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GM's Barra apologizes to families

sangha

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[h=1]GM's Barra apologizes to families[/h]
General Motors CEO Mary Barra, in written testimony for a House subcommittee hearing on Tuesday into GM's recall of 2.53 million small cars for faulty switches, says: "Sitting here today, I cannot tell you why it took years for a safety defect to be announced in that (small-car) program, but I can tell you that we will find out."
In her testimony filed in advance, Barra promises the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee's Subcommittee on Oversight, "When we have answers, we will be fully transparent with you, with our regulators and with our customers."
When the switches fail, they shut off power to air bags. That fault has been linked by GM to 13 deaths — 12 deaths in the U.S. and one in Canada.

GM's Barra apologizes to families in testimony

Damn those unions!!
 
I listened to a little of the hearing today. The lady could be a good politician with the phrases she used (which pols use all the time): "get to the bottom of this so it'll never happen again", "transparency", "hold people accountable", "ongoing investigation".

Lots of emptiness.
 
OMG!!!!

'Hand the CEO position over to a woman. We're in deep ****."

I saw Mary B in an interview. She seems like smart gal. Go, Mary, go...

It was Obama's fault for saving GM.
 
This what happens when women are allowed to run companies! They just don't understand science, and electricity, and inter-molecular...uh....stuff.
 
This what happens when women are allowed to run companies! They just don't understand science, and electricity, and inter-molecular...uh....stuff.

Actually this all took place when a man ran GM, she only took over in the last 3 months.
 
Actually this all took place when a man ran GM, she only took over in the last 3 months.

capt.reeling.gif
 
I don't understand why anybody would have to testify in front of Congress. This seems to be happening more and more. Whatever happened to law suits and fixing the problems.

Also if there was going to be hearings, why didn't they subpoena the guy that was running GM and making decisions at the time. Why call somebody that has only been in the position for 3 months when this happened over 10 years ago?
 
I don't understand why anybody would have to testify in front of Congress. This seems to be happening more and more. Whatever happened to law suits and fixing the problems.

Also if there was going to be hearings, why didn't they subpoena the guy that was running GM and making decisions at the time. Why call somebody that has only been in the position for 3 months when this happened over 10 years ago?

It's theater. You know that. These hearings are for the members of congress.
 

Not sure if this post is funny (sarcastic) or not, but blaming unions for engineers' and executives' coverups isn't fair. As far as I know, management figures at the big three are non union.

What's sad is that they covered this up since they knew about it in 2001. Bad, really bad.
 
She seemed reasonably sincere, but the more I listened the more I became frustrated. Her general theme seemed to be, "I don't know why/how/what..., but we'll find out and get back to you". Ok, maybe she wasn't the CEO when this stuff started, but she did have notice that she would be testifying before Congress, so I don't think it unreasonable that she had time to know some of the background so that she could have said something relevant. To me, if she knew nothing on a Sgt Schultz level, then WTH is she doing as CEO of a major corporation?
 
So the government screwed up in its regulation of GM and the same government was a significant shareholder in the same company. Clearly the definition of conflict of interest I learned has changed somehow.
 
Not sure if this post is funny (sarcastic) or not, but blaming unions for engineers' and executives' coverups isn't fair. As far as I know, management figures at the big three are non union.

What's sad is that they covered this up since they knew about it in 2001. Bad, really bad.

Sarcasm
 
So the government screwed up in its regulation of GM and the same government was a significant shareholder in the same company. Clearly the definition of conflict of interest I learned has changed somehow.

Please. This GM coverup goes back to 2001 before Government Motors lent a dime. Your conflict of interest analogy and timing is way off.
 
Please. This GM coverup goes back to 2001 before Government Motors lent a dime. Your conflict of interest analogy and timing is way off.

Please yourself. There were reviews of the situation in both 2007 and 2010--anything before that doesn't mitigate what happened then. It is a clear conflict of interest to have the umpire with a vested interest in the game.

Or do you believe that the entire situation was known in 2001 and nothing knew was added to the base of knowledge about the situation after that?
 
OMG!!!!

'Hand the CEO position over to a woman. We're in deep ****."

Ain't THAT the damn truth, you guys are outta there!!!! :lol:
 
Please yourself. There were reviews of the situation in both 2007 and 2010--anything before that doesn't mitigate what happened then. It is a clear conflict of interest to have the umpire with a vested interest in the game.

Or do you believe that the entire situation was known in 2001 and nothing knew was added to the base of knowledge about the situation after that?

Here...

GM thought it had fixed the ignition-switch defect, the carmaker said in a supplemental report filed with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration today. Then in 2003, service technicians found that an owner with a heavy key ring was experiencing engine stalls while driving. The flaw, linked to 12 deaths, led to the recall last month of 1.6 million cars.

GM Now Says Ignition-Switch Troubles Date Back to 2001 - Bloomberg

The Corvair, 1961 to 1969 was only deemed an unsafe vehicle 3 years after production stopped. (Ralph Nader)

Automaker recalls are usually slow, sometimes unusually and painfully slow. Toyota recently paid $1.2 Billion for a settlement after the Government became involved.

Sometimes, people will die in crashes before eyebrows are raised, and our government and automakers sit up and take notice.
 
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