If YOU Were In Charge Of GM How Would You Handle The Mounting Public Backlash Over Plant Closures?

auto workers jobs days are numbered period. deal with it

file for bankruptcy, get bailed out. rinse repeat.

Announce it more artfully and say that production will ramp up in other plants which will absorb a number of the workers.I also would have mentioned that illogical and ineffective tariffs on steel and aluminum strongly impacted this decision.

I agree plus the best managed companies prepare all constituencies in a more open manner well before the possibility and consequences become reality. As auto enthusiasts we saw this coming but many others who have weighed in publicly weren't paying attention or had a reason to.

China controls over 1/2 of global steel sales, they dump steel in order to “preditorially” destroy other competitors. It’s a state subsidized industry so as to undercut competition. (Read the article in today’s WSJ) So if steel prices rise it’s a market adjustment upward to counter the Chinese govt... same with any tariff... perhaps China should control all steel production?

Your comments are ignorant and probably a petty political jab. Mary Barra’s the problem not her formerly subsidized steel costs. She owes her job to Barry Soetoro so will she jab President Trump... sure all pathetic DemoCrap “losers” do because they’re pathetic, gutless, principleless cowards.

If I was Mary Barra, an internal lifer, I’d resign and allow the board to bring in a change agent to transform 1st the culture at GM then focus on using the incredible talent they have to build not “just barely competitive” vehicles but ones people “gotta have”!... As I think she believes she has a lot to prove vs understanding she’s in over her head, I’ll not hold my breath for any real change, that she’ll leave, or that GM is here in 10 years...

Unlike Ford, GM has no plan in the works to replace sedan volume. Mary Barra should be actively scouting car companies that need production space to fill those plants.

It's time for her to get kicked to the curb. She has demonstrated ZERO vision and is tremendously short-sighted.

Johann De Nysschen must have been banging the crap out of her because how else do you explain hiring someone who failed at Infiniti and Audi? She probably got tired of faking the big "O" and kicked him to the curb.

Remember she was hand picked by previous administration when GM was bailed out by the government. They were looking to make a pc correct decision to send a message and she was the highest ranking, longest tenured female executive at GM. Should have picked the best qualified auto executive in the entire industry irrespective of gender.

The previous administration believed that having a vagina or a non-white skin tone automatically made said person an infallible genius. Obama was elected for race. Michelle may have a vagina, but the jury is out on Big Bird. And so on.

The nature of this discussion just confirms everything that is now wrong with our society.

PATHETIC that the nation has sunk to this level.

This an America I don't know - and never thought I would see. How did we get here?

(Please don't start pointing fingers at those who hold different points of view than your own. That kind of thinking is what got us here).

We are in much deeper trouble than many realize. Our entire democracy is now in jeopardy.

We’re a representative republic for starters....MAGA

@MBguy You're such a judgmental hypocrite.

A "representative republic" ... that was EASILY MANIPULATED by a foreign adversary in order to change the outcome of a presidential election.

Is this really how America is going to be 'Made Great Again?'

Sad.

You're full of BS.

She probably whips her hair like the racial token Whoopi and kvetches like Behar.

You're an idiot... keep your head in the sand and keep drinking your kook aide...

@zjug1087a You're next :)

What should be troubling is how our media outlets are manipulating political outcomes and hiding behind freedom of the press.

Very much so. I'd love to see Jim Acosta sent to Guantanamo for waterboarding and then turned over to ISIS for bang the donkey practice before being sent to a firing squad.

You guys are all sad. The historical reference "The Ugly American" has never been more true since Trump was elected. It isn't like these feelings and opinions where never there, but people were smart enough to keep them in their heads and only speak them with their "inside voice". Knowing of course you were raised to be much better than that.

Hating people you have never met or that have never done nothing to you as an individual is preposterous. The only reason that we see it now is because the Commander in Chief as given license to all those people to speak their minds and spew their hate publicly because he does so a daily basis. It isn't how adults normally act. Nor is it how Americans acted in the past. And at present the world is looking at America and shaking its head in disgust and disbelief.

However 2019 is a new year and this change can bring in a new attitude and behaviors. I sincerely hope Americans will pivot and once again focus on their true calling being a light in the world, and the that shining city on a hill which other nations can aspire to be. Frankly that job has fallen to Canada for the last 2 years and we could do without the attention. We are much too modest as a Nation to be put on any pedestal and admired.

Leave it to you to go straight for hypocrisy and be judgmental and moralistic. This shows you to be a hypocrite SJW because you routinely engage in hate speech for those who oppose you politically because you are beyond intolerant of them. You do it all the time. Thus you're covered in your own emesis, but you're flailing frantically to pretend you're the victim. YOU are the one who is being intolerant because YOU want to kill free speech my moralizing. So spare me your fake "let's make 2019 better" nonsense because translated from Canadian that means "in 2019 let's all be a politically correct SJW like me or I'll go histrionic."

