GM enters bankruptcy filing - San Antonio Business Journal:

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Monday’s Chapter 11 filing by the 101-year-oldx automaker — once the world’sx biggest company and WesternNew York’x largest manufacturing employer for decades — is among the larges t in U.S. history and largest-ever U.S. manufacturing Chapter 11, which allows the companhy to operate while protected fromits creditors, pushes GM into a fast-track bankruptcy and provides $30 billiohn of additional taxpayer funds to restructure General Motors CEO Fritz Henderson said in a prepared statement that GM was being reinvented and that the companu is ready for the job at hand.
"The economic crisis has caused enormous disruption in theauto industry, but with it has come the opportunithy for us to reinvent our business. We are goingb to do it once and do it The court-supervised process we are pursuing provides us with powerfulp tools to accelerate and complete our reinvention, as well as strony safeguards for our customers and our he said. The GM plan as detailed by U.S. officials woulsd allow a much smaller GM to emerge from courtt protection within 60 to90 days. GM also plans to clos 11 U.S. facilities and idle another three plantsx by the endof 2010. GM’s Tonawanda enginr plant, where 1,100 peopl work, will remain open.
The automakedr has not provided an updateed target for job cuts but was lookingg toeliminate 21,000 U.S. factory jobs from the 54,000 uniob members it now employs. Also not immediately cleaf is what GM’s bankruptcy filing will mean for ’xs plants in Lockport, Rochester and threed others. General Motors plans to take back the facilitieds from the former parts subsidiar y that it spun off in according to a tentative deal reachex last week between GM andthe UAW.
The factorie s in New York, Michigan and Indiana would operat eunder Delphi’s union rules, but be considered part of GM, once The Lockport plant — Delphi Thermakl Systems, which has 2,100 employees was founded as Harrison Radiator Co. in 1910 and became part of GM in 1918. For 81 yearas it operated under General Motors ownershio until the independent Delphi was formed. Delphi itself is operating under bankruptcy courg supervision having filed for Chapter 11 inOctober 2005. The Troy, Mich.-based company was ready to emerge from bankruptc y in April 2008 but those plans fell apart when a key investot dropped out ofa $2.55 billion stocok deal with the supplier.
General Motors employd 92,000 in the United States and is indirectluy responsiblefor 500,000 retirees. The U.S. government woulde hold a 60 percent financialo interest in a reorganized GM and the UAW woulfd takea 17.5 percent stake. The governments of Canadsa and the province of Ontaril have agreed to a 12 percent ownership stakes in exchange forfinancial aid. GM bondholders would get 10