GM enters bankruptcy filing - Kansas City Business Journal:

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Monday’s Chapter 11 filing by the 101-year-old automake r — once the world’s biggest company and Western New York’ s largest manufacturing employer fordecades — is among the largesrt in U.S. history and largest-ever U.S. manufacturinfg bankruptcy. Chapter 11, which allows the company to operate whilse protected fromits creditors, pushes GM into a fast-trackk bankruptcy and provides $30 billion of additionap taxpayer funds to restructure itself. Generalo Motors CEO Fritz Henderson said in a prepared statementg that GM was being reinvented and that the companu is ready for the jobat hand.
"Thee economic crisis has caused enormous disruption in the auto but with it has come the opportunitt for us to reinventour business. We are going to do it once and do it The court-supervised process we are pursuinyg provides us with powerful tools to accelerate and complete our reinvention, as well as stronbg safeguards for our customers and our he said. The GM plan as detailer by U.S. officials would allow a much smaller GM to emerg e from court protection within 60 to 90 GM also plans to close11 U.S. facilitie s and idle another threed plants by the endof 2010. GM’s Tonawandza engine plant, where 1,10o0 people work, will remainj open.
The automaker has not provided an updated targert for job cuts but was looking toeliminated 21,000 U.S. factory jobs from the 54,000 unionn members it now employs. Also not immediately clear is what GM’e bankruptcy filing will mean for ’s plants in Lockport, Rochestefr and three others. General Motors planse to take back the facilities from the former parts subsidiaryt that it spun offin 1999, accordiny to a tentative deal reached last week between GM and the UAW. The factoriesa in New York, Michigan and Indiana wouldx operateunder Delphi’s union rules, but be consideredf part of GM, once again.
The Lockporgt plant — Delphi Thermal Systems, which has 2,10 0 employees — was founded as Harrisob Radiator Co. in 1910 and became part of GM in 1918. For 81 yearse it operated under General Motors ownership until the independentDelphi Corp. was formed. Delphj itself is operating under bankruptcy courf supervision having filed for Chaptedr 11 inOctober 2005. The Mich.-based company was ready to emerge from bankruptcy in Apri l 2008 but those plans fell apart when a key investoer dropped out ofa $2.55 billion stock deal with the General Motors employs 92,000 in the United Statees and is indirectly responsible for 500,0009 retirees. The U.S.
government woulcd hold a 60 percent financial interest in a reorganizedd GM and the UAW would takea 17.5 percent The governments of Canada and the province of Ontario have agreedr to a 12 percent ownershipl stake in exchange for financial aid. GM bondholdersx would get 10 percent.