GM's Chairman, Rick Waggoner, talks about the heavy burden

[KlatooBNikto]

retiree health costs impose on GM, something that Toyota and other foreign carmakers do not have to shoulder.That being the case, you would think that GM would step up and support a single payer health plan supported by tax payers. That way corporations like GM would not have healthcare costs hanging over their heads.But this solution to health care costs does not appeal to the Republican ideologues at GM.In the end GTM will screw its retirees.Even when its retirees would have the rug pulled out from under them, GM will bite the dust because it simply is not a match for GM's competitors.

[carnie_sf]

1. GM will bite the dust

because they have shown more loyalty to corporate execs than to the people who made them great, the American autoworker.

[Robert Oak]

2. to me, looks like a ramp up to screw their retiree's on pensions

I mean, come on, we all know they outsourced the jobs, first
to Mexico, screwed the labor unions, outsourced every meaningful
product task involved in making a car, made marketing decisions
by some idiot bean counter and ignored quality and innovation.

So, instead of realizing they did it to themselves...who will pay?

Why the pension plan retirees, who busted their rear ends for them
for 20-30 years of course.

[tjdee]

3. How much will HIS retirement plan cost?

Poor chairman, who makes millions of dollars EVERY YEAR, all those terrible people working for him, who all RETIRE and expect to get some kind of retirement benefits!

The horror, Mr. Chairman! How much will it affect your end of year bonuses, stock options, and retirement package?

:nopity:

[Hamlette]

4. unions have fought single payer too

its been a tranditional barganing chip encouraging membership in unions.

Think of it this way:

A german car manufacturer sells a car in Germany. It carries a VAT. The VAT funds health care so the cost of health car is not built into the price of the car per se. They sell the german car in america where there is no VAT so Americans don't pay the price of health care in Germany.

An American car manufacturer must add something like $1500 to the sticker price. When the american car is sold in germany the germans must pay the $1500 for american health care plus the VAT for german health care.

I'm not defending american car manufacturers. They have made some short sighted decisions. But when it comes to health care the playing field is not equal and they should step up and support single payer in the US, or even a VAT.

[w4rma]

7. Not in general though. You have stated the exception to the rule. (nt)

[orwell]

5. They Do

...in Canada. GM Canada loves "socialized medicine."

If GM in the US could get away with supporting it, they would.

[KlatooBNikto]

6. GM may very well look at GM Canada as the place to do all its

manufacturing and assembly ( until it moves to China, of course) to cut its health related costs.It will still have to bear the burden of its retiree health benefits. I am sure a plan is in the works to screw the retirees out of their benefits.Even that will not sove GM's problems because their products stink and unless they offer massive rebates nobody is lining up to buy them.The market is essentially passing a verdict on GM's products that they are no good.On that critical issue, Waggoner and his management are dead silent because they don't want to expose GM's biggest secret that they are clueless.