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Showing posts with label GM. Show all posts
Showing posts with label GM. Show all posts
Monday, September 20, 2010
U.S Goverment looking to china and others to invest in GM
The U.S. Treasury loaned GM about $50 billion to help it through bankruptcy protection last year. GM has repaid $6.7 billion. The rest of the bailout money was converted to a 61 percent government stake in the company. The government hopes to get the remaining $43 billion back with stock sales that could start in mid-November.
Wednesday, August 04, 2010
Thursday, March 26, 2009
GM Says 7,500 UAW Members to Take Buyouts, Boosting Savings Bid
March 26 (Bloomberg) -- General Motors Corp. said 7,500 United Auto Workers members have signed up for buyouts the company needs as part of cuts to keep $13.4 billion in U.S. aid and more than doubling a Barclays Capital estimate.
The retirements and buyouts open slots for the biggest U.S. automaker to hire replacement workers for half the current union rate. Under the federal loans GM says it needs to survive, labor costs must match those of Japanese automakers in the U.S.
GM and Chrysler LLC are encouraging workers to accept buyouts, retire or quit after concessions this year eliminated benefits related to job security and unemployment pay. They’re seeking as much as much as $21.6 billion in new U.S. financing to stay in business.
President Barack Obama’s auto task force will announce more aid for GM and Chrysler within a week, possibly in a few days, Senator Carl Levin said yesterday.
“It’s clear that there will be more support and it will be with some conditionalities, which will be made clear within a week,” Levin, a Michigan Democrat, told reporters in Washington.
Steven Rattner, the U.S. Treasury’s chief auto adviser, said March 20 the task force would give a “sense of direction” before the end of the month. March 31 is the automakers’ deadline to show they can restructure and remain viable.
‘Clear Direction’
“It’s something that will be positive,” Levin said of the task force’s planned announcement. “The administration wants to be helpful. It is clear to me that there will be conditions and that there will be clear direction as to where they’re headed.”
GM’s union buyout covers about 62,000 employees willing to retire or quit and consists of a $25,000 voucher to buy a new auto and receive $20,000 in cash. The company’s goal is to get half of about 22,000 eligible workers to leave and GM budgeted for about 6,000 to take the current offer, a person familiar with the plans said.
Workers who accepted the buyout by the March 24 deadline have seven days to reconsider. The UAW declined comment on the offers before today’s release.
Barclays analyst Brian Johnson in Chicago projected in a March 12 report that GM would persuade about 3,100 workers to leave. GM, Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler cut more than 124,800 hourly workers with buyouts or attrition in three years.
Ford’s Buyouts
Union workers at Ford, which isn’t seeking government loans, ratified changes March 9 after reaching an accord on a plan to replace as much as half of future payments to a UAW-run retiree health-care fund with stock instead of cash. GM and Chrysler are still negotiating retiree-fund changes.
The Ford UAW concessions eliminate the so-called jobs bank that paid workers most of their wages to report to a work location when there were no duties to perform. Pay that supplements unemployment has been reduced. Laid-off employees who refuse to take a new job, even hundreds of miles away, lose their benefits.
Ford’s buyout program, which pays as much as $75,000 in cash and vouchers, begins April 1 and ends May 22. The program may be accepted by 5 percent, or about 2,100, of Ford’s current 42,000 UAW members, Johnson wrote.
Chrysler may shed about 3,000 workers in a buyout, people familiar with that program said this week. The deadline for acceptances, originally set for tomorrow, has been extended indefinitely because new contract language with the UAW isn’t complete, company spokesman Max Gates said today.
Chrysler’s Package
Cerberus Capital Management LP’s Chrysler is offering cash and a vehicle voucher with a combined value of as much as $75,000 to its 28,600 UAW workers. The Auburn Hills, Michigan- based automaker granted buyouts of as much as $100,000 last year, when 13,200 union workers left.
GM started the first of its announced plans for 10,000 salaried-worker cuts March 24, eliminating 160 mechanical engineering jobs in Michigan, spokesman Tom Wilkinson said. The automaker has a May 1 deadline to complete the reductions, which include 3,400 U.S. employees.
The company got 34,400 union members to leave in 2006 with packages of as much as $140,000, and used pension funds to help pay as much as $62,500 for 18,000 UAW members to depart in 2008.
