Ford and General Motors will sell their fleet of corporate luxury jets, the two struggling auto companies announced today.
The move comes two weeks after ABC News revealed Ford CEO Alan Mulally, GM CEO Rick Wagoner and Chrysler CEO Robert Nardelli traveled to Washington in private jets to plead poverty and ask Congress for $25 billion in taxpayer money. …
In a statement, GM said, “Due to significant cutbacks over the past months, GM travel volume no longer justified a dedicated corporate aircraft operation.”
“We don’t use them much anyway,” said GM spokesperson Mike Meyerand. “It saves us a lot of money to get out of this business,” he said.
Ford also confirmed that it has decided to sell its five corporate aircraft.
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The plan Ford is presenting to Congress this week also says it will cancel all management employees’ 2009 bonuses and will not pay any merit increases for its North American salaried employees next year. Mulally said in an interview Tuesday that Ford will emphasize its cost cutting efforts with the United Auto Workers union and will give much more detail to Congress than it did during a visit earlier this month. The company also will accelerate plans to roll out electric cars as part of the plan it will present to Congress this week. Mulally says Ford has said it has enough cash to make it through 2009 and may not need government help.
Top executives at the Big Three U.S. automakers are returning to Congress for hearings on Thursday and Friday. They are seeking the bailout loans to help them through the recession and the worst sales downturn in 25 years. A GM spokesman says Chief Executive Rick Wagoner will travel to Washington, D.C., by car instead of flying a commercial airline or corporate jet.
Here’s an idea guys; start taking this seriously if you expect anyone else to take it seriously, stop playing the window dressing game and calling that your plan, and come back to Congress when you have a deal worked out with the UAW that will cut labor costs. Until then, quit bothering Congress with your nonsense.
2 Comments
December 3, 2008 at 12:16 pm
Ford Motor Co., Detroit’s says it’s OK for now. Although it is seeking up to $9 billion in bridge financing, but says it hopes to complete turnaround without accessing the loan should Congress agree to make the funds available. But it wants the ability to access up to $9 billion in government credit. They also said that if GM fails it could take the entire domestic auto industry down with it.
So FORD needs GM?
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December 6, 2008 at 9:41 am
When I heard about the “Job Bank” I was floored….also the amount of people just not showing up for work ! Overpaid, sure, but the exec. pay must be examined as well, and bonuses deleted. In my world, you get a bonus for good work, a failing Company does not sound like good work. Of course, our crooked bankers cutting off credit for the purchase of cars has caused a lot of this problem. $20,000 to fly a jet from Detroit to Washington times 3 would have paid a lot of salaries. I am sure that is just one of the ways the Big Guys suck up the money. They talk about how health care adds $2000 to the price of each car, how about Exec’s perks…..maybe more? Health care is rediculous, our system is broken, Obama promises to fix it……..we all know it is full of graft and corruption, to the detriment of everyone who must use it. My Dr. just left town, fed up with the corruption in the hospital. I never needed much health care until after I reached 67, and now I find it sadly lacking. I have been thru 4 Dr;s who left for the same reason in just 3 years. No one is FIXING anything. George Bush has been the absolute worse person, he could not be in charge of the local dump, not to mention our Country.