Archive for the ‘UAW’ Category
May 20th, 2009 | 
Author: The “Jack Welch” Portfolio Algorithm « CSS Analytics
Jack Welch is one of the most recognizable names in business as the former CEO of General Electric. His skills and leadership in running one of the largest companies in the world have been the source of numerous books …
Jack Welch Led Gossip Sessions « Leadership Freak
Jack Welch Led Gossip Sessions. With typical candor and color, Jack Welch said, “We always had one hell-of-ah gossip session after every meeting.” (ELP, 2011, NYC). At least two things happened at meetings Jack Welch …
Jack Welch, the former chief executive officer of General Electric Co., and author of “Straight from the Gut”, has been very busy on the talk shows and speaking circuit lately, and here’s what he’s been saying.
“The government has taken advantage of the economic crisis to get a tighter grip on the US economy, and this does not bode well for business”.
“There are so many things that bother me right now. Over the last couple of weeks, things have really gone south in the government relationships”.
“These guys, when they came in, said a crisis like this is impossible to waste. The government seems to think there’s a crisis and now we can get in here and do all the things that we dreamed about when we were at Harvard, when we were somewhere else”.
“The government now controls about 37% of the US economy, including health care, and this makes businesses uneasy, despite promises that the state’s role will shrink when the economy gets better. Now, these guys say they want to get out. Do you believe that? Do they want to get out?”.
“The Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) funds, with the conditions attached to them, are also something to be avoided by businesses. And the news that six insurers secured a green light from the Treasury Department to receive funds under the TARP is not good news”. Referring to Obama, Welch said, “I don’t particularly like where he’s taking us. To get the money he needs, he has to have a fake budget. He’s fooling people about how we’re going to have the top line support the programs in the middle without enormous taxes”. Asked about the restructuring of Chrysler, he replied, “I didn’t like the terms. The creditors’ rights were trashed and the unions got 55% of the company”. He did have a couple of good things to say though, “The president’s plan to implement the nation’s first national standard for greenhouse-gas emissions was sound. This emissions plan is not one that gives me great trouble’. And on the direction of the economy, “I want new housing starts to go down, down, down. It’s the only way to get housing prices stabilized, and we need to stabilize housing prices. While the market didn’t like it, housing starts going down again I like it”.
General Motors Corp is hoping that a recent, but as yet uncompleted deal between Chrysler and the United Auto Workers can quickly be modified to meet its own needs, and GM’s Chief Executive Officer Fritz Henderson said yesterday on a conference call, “I would expect we’d be able to pick up the pace here in the next several weeks”.
Henderson, who became CEO after President Barack Obama caused Rick Wagoner to step down, added that he is waiting for Chrysler to settle with the United Auto Workers, “The UAW is actually negotiating with two companies today, and one company (Chrysler) has a deadline of thirty days, and one company (GM) has a deadline of sixty days”.
GM, which faces a June 1 bankruptcy deadline, has been trying since December to cut its $20.4 billion cash obligation to the health-care trust in half, and was told by the Obama administration in March that it needs to make far deeper reductions in its debts.
Chrysler and the UAW (United Auto Workers) are close to an agreement which would involve the company ceding an equity stake of about 20%, in exchange for reducing its obligations to a $10.6 billion medical fund.
Union leaders and automakers agreed in their 2007 contract talks to create the trusts, called VEBA (Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Associations), with the intention being that they would free the companies from future retiree health-care expenses, in exchange for upfront contributions.
The original VEBA agreement called for payments by GM of $32 billion, with the union assuming an estimated $47 billion in future health-care costs.
In addition, GM is trying to convince its bondholders to accept a cut in the value of their debt, and the latest plan is to make a formal offer before April 27, which would involve bondholders swapping their claims for equity.
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Posted in administration, automakers, bailout, bankruptcy, Chrysler, Commerce Department, congress, economy, executives, GM, insolvency, Lobbying, UAW | 
Tags: administration, automakers, bailout, bankruptcy, Chrysler, commerce, congress, economy, executives, GM, insolvency, Lobbying, UAW | 
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