The retirements and buyouts open slots for the biggest U.S. automaker to hire replacement workers for half the current union rate. Under the federal loans GM says it needs to survive, labor costs must match those of Japanese automakers in the U.S.
GM and Chrysler LLC are encouraging workers to accept buyouts, retire or quit after concessions this year eliminated benefits related to job security and unemployment pay. They’re seeking as much as much as $21.6 billion in new U.S. financing to stay in business.
President Barack Obama’s auto task force will announce more aid for GM and Chrysler within a week, possibly in a few days, Senator Carl Levin said yesterday.
“It’s clear that there will be more support and it will be with some conditionalities, which will be made clear within a week,” Levin, a Michigan Democrat, told reporters in Washington.
Steven Rattner, the U.S. Treasury’s chief auto adviser, said March 20 the task force would give a “sense of direction” before the end of the month. March 31 is the automakers’ deadline to show they can restructure and remain viable.
‘Clear Direction’
“It’s something that will be positive,” Levin said of the task force’s planned announcement. “The administration wants to be helpful. It is clear to me that there will be conditions and that there will be clear direction as to where they’re headed.”
GM’s union buyout covers about 62,000 employees willing to retire or quit and consists of a $25,000 voucher to buy a new auto and receive $20,000 in cash. The company’s goal is to get half of about 22,000 eligible workers to leave and GM budgeted for about 6,000 to take the current offer, a person familiar with the plans said.
Workers who accepted the buyout by the March 24 deadline have seven days to reconsider. The UAW declined comment on the offers before today’s release.
Barclays analyst Brian Johnson in Chicago projected in a March 12 report that GM would persuade about 3,100 workers to leave. GM, Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler cut more than 124,800 hourly workers with buyouts or attrition in three years.
Ford’s Buyouts
Union workers at Ford, which isn’t seeking government loans, ratified changes March 9 after reaching an accord on a plan to replace as much as half of future payments to a UAW-run retiree health-care fund with stock instead of cash. GM and Chrysler are still negotiating retiree-fund changes.
The Ford UAW concessions eliminate the so-called jobs bank that paid workers most of their wages to report to a work location when there were no duties to perform. Pay that supplements unemployment has been reduced. Laid-off employees who refuse to take a new job, even hundreds of miles away, lose their benefits.
Ford’s buyout program, which pays as much as $75,000 in cash and vouchers, begins April 1 and ends May 22. The program may be accepted by 5 percent, or about 2,100, of Ford’s current 42,000 UAW members, Johnson wrote.
Chrysler may shed about 3,000 workers in a buyout, people familiar with that program said this week. The deadline for acceptances, originally set for tomorrow, has been extended indefinitely because new contract language with the UAW isn’t complete, company spokesman Max Gates said today.
Chrysler’s Package
Cerberus Capital Management LP’s Chrysler is offering cash and a vehicle voucher with a combined value of as much as $75,000 to its 28,600 UAW workers. The Auburn Hills, Michigan- based automaker granted buyouts of as much as $100,000 last year, when 13,200 union workers left.
GM started the first of its announced plans for 10,000 salaried-worker cuts March 24, eliminating 160 mechanical engineering jobs in Michigan, spokesman Tom Wilkinson said. The automaker has a May 1 deadline to complete the reductions, which include 3,400 U.S. employees.
The company got 34,400 union members to leave in 2006 with packages of as much as $140,000, and used pension funds to help pay as much as $62,500 for 18,000 UAW members to depart in 2008.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
GM UAW Labor Savings Said Double Ford’s $500 Million Agreement
March 11 (Bloomberg) -- General Motors Corp., trying to keep U.S. aid it needs to survive, expects more than double the $500 million savings Ford Motor Co. said it gets with labor changes approved this week, people familiar with the details said.
United Auto Workers union leaders reached a tentative agreement on contract changes for GM on Feb. 17 covering 62,000 workers and are still negotiating on a retiree health-care fund. GM’s savings are bigger than Ford’s in part because of additional work rule changes, the people said, who asked not to be identified because the GM details haven’t been released.
GM needs labor and debt holder concessions of more than $28.5 billion as part of an agreement with the U.S. Treasury to keep $13.4 billion in loans. GM is also trying to convince President Barack Obama’s auto task force to free up as much as $16.6 billion more to keep the largest U.S. automaker out of bankruptcy.
