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Too-Big-to-Fail GM to UAW workers: Buy our cars…please? Oh. And sell them too!

Just how bad are sales these days  for Government Motors General Motors? Apparently, it’s so bad that GM can’t even get its own UAW employees to buy the cars they make and is asking for help to sell them.

But wait, that’s not the punchline and this is no joke:

GM is planning a campaign aimed at its own employees!

General Motors is kicking off a new word-of-mouth campaign to get people talking about its lineup of vehicles. The talkers GM has in mind? Its own employees.

The campaign is a whistlestop event called the”Vehicle Plant Tour” — which may not be the best title we’ve ever heard, but it’s a pretty accurate description of the project. The Tour involves GM reps visiting 40 of the company’s manufacturing plants with a number of hot GM vehicles in tow, including the Buick LaCrosse, the Cadillac CTS Sport Wagon,the Chevrolet Equinox, Camaro and Malibu, and theGMC Terrain.

At each stop, factory employees will learn about those models, and they’ll have the opportunity to test-drive them. There are also some public events on tap — presumably so that the employees can experience the vehicles in the company of family, friends, and other members of the community. Each stop on the Tour will last about a month, and in total, the campaign is expected to reach about 40,000 GM employees. The Tour kicks off at facilities in Arlington, Texas, Defiance, Ohio, and Tonawanda, New York.

[snip]

That said, it sounds like a great campaign to us — not only because it will give GM employees first-hand knowledge of the company’s new vehicles, but also because it’s likely to boost morale in the workplace, which is especially important for GM right now. Over the past year, General Motors has undergone some dramatic, traumatic changes, and thanks to ongoing personnel shakeups, the dust at GM yet to settle. Making things worse, many people have criticized GM for its inefficiency and for taking bailout dough from the feds, which has led some to refer to GM as “Government Motors”. GM employees are a dedicated bunch, but in the face of all that instability and bad press, it’s been a bit harder for them to keep their spirits high. [Emphasis added.]

Another great investment from the bureaucrats in Washington Detroit.

Here’s a radical idea:

Instead of spending more taxpayer money (at a minimum of $2.2 million*) to fund another stupid idea, why not have the Government Motors GM dealers do a UAW appreciation day and invite them down to the lot?

Oh…Never mind. Bad thought.

The dealers might not really appreciate all that the UAW has done for their business.

* Assuming each of the 40,000 employees take an hour off from their normal jobs to go stand in a parking lot and look at the new line up, at $55 dollars an hour, that means GM will be spending (at a minimum) $2.2 million just to pay people to look at the cars.

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“I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes.” Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776

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Cross-posted.

COMMENTS

  • Richard Mullins

    because all it will do is make it all worse. I can’t really buy Ford cars either because the UAW is there. It’s really time to sabotage the UAW but no-one wants to do it.

    • http://www.laborunionreport.comandhttp://www.laborunionreport.blogspot.com LaborUnionReport
  • Go_GM

    “* Assuming each of the 40,000 employees take an hour off from their normal jobs to go stand in a parking lot and look at the new line up, at $55 dollars an hour, that means GM will be spending (at a minimum) $2.2 million just to pay people to look at the cars.”
    This statement is pure hogwash. All drives will be scheduled before or after the workers’ shift. There will be limited opportunities during the 30 minute lunch break, but NO ONE is allowed to take off from their job to drive a new GM vehicle.
    You are proud to advertise your keyboard prowess, sir, why do you dismiss an American corporation which advertises it’s products to it’s fans and customers?
    The sooner GM returns taxpayer loans, the better off you will be. BTW, the rumors of GM having an IPO this year are growing louder.

    • mbecker908

      Methinks it’s the “BobBennettStaffer” virus.

      • nessa

        …now that his namesake, Gov’t Motors is so deeply embroiled in the socialism of Obama and the democrat party. I, for one plan to continue to do them whatever ill I can, and it doesn’t appear that I’m alone!

    • janis

      Good heavens, man, one could cover the entire eastern seaboard with grass if we converted your bias to sod. And GM is not an American corporation, it’s a government owned entity.

      And I could swing a dead cat all day and night in the area where I live and not even come close to hitting a GM “fan or customer.” That ship just sailed right out of the bay and sunk like a stone.

      • http://www.laborunionreport.comandhttp://www.laborunionreport.blogspot.com LaborUnionReport

        “And I could swing a dead cat all day and night in the area where I live and not even come close to hitting a GM

        • penguin2

          The rest of us take her classes. :)

    • http://www.laborunionreport.comandhttp://www.laborunionreport.blogspot.com LaborUnionReport

      Once General Motors become government motors by suckling at the teat of the American taxpayer, they crossed the bounds of ineptitude to leechdom….

      BTW: My Ford stocks, along with my F-150, have done quite well without government intervention.

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      • Achance

        I once provoked a four day union caucus – over a holiday – by saying the employer wouldn’t mind paying the OT for the negotiations to continue over that holiday. ‘Course, the bargaining team was all on union business leave which is banked leave confiscated from the members as a part of their dues, so we were happy to help them use it faster. And, of course, they hit the business leave account for time and a half plus the holiday pay because they “worked” over the holiday – by discussion whether or not to give themselves holiday pay. You can pretty much always count on them to do stuff like that and I just loved to give them the opportunity.

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