It is a shame that I had to go to Fox News and Tucker Carlson to hear anyone challenge the disgraceful way white collar workers have been treated at GM: to let white collar workers twist in the wind for three months and then go through 2 weeks of humiliations and ingratitude from Mary Barra for the $10.8 billion profit that the GM employees produced for her in 2018.
No one at the Free Press, the Detroit News, or any of the newly elected Democrats in Michigan have a word to say about these layoffs. Nothing about the billions of dollars spent on stock buybacks by Mary Barra to protect herself and the Board from Greenlight Capital or other predatory investors. No one is talking about the obvious bad judgement calls Barra made to move Cadillac to NY and back again. According to GM 40% of the white collar workforce was hired in the past 5 years and yet now, this bunch of management geniuses are saying that 1. They hired too many people and, 2. The people they hired don’t have the right skill set and, 3. That their performance review process is a failure, and 4. That management apparently have no clue how to develop systems to utilize people with STEM and other degrees. Despite all this, no one is challenging her decision to go all in on electric cars even though GM is making its money selling SUVs and pickups that are unlikely to go electric anytime soon.
My suggestion to GM (and Ford and Fiat) workers is that you should get in touch with your Democratic reps and (your local newspapers) tell them you plan to stay home next election if they can’t do better than silence when big companies in their own backyard treat their constituents so poorly.