Get it through your head: as a Canadian it is the height of arrogance to act as if your opinion on how Americans should be is sacrosanct.

Dear CC

Donald Trump has been like what he is today - for most of his life - brought up a privileged person who always had his father bail him out. He no more represents that average American than Matt does. ANd most Americans did not vote for him either. However - as in most countries - there are groups of people whose political leanings do not represent the norms but get more of the publicity because of that. And the political far right was empowered by his election based on his highly biased leanings as well. Surely - he took credit for the Obama recovery - but is now blaming Obama

Just as in Canada - the majority do not agree with - nor do they "like" what Trump has spawned - but it is highly unlikely that such a mistake will happen again. I am of the opinion that Trump will not serve out his term - but Certainly he has NO chance of being re-elected.

I do not know why I would need to - but I can assure you that the average American has not changed - and this period in our country will end as well.

Today is likely to be one of my last days posting for a time as my boss's stroke was quite debilitating - and he will not be back even if he actually recovers. I am also his executor.

Tom give it a rest you pathetic @$$...

Dear Autospies

There has come a point at which a person who posts here - MATT - has crossed a line that Is simply so obvious that he should be banned. I realize Matt does have the right to a REAL opinion - but the sexual nature of the comments above about the presidents family AFTER Bush - who saved GM - simply is not consistent with acceptable norms of a non pornographic site. And at the very least - that posting should be removed.

TomM the hypocritical morality police

Tom decides... HE (thinks) is the "majority" (we're a representative republic though) everyone else, "KNEEL!!!" Tom has spoken...

I present a point of view about current politics influencing the U.S. auto industry - and I am immediately labeled as someone "who gets her news from The View" - and demeaning comments about how I style my hair (??)

This behaviour is juvenile, infantile and inappropriate. Time for this kind of banter to be barred from this site. It's been going on for far too long.

Let's keep the dialogue civil and on-topic. (What a concept!!)

It's perfectly alright to have disagreements. But do we really need to always resort to name-calling, questioning one's sexual preferences and gross generalizations (using outdated stereotypes) about one's political beliefs?

MDarringer ALWAYS does this when he sees something he isn't in agreement with. Others on this site - including those who might share MD's point of view - almost never feel a need to pull this type of crap.

It's really time to grow up.

Don't be disingenuous when you play the victim when you lash out with the best of them. The Liberal crowd here goes straight to name calling. Stop poisoning the well.

Grow up.... like you and Tom...? YOU'RE the adults...? You gotta love liberals, everyone else is beneath them and they're the smartest... Lenin, Stalin and many others believe the "masses"... the "deplorables" need to be ruled... you both ARE the problem...

we come to this site to view news on automobiles and exchange our reactions, thought and opinions on cars. There are plenty of other sites if one wishes to discuss politics. I say this knowing I'm as guilty of it as anyone at times. Many groups I belong to that are formed to address non-political interests have set a policy that if you have stated or care to make a political statement you put $20 in the middle of the table to go toward a group lunch or charity. It got real expensive really fast then but soon cured members of the need to express political views to the benefit of all. A long way of getting around to recommending that 009 or whomever block anyone who makes a political statement from submitting a comment for one month. Lets get back to chatting about cars and only cars.

@MDarringer -

I have NEVER ONCE - on this site or any other - called someone a name; labeled them as a member of a political party, questioned their sexual preferences, criticized their personal grooming ... (etc.)

Yet, your insecurities and shortcomings seem to force you to do this almost daily. You have a personal crisis going on and have been using this as a forum to validate your own prejudices.

You don't want to engage in healthy discussion that includes points of view that differ from your own. No, you would rather label people as being part of a certain group that is clueless, arrogant and condescending.

Time to call it for what it is.

Actually you have.

This "Yet, your insecurities and shortcomings seem to force you to do this almost daily. You have a personal crisis going on and have been using this as a forum to validate your own prejudices." is "labeling" and "name calling".

Sure, I snap the towel for effect but I am hardly the only one who calls names, labels, questions preferences, or criticizes. This place is the wild wild west and that mentality is pervasive here.

I'd L-O-V-E...LOVE to see a moratorium on all political talk. The Liberals would have nothing to talk about and boy to they get on a roll.

Perhaps you're more thin-skinned and easily triggered than most. If so, then I apologize. VERY LITTLE truly upsets or offends me and I am very thick skinned. I also don't assume this site or any other for that matter is "real".

I'm relatively certain that your parents didn't name you "MGguy" for example.

I enjoy engaging in healthy conversation, but the definition of "healthy" has to be independent of your opinion of what is and what is not healthy.

So, if I have truly offended you and you're not play acting are other most certainly are, then I apologize to you.

You manned up Matt, good for you. Keep it up. Your points of view are always insightful and with a softer rhetoric that much more welcomed.