Opher BanarieGeneral Motors' New Re-structure
June 3rd 2008 21:56
Earlier today GM announced that it would close four plants in a move toward making smaller cars and fewer trucks and SUVs.
The US auto industry has been challenged more than any other by a combination of forces: International competition, environmental regulations, labor union costs and benefits, and shifting consumer preferences. Now the high price of gasoline is adding to the burden of the automakers.
GM and Ford once had tried to make smaller cars in the US. After the second oil embargo Americans started calling for smaller, more efficient cars. However, once the cars were designed, tested, developed and produced, the fickle American consumer had changed priorities and it was Chrysler who had the vehicle with greatest demand: the minivan. The small cars rusted unsold and everyone went back to making larger (and larger) cars.
It's a shame that GM didn't take this opportunity to decide to make all their cars FFV (flex-fueled vehicle) and thereby prepare for a future with alternative fuel options. For more information about FFV and a plan for energy independence, see the Set America Free Coalition's website.
In the meantime, be prepared for a string of news reports about unemployed auto workers being re-trained for jobs that pay a fraction of what they were making, as well as about ghost towns left after GM closed the plants. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to move an LCD factory from Malasia or Singapore into one of the shuttered plants and to re-hire all that motivated labor? Yeah, wishful thinking.
The US auto industry has been challenged more than any other by a combination of forces: International competition, environmental regulations, labor union costs and benefits, and shifting consumer preferences. Now the high price of gasoline is adding to the burden of the automakers.
GM and Ford once had tried to make smaller cars in the US. After the second oil embargo Americans started calling for smaller, more efficient cars. However, once the cars were designed, tested, developed and produced, the fickle American consumer had changed priorities and it was Chrysler who had the vehicle with greatest demand: the minivan. The small cars rusted unsold and everyone went back to making larger (and larger) cars.
It's a shame that GM didn't take this opportunity to decide to make all their cars FFV (flex-fueled vehicle) and thereby prepare for a future with alternative fuel options. For more information about FFV and a plan for energy independence, see the Set America Free Coalition's website.
In the meantime, be prepared for a string of news reports about unemployed auto workers being re-trained for jobs that pay a fraction of what they were making, as well as about ghost towns left after GM closed the plants. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to move an LCD factory from Malasia or Singapore into one of the shuttered plants and to re-hire all that motivated labor? Yeah, wishful thinking.
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