GM CEO Addresses Employees About Leaks *UPDATED*

William Maley

Staff Writer - CheersandGears.com

August 12, 2012

General Motors CEO Dan Akerson is not happy with the media this past week. During the company’s Thursday employee meeting, Akerson criticized leaks to news media.

"We have to stop leaking in this company. It's an act of treason — it really is," Akerson said.

Akerson used the Ewanick departure as an example. As we reported last week, Ewanick was thrown out of GM due to internal frictions and failure to disclose the full $559 million cost of a soccer deal. This information was gotten by Bloomberg News after a source told them about what had happen.

It was almost verbatim what happened. That is unfair to anybody whether you think he's right, wrong or in-between."

Akerson also cited a former executive leaking financial information and another employee filming a new truck interior and posting it on the Internet.

"If you don't want to play by the rules, then you ought to work somewhere else," Akerson said. "We have the right to expect that people will behave with integrity. And when they don't, we can't tolerate it, and we won't."

Akerson announced to all employees at the meeting they would be signing a document called "Winning With Integrity." A GM spokeswoman told The Detroit News the document isn’t new , and that employees have had to sign a compliance form for at least 10 years.

*UPDATE* - An employee at GM Communications contacted me to offer additional information. The "Winning with Integrity" document is not a new policy. All salaried employes are required to electronically sign the document each year and has been part of the official policy at General Motors for about 10 years. The reason that GM CEO Dan Akerson mentioned this document during the meeting was due to the coinciding of the scheduled annual compliance signature requirement with the departure of some key executives. Employees represented by the United Auto Workers are not required to sign the document. - Drew Dowdell, Managing Editor - CheersandGears.com

Source: The Detroit News

William Maley is a staff writer for Cheers & Gears. He can be reached at [email protected] or you can follow him on twitter at @realmudmonster.