AIG just made General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner’s life that much tougher.
Wagoner is asking GM’s unions, bondholders and dealers to make concessions as he seeks to restructure a company that is asking for more taxpayer help. GM is due to present a report on its long-term viability by the end of the month.
GM will have to do this in the wake of news stories about AIG granting $165 million in bonuses to employees blamed for escalating a financial crisis that helped put GM in its predicament.
Wagoner knows about populist anger as well as anyone. He was pilloried late last year for taking a corporate jet to Washington to plead for help. The next time, he drove with other executives.
“It had a different kind of feeling,” Wagoner said Tuesday, remembering his experience on Capitol Hill and how it differed from working with administration officials. “I can tell you that personally.”
Wagner drew “a dramatic distinction” between AIG and GM, which he said had a greater role in the economy of “Main Street” but has received far less government support. While AIG has secured $170 billion from the government, GM has received about $13.4 billion, though it is asking for more.
Wagoner’s raised eyebrows provided his answer. “In the GM turnaround, everybody is sacrificing,” he said. “Everybody’s got skin in the game.”
“Skin in the game” is one of those phrases that show Wagoner’s noble breeding as a corporate ruler. Another is calling his request for government funds “a tough ask” and his description of a prepackaged Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing as a “prepack.”
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