GM Looses $2,000,000,000 (That's $Billion) CEO Wagner Recieved $10 Million in Pay In Sopite of 25% Base Pay Cut

DETROIT, April 27, 2007; Reuters reported that General Motors Corp. Chief Executive Rick Wagoner has cut his base salary by a quarter to $1.65 million in a gesture of support for the automaker's turnaround efforts, the company said on Friday.

In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, GM said Wagoner agreed to cut his base salary as of March 1, 2007 from $2.2 million in January 2006.

Wagoner's total compensation for 2006 was $10.2 million, including $3 million in option awards and $3.6 million in stock awards, the filing said.

Separately, Wagoner said generating positive cash flow was a "top priority" for the world's largest automaker, which has lost more than $12 billion in the last two years and is in the middle of a restructuring that includes slashing more than 34,000 jobs and closing 12 plants. GM's automotive operations alone burned $3.8 billion in 2006.

"Moving the business to positive operating cash flow is a top priority," Wagoner said in a letter to shareholders, also released on Friday. Continued...

OTHER SALARIES CUT

GM Chief Financial Officer Fritz Henderson and product chief Bob Lutz also took pay cuts of 15 percent each, bringing their base salaries to $1.32 million each.

The total compensation package for Henderson was $5.2 million, while Lutz's total was $8.4 million.

The salary cuts, which GM said were in support of the automaker's turnaround, come just ahead of labor talks with the United Auto Workers union, when Detroit's Big Three automakers are expected to press for wage and benefit concessions.

In the letter, Wagoner called the upcoming labor negotiations an "important opportunity to meaningfully address critical issues such as cost competitiveness."

The current contract expires in September.

Wagoner also said GM is continuing talks with bankrupt supplier Delphi Corp. and its unions in an effort to help the company emerge from bankruptcy.

"We've made considerable progress in those complex negotiations over the past year and continue to be hopeful that an agreement can be reached soon that is in the best interests of GM and its stockholders," he said.

Wagoner also said the automaker is continuing to strengthen its internal accounting and financial reporting in light of a spate of accounting errors that have led GM to restate earnings going back several years.

GM has also proposed the election of two people to its board: Errol Davis, 63, who is chancellor of the Georgia state university system, and Kathryn Marinello, 50, who is a member of The Business Roundtable.

The company will hold its annual shareholders meeting on June 5.