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Cars and Drivers

GM Idling Plants In Cost Cuts (GM)

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published
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General Motors (NYSE: GM) is finally taking a step in the obvious direction.  The company is now apparently cutting about 250,000 units of production in the first quarter.  This will be accomplished via temporary shut downs of its manufacturing and assembly plants for about 30% of the first quarter in 2009.  Some of the cuts include numbers previously given, but some do not. 

UPDATE TO STORY (12:31):  The Detroit Free Press first broke this data and a press release has now confirmed the data.

This is a scenario where almost everyone is at fault. It is not just aunion problem, it is not just an economic problem, and it is not just amanagement problem.

We now believe Rick Wagoner’s chances of staying on as Chairman & CEO are growing more and more slim.  We named him as a CEO TO GO FOR 2009 and the chances of his departure (willingly or forced) are rising each day.

Like it or not, major changes are coming to this U.S. automakingindustry.  Management is going to be under a microscope.  The UAW isgoing to have to accept that its ranks are going to earn less money.More dealerships are likely to shrink or go under.  And these companiesare going to have to continue shrinking. The list goes on.

Jon C. Ogg
December 12, 2008

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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