A White House official told FOX Business that Wagoner was asked by the Administration to step down as a precondition for the company to continue to get help with its restructuring.
"This does not surprise me... Rick has seen good and bad times and it seems that a fresh face is needed,” said Mike Green, president of United Auto Workers Local 652 in Lansing, Mich. "There are a lot of smart, capable people inside GM and this will not muck up anything moving forward."
Wagoner, 56 years old, began his GM career as an analyst in the company's Treasurer's Office in New York in 1977. He had been CEO of the auto maker since 2000.
News of Wagoner’s departure comes as the Obama Administration prepares to brief some people on Capitol Hill about its plans for the auto industry on Sunday evening, in advance of a formal announcement on Monday.
The plans will come from a task force put together by President Obama to figure out what the long-term plans for the auto industry should be, after GM received $13.4 billion and Chrysler, which is owned by private-equity firm Cerberus Capital Management, received $4 billion in bridge loans amid one of the worst downturns the auto industry has ever experienced.
GM in particular has been hemorrhaging cash, losing $9.6 billion in the fourth quarter of 2008 alone.
"We think we can have a successful U.S. auto industry," President Obama said on CBS's "Face the Nation" on Sunday. "But it's got to be one that's realistically designed to weather this storm and to emerge… much more lean, mean and competitive than it currently is."
Mr President, stick to your Marlboro's. This is absolute Socialism. When the White House can trump the stockholders when it comes to better business decisions, there's a HUGE problem. Allowing companies to fail is important. When companies cease to produce affordable, reliable products fail, something or someone else will come in to fill the void. That's what has made this country's markets the most competitive and dynamic in all of the world. The changing time we're in now has left us in a world of government interference, bail-outs, etc. The shareholders should speak to their board, not the White House. This makes me sick. Having the President ask a CEO to stepdown is the most unamerican thing I can think of. Again, if you're not angry, you're either not paying attention, or too stupid to know the difference.
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