by Blog Boss
12. June 2009 22:49
Well the good news is that GM has offloaded its Hummer brand to a Chinese buyer which means that at least 3,000 jobs are secure here in the US until 2010. Most of those jobs include an assembly plant in Shreveport and various positions at GM dealerships. The bad news is that with GM currently in Bankruptcy Court the job losses will very likely topple 120,000 jobs. 20,000 of those jobs will be more immediate and directly related to the bankruptcy filing and at least another 100,000 job losses will follow as a result of General Motors doing away with its Pontiac, Saturn and Saab brands. Needless to say 120,000 job losses is staggering by any account; especially related to just one industry. Despite all of this, Obama is behind GM in its recovery. Well it seems to make sense to stop the bleeding, as far as job cuts goes but the math is a little sketchy. At the end of the day, the cost of salvaging GM by any mathematical account simply put - does not make sense. Thus, this effort is more likely geared towards saving face in the eyes of foreign auto makers who can do no wrong. You know their names - Honda, Toyota and Hyundai to name a few. Hyundai for example just set a deal in motion for a Billion dollar investment in an auto manufacturing plant here in the US, at the same time that GM is hemorrhaging Billions and laying off tens of thousands of workers. Hindsight is 20/20. Makes you wonder if GM is regretting they didn't get on-board with the simple word "efficiency" 20 years ago like the foreign auto makers did. 
