50b out of GM and Chrysler.
Why does TTAC roll its eyes at every proclamation of change, rebirth and renewal from automakers, particularly of the Detroit-based variety? To put it in a single French phrase, dèjá vu. In an industry as cyclical as the automaking game, the latest downturn always takes place within recent memory of the last downturn. As a result, the promises of reinvention and renewed focus are still ringing in our ears by the time each new PR offensive rolls out. One can only hear so many pleas and promises before they all start running together, creating the permanent, inescapable sense that we’ve been here before and it didn’t work out. No better evidence for this phenomenon exists than this series of videos from the 1988 edition of GM’s perennial campaign of renewal (especially in part two). The music may have changed, but the beat goes on.
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