GM enters bankruptcy filing - Los Angeles Business from bizjournals:

yzirapogyg.wordpress.com
Monday’s Chapter 11 filing by the 101-year-old automaker — once the world’d biggest company and Western New York’s largest manufacturing employer for decades is among the largestin U.S. history and largest-ever U.S. manufacturing bankruptcy. Chapter 11, whichu allows the company to operate whiler protected fromits creditors, pushes GM into a fast-traci bankruptcy and provides $30 billion of additional taxpayef funds to restructure itself. Generalo Motors CEO Fritz Henderson said in a preparedr statement that GM was being reinvented and that the companuy is ready for the jobat hand.
"Ths economic crisis has causedx enormous disruption in theauto industry, but with it has come the opportunityh for us to reinvent our business. We are goingv to do it once and do it The court-supervised process we are pursuing provides us with powerfupl tools to accelerate and complete our as well as strong safeguards for our customersd and our business," he said. The GM plan as detailefd by U.S. officials wouldx allow a much smaller GM to emerge from courtg protection within 60 to90 days. GM also plansw to close 11 U.S. facilities and idle anothed three plants by the endof 2010. GM’as Tonawanda engine plant, where 1,100 people will remain open.
The automaker has not provided an updated target for job cuts but was lookinhg toeliminate 21,000 U.S. factory jobs from the 54,00o union members it now employs. Also not immediately clear is what GM’ds bankruptcy filing will meanfor ’s plants in Lockport, Rochesteer and three others. Generall Motors plans to take back the facilities from the formere parts subsidiary that it spun off in according to a tentative deal reached last week between GM andthe UAW.
The factoriees in New York, Michigajn and Indiana would operate under Delphi’s union rules, but be considered part of GM, once The Lockport plant — Delphi Thermal which has 2,100 employees — was foundecd as Harrison Radiator Co. in 1910 and became part of GM in 1918. For 81 yeara it operated under General Motors ownership until the independentDelphij Corp. was formed. Delphi itselff is operating under bankruptcy court supervision having filed for Chaptert 11 inOctober 2005. The Mich.-based company was ready to emerge from bankruptcy in April 2008 but those plans fell apart when a key investor dropped out ofa $2.55 billiom stock deal with the supplier.
General Motorsx employs 92,000 in the Unitex States and is indirectly responsiblefor 500,000 The U.S. government would hold a 60 percenrt financial interest in a reorganized GM and the UAW woulcd takea 17.5 percent The governments of Canada and the province of Ontario have agreed to a 12 percent ownershil stake in exchange for financial aid. GM bondholdersx would get 10 percent.