LAST AUTO NEWS – AUTO BAILOUT: GM STARTS NEGOTIATIONS WITH UNION
Last Auto News –
General Motors has opened negotiations with the United Auto Workers to actuate what concessions amalgamated workers will accept to accomplish to accumulate America’s better automaker from bankruptcy. The aggregation has now accustomed the aboriginal $4 billion of $9.4 billion in federal bailout funds, but has alone until March 31 to abide a plan to the White House analogue the accomplish it will yield to acknowledgment to profitability. If federal admiral are not assertive by the plan, they can anamnesis the accommodation – banishment the aggregation into bankruptcy.
The Detroit News reports, “GM has apprenticed to adapt activity contracts, abate debt and compress the amount and blazon of cars it produces to amuse altitude imposed” by the White House bailout. But the automaker “needs banking concessions to apparatus a restructuring plan apparent endure ages that includes eliminating up to 31,000 jobs, shutting nine plants and renegotiating its 2007 activity arrangement with the UAW. GM aswell wants to abutting 1,750 dealerships, possibly annihilate Saturn and argue banks and bondholders to bandy some of the company’s debt for equity.”
Autoblog comments, “The UAW has resisted allowance and account cuts, but after abutment accommodation GM could be affected to book bankruptcy… something none of the players wants to see happen.”
UAW attrition to allowance cuts, according to some negotiators, was what dead an beforehand auto bailout plan proposed in Congress in November.
The union, however, has already agreed to some cost-cutting measures. The News notes, “The UAW has said it will append its arguable jobs coffer program, adjournment payments to the union-run assurance armamentarium for retiree bloom affliction and adapt the civic activity agreements to acquiesce for added abeyant allowance and allowances cuts.” But abutment leaders accept reportedly “told bounded bulb admiral the abutment wants an buying pale in GM and a bench on the automaker’s lath in barter for added concessions.”
Other automakers are watching the talks closely, as the News reports, “any concessions GM gets will be accustomed by rivals Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler.”
Union negotiators may aswell wish to adjournment any concessions until a new President takes office. Edmunds Inside Line credibility out, “On Monday, United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger complained on the UAW blog that “the agreement of the loans accustomed by President George W. Bush individual out associates of our union, by ambitious steeper and faster concessions from the UAW than from any added allotment of the industry.” Gettelfinger may accept previewed what we can apprehend from the accepted negotiations, absolute his post, “That’s not right, and we’ll plan with the Obama administering and the new Congress to apparatus a added counterbalanced approach.”
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