General Motors Co's top executive, Mary Barra, received a compensation package worth just under $22 million in 2018, slightly less than the previous year, according to the No. 1 U.S. automaker's proxy statement released on Thursday.
This is despite the November announcement that the company plans to shut four factories in the U.S. by the end of 2019 along with cutting thousands of salaried jobs due to developing electric and self-driving technologies, slashing the unpopular sedan model in the process.
Just hours after GM's announcement in March, President Trump attacked the decision, tweeting: 'Just spoke to Mary Barra, CEO of General Motors about the Lordstown Ohio plant. I am not happy that it is closed when everything else in our Country is BOOMING. I asked her to sell it or do something quickly. She blamed the UAW Union — I don't care, I just want it open!'
General Motors Chief Executive Officer Mary Barra announces a major investment focused on the development of GM future technologies - meaning the unpopular sedan model is cut
That themed continued at rallies in Ohio and Michigan, the location of three of the factories and states that were crucial to his presidential victory in 2016.
The announcement also had the unique effect of uniting Washington, as former Vice President Joe Biden - whose father, grandfather and uncle all worked at a GM plant in Delaware that shut down in 2009 - also slammed the decision.
'There used to be a basic bargain in America - you guys know it better than anybody - it said that if you're a part of building the success of an enterprise, you got to share in the benefits,' Biden said in a speech to the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers on April 5.
Just hours after GM's announcement in March, President Trump attacked the decision
GM said Barra's pay was 281 times that of the median company employee. GM's Orion Assembly plant is pictured as employees listen to Mary Barra speak on March 22
He added: 'Not now. If
