U.S. and Canadian taxpayers funded the bailout of General Motors. Shouldn’t the new majority owners, therefore, have a voice in the business?
GM Majority Stockholders' Petition
We the citizens of the United States and Canada—the de jure majority stockholders of General Motors (GM)—would like to submit the following resolution and the appended comments, criticisms, and amendments to GM, our respective elected officials, and the agencies and entities overseeing GM’s future operations and visioning.
Stockholders Resolution to General Motors et al.
Whereas, the Federal Government of the United States now owns 60%, and the Government of Canada 12%, of General Motors (GM);
Whereas, the Federal Government of the United States and the Government of Canada exist to serve and carry out the wishes of their respective citizenry, whose tax contributions funded this purchase;
Whereas, GM is now a public resource, purchased by taxpayers and owned by citizens through our representative governments,
Whereas, public resources should be managed in accordance with public wishes, to serve the public good;
Whereas, GM’s long-standing practice of externalizing the economic, environmental and social costs of production and use of their products does not serve the public good and is not in accordance with the wishes of its citizen owners;
Therefore; the citizen taxpayer/majority owners of GM petition the following:
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GM’s design goals must look to the future, with a focus not just on making cars, but rather on providing transportation in a socially and environmentally responsible manner;
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GM’s designs should be integrative and multipurpose, (including, for example, electric vehicles that serve to transport people by day and function as home or office battery banks storing renewable energy by night);
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GM design decisions should focus not only on increasing revenue, but also on minimizing social, economic and environmental costs, based on full life cycle assessments;
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GM designs and product lines should encourage and facilitate an overall reduction in energy and material uses;
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Internal combustion engines as primary propulsion mechanisms for GM vehicles must be phased out within five years;
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GM must engage in full Corporate Social Responsibility reporting and create and support a senior level sustainability officer position; and
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GM should set an example for other corporations with a new, more responsible executive compensation model that limits CEO and other high level executive compensation–including all salary, options, and bonuses—to no greater than 100 times that of the average worker’s pay.
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Rules for the Facebook Virtual Stockholders meeting: We have offered up a proposed set of recommendations for General Motors and their overseers. Please feel free to comment on our offering, suggest your own, or offer whatever opinions you want on the GM bailout or restructuring. But be cordial, well reasoned, and concise and please refrain from profanity. Inappropriate comments will be removed.
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