On Labor Day Eve, GM CEO Akerson Extends Hand to Unions
By Michelle Krebs September 2, 2010
In his first communication with employees, new General Motors CEO Dan Akerson relayed in a Labor Day letter extended his hand to the company's unions and gave employees a pat on the back.
Akerson, officially installed this week as GM's fourth CEO in 17 months, shared a conversation he had recently with UAW President Bob King and UAW Vice President Joe Ashton at the union's downtown headquarters, known as Solidarity House.
"We agreed that, while we will not always see eye to eye on everything, GM will succeed to the extent that management and labor work together. I believe very deeply in that, Akerson wrote.
He added in the missive: "Coming from a union family, I know on a very personal level the good things that unions can do."
Indeed, smooth labor relations will be a cricital element as GM tries to sell its Initial Public Offering. GM's road show for its IPO pitch reportedly kicks off Nov. 3, the day after elections.
At the same time, as GM's financial performance improves, the unions will be knocking at GM's management door to win back some of what they gave up as part of the automaker's emergence from Chapter 11 bankruptcy last year.
Ackerson's message thanked employees for their commitment. "There will always be more hard work ahead of us, but because of your dedication, I have great optimism for GM's future," he concluded.
Photo by GM
Dan Akerson was officially installed Wednesday as GM's CEO.
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What gets me is that the UAW wants to "get back what they gave up", but they already got a lot: they are now shareholders in GM, Chrysler and Ford. Through the VEBA, they got a significant part of the contribution from Ford in the form of shares. They got a small piece of GM as part of the bailout and bankruptcy, and they got a very, very big piece of Chrysler (FIAT only got 20%, the UAW got nearly 60% of Chrysler). The UAW needs to stop acting like they are the "victims" here and start to assert their rights as owners. They can no longer act as if someone else is controlling their destiny.
While I'm sure not surprised, it's unfortunately the same old greedy, clueless, adversarial, destructive attitude of the UAW thug bosses that greatly handicap the industry that's forced to put up with their government sanctioned extortion which will further doom them. GM should have been allowed to dump the UAW instead.
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