Catherwood LibraryILR School

American auto icon General Motors (GM) has been forced to change things up of late, and what was once so much a family affair is quickly disappearing. The company, founded in 1908, has a long-standing tradition of hiring generation after generation of the same families, so much so that younger generations were practically guaranteed a lifetime job at the plant where their fathers and grandfathers worked. Company towns thrived. But the recent downturn, and flourishing foreign auto market has hailed the end of the family tradition. GM has cut thousands of manufacturing jobs in recent years and the family name no longer means a guaranteed hire. Many generational employees look on the decline of the tradition as a sad and painful event.