From http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_19/b3932001_mz001.htm
GM’S PLAN A SOFT LANDING
Remember the old ad slogan, “This is not your father’s Oldsmobile”? Well, this is no longer your father’s auto industry — but GM is still run as if it were. Fifteen years ago management struck a deal with unions that made it all but impossible to close auto plants or lay off workers without incurring massive costs. GM also agreed to cushy retiree benefits that put it at a severe disadvantage. Much of what ails GM today flows from that accounting reality and its inability to increase the business at home. The need to keep those plants running, to generate cash, and to feed a sprawling web of aging auto brands compromises car design and results in too many models that sit for years without an update. The bedrock principle upon which GM was built — offering a car to feed every market segment — has degraded into a series of contrived brands, most with little identity, and bland, overlapping product lines.