After securing the funds to keep it alive until President-elect Obama takes office in 2009, General Motors has issued a two-page open letter of apology.
Addressed to the 'American People', the letter says:
"We deeply appreciate the Congress considering General Motors' request to borrow up to $18 billion from the United States. We want to be sure the American people know why we need it, what we'll do with it and how it will make GM viable for the long term."
Ominously, the car maker says: "U.S. auto industry sales have fallen to their lowest per capita rate in half a century. Despite moving quickly to reduce our planned spending by over $20 billion, GM finds itself precariously and frighteningly close to running out of cash."
GM points out that it has been the "sales leader" in the US for 76 years, but says it has "violated trust" by "letting our quality fall" and letting its designs become "lacklustre".
GM also claims that before "the perfect storm" and the "worst financial crisis since the Great Depression" it was on course to recovery having "improved quality", "produced more attractive cars", concentrating on improved productivity and striking new working agreements with the unions to reduce production costs.
GM lays out the 10-point plan it presented to Congress, including the promises to "produce automobiles you want to buy and are excited to own" and "lead the reinvention of the automobile based on promising new technology".
GM promises that its action plan is "designed to provide you [the American tax payer] with a secure return on your investment in GM's future".
"Combined with a modest rebound of the US economy, should allow us to begin repaying you in 2011."
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Re: GM addresses US people
Hi Grettel.......I see you are trying to attempt comedy (or at least I think so); I found this on the internet that might help you learn; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comedy......... not sure if its any good.........but have fun!
Re: GM addresses US people
Firstly - thank God that the big three have been thrown a lifeline. Without it hundreds of thousands of jobs (both direct and indirect) would have vanished and plummeted the world economy into a further downward spiral.
Secondly - it makes me giggle to see opposite ends of economic ideologies (fat cat capitalists in the form of the finance sector and socialist run industry in the form of the auto worker unions enabling people who attach a wheel to an axle earn six figure salaries - US dollars of course), both needing a bail out from a government.
Don't get me wrong - it's about time that financial speculators are brought back to planet earth and some regulation should be in place to ensure we do not all suffer with our savings and investments so that some guy can make a massive bonus every year.
But also let's get real with the salaries that some unionized auto workers are paid - and the icing on the cake is that the end product is still unreliable and poorly put together! Some plants pay their unionized workforce a full salary for them to stay at home while the production line is being re-tooled. Could they be doing something else at work? Probably....but "my job is to put a wheel onto an axle, not to help with the re-tooling process....that's not in my collective agreement approved job description. I guess what I'm asking for here is more flexibility, in the same way that there should be less "flexibility" for some investors taking chances in the financial sector.
Re: GM addresses US people
Fine Words, GM. Fine Words.