This one about GM CEO Dan Akerson (above) actually dates from late last year, but it'll pop back up soon enough. GM has a long history of squeezing suppliers when times are bad, and then not letting up when times are good. I thought relations hit rock-bottom in the early 1990s when then-purchasing chief Inaki Lopez openly encouraged suppliers to bid against each other, but a 2005 survey declared they had reached a 15-year low in that year. Like any recidivist, GM keeps promising to do better. More than two years ago, a top GM executive promised that the automaker would "move the needle" on supplier relationships. Now this latest declaration from CEO Dan Akerson. We'll see.
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