General Motors’ board authorized a $20 billion multiyear share repurchase program in its latest earnings disclosure, announced Oct. 20, a move that CEO Mary Barra said in a letter to shareholders “further demonstrates our board’s commitment to creating even greater shareholder value.”
The move drew immediate condemnation from UAW President Shawn Fain, who in a statement questioned why the automaker was returning excess capital to Wall Street rather than to manufacturing workers.
Share buyback programs are a common method of raising the value of individual shares. A smaller share base increases the potential for investors to see stronger results from the company's core operating performance on a per share basis, according to GM.
“We believe the
company’s undervalued. We think this is the best way to bring value to our shareholders,” Barra said on a call with investors on Oct. 20. “It reflects our board’s commitment to return cash to shareholders because the shares are undervalued.”
Fain said in a statement, first shared with the Detroit Free Press after GM announced the buyback authorization, that if the buyback occurs, it would be the largest stock buyback in U.S. automaker history, and would take place while “tens of thousands of autoworkers have no retirement security, while plants sit under-utilized, and while the global auto industry overtakes GM.”
GM dropped pensions in 2006 in favor of other retirement savings plans. The UAW has since fought to restore them in subsequent contract negotiations.
Dan Ives, partner and senior managing director at New York-based investment banking firm Yorkville Ives, told the Detroit Free Press that he considers the share buyback strategy a sensible one while the stock remains cheap.
“Barra and GM are taking a page out of the Apple playbook on buybacks and it makes a ton of sense in our view. The stock is cheap and not being valued fairly by investors,” he said. “Bulls (investors) like to see the confidence.”
GM’s quarterly earnings before interest and tax, outside of one-time items, rose 22% from the year earlier period in third quarter 2025 to $4.1 billion. That breaks down to $3.70 per share.
GM shares fell nearly 5% in morning trading on Oct. 20. The stock closed at $77.10, down 6.8% from the prior day’s close, according to data from LSEG.
UAW's Fain: Stock buybacks a form of 'mass looting'
In his statement, Fain said the authorized stock buyback program will largely benefit GM’s largest shareholder: Barra.
“Let’s be clear about what stock buybacks really are. They are a form of legalized mass looting, sending billions of dollars generated by the working class directly to Wall Street investors who’ve never seen the inside of a factory,” Fain said. “Why don’t 80% of GM’s autoworkers have a pension and retirement healthcare, as they did for half a century? Because someone on Wall Street is collecting their pension check in the form of a (expletive) stock buyback. Why is GM nickel and diming their retirees while lavishing shareholders with billions? Because this company has sold its soul to Wall Street.”
GM spokesman Jim Cain confirmed that the stock buyback is the largest in General Motor's history and sent a company statement to the Free Press in response to Fain's claims:
“GM’s first priority is investing in our business and our employees. Since 2020, we’ve reinvested more than $100 billion to fund our growth, including in our products, our factories, and our people,” GM’s statement said. “The new repurchase authorization is a meaningful statement of confidence in GM’s ability to fund growth, reward our U.S. employees with the highest profit sharing in the industry, while also returning capital to our shareholder owners.”
GM has repurchased $42.7 billion of its shares since 2015, reducing common shares outstanding by 45%. At the end of third quarter 2026, GM had 849 million shares outstanding, down from 1.54 billion shares in 2015.
In the first nine months of 2026, GM repurchased $5.3 billion of its own shares and an additional $1 billion in October, GM said on Oct. 20.
Fain pointed out in his statement that in the past five years, while the union negotiated for the 2023 contracts, GM had the capital to buy back about $29.5 billion of its own shares.
Fain added that this latest buyback program announcement will stick in the minds of members when the UAW returns to the bargaining table in 2028.
“Corporate America is destroying this country by looting the rust belt to pay off millionaires and billionaires for short term gain, while our factories sit empty and our working class falls further behind. GM hasn’t built a new plant in this country in 20 years,” Fain said. “When GM is spending $20 billion buying back their own stock but only half that investing in factories, equipment, and productive capacity, they are choosing Wall Street profits over blue collar America.”
Jackie Charniga covers General Motors for the Free Press. Reach her at jcharniga@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Wall Street applauds GM stock buyback plan. The UAW is far from happy