Ford, which is not seeking U.S. aid, said today that a new labor agreement and modifications to a Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Association union retiree health-care fund will save $500 million annualized, with about 75 percent of that realized this year. The estimate of GM savings includes only the contract concessions and doesn’t include any changes to the VEBA, the people said.
“GM has already said we have achieved substantial savings in our labor agreement but we are not giving details,” GM spokeswoman Renee Rashid-Merem said. UAW spokesman Roger Kerson didn’t immediately return a phone call seeking comment.
Similar Agreements
The UAW-GM agreement makes similar economic concessions to the one ratified by union members at Ford, UAW Vice President Cal Rapson wrote in a March 9 letter to local presidents and chairmen. The union won’t set a vote to ratify the agreement, or give details, until after the VEBA agreement is set, Rapson said in the letter.
The new Ford agreement will trim labor and benefit costs to $55 an hour from $60, Hinrichs said. Ford’s labor costs may fall to $50 an hour by 2011, if the car market improves, spokesman Mark Truby said.
Toyota’s comparable U.S. labor costs are about $48 or $49 an hour, Hinrichs said, adding that Ford will reach parity with the U.S. plants of European and Asian carmakers by 2011 as savings from concessions are fully realized.
GM said in its Feb. 17 report to the U.S. Treasury that it aims to reach labor-cost parity this year.
Changes to the GM contract “in the area of economics, pattern the UAW Ford agreement,” Rapson said in the letter. Other parts, he said, are “drastically different.”
For example, there are no mandatory physical examinations and “other parts of the agreement are different to better fit GM culture.”
Concessions Needed
GM must persuade the UAW to swap $20.4 billion in future obligations to the VEBA for half that in cash and the rest in equity as part of U.S. Treasury requirements. GM has said it needs at least $2 billion in fresh aid by the end of this month or it will be bankrupt.
The UAW walked out of GM talks on Feb. 13 in a dispute over the VEBA demands and later returned to approve only other concessions. GM UAW members must still ratify the agreement for it to be implemented.
GM needs labor concessions in part to win an agreement from bondholders to exchange about $27.5 billion in existing debt for $9.2 billion and new GM equity. The bondholders are still negotiating that demand.
GM’s bondholders meet with Obama’s auto committee March 5. The bondholders’ representatives are concerned GM’s viability plan may not keep it out of bankruptcy, a person familiar with the matter said last week.
The Ford contract changes won the support of 59 percent of production workers and 58 percent of skilled-trades employees, the union said March 9 in a statement. About 42,000 members were eligible to vote on the contract. The terms include elimination of annual bonuses and cost-of-living pay increases, as well as reductions in layoff benefits and in the company’s cash contribution to the VEBA.
United Auto Workers union leaders reached a tentative agreement on contract changes for GM on Feb. 17 covering 62,000 workers and are still negotiating on a retiree health-care fund. GM’s savings are bigger than Ford’s in part because of additional work rule changes, the people said, who asked not to be identified because the GM details haven’t been released.
GM needs labor and debt holder concessions of more than $28.5 billion as part of an agreement with the U.S. Treasury to keep $13.4 billion in loans. GM is also trying to convince President Barack Obama’s auto task force to free up as much as $16.6 billion more to keep the largest U.S. automaker out of bankruptcy.
Ford, which is not seeking U.S. aid, said today that a new labor agreement and modifications to a Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Association union retiree health-care fund will save $500 million annualized, with about 75 percent of that realized this year. The estimate of GM savings includes only the contract concessions and doesn’t include any changes to the VEBA, the people said.
“GM has already said we have achieved substantial savings in our labor agreement but we are not giving details,” GM spokeswoman Renee Rashid-Merem said. UAW spokesman Roger Kerson didn’t immediately return a phone call seeking comment.
Similar Agreements
The UAW-GM agreement makes similar economic concessions to the one ratified by union members at Ford, UAW Vice President Cal Rapson wrote in a March 9 letter to local presidents and chairmen. The union won’t set a vote to ratify the agreement, or give details, until after the VEBA agreement is set, Rapson said in the letter.
The new Ford agreement will trim labor and benefit costs to $55 an hour from $60, Hinrichs said. Ford’s labor costs may fall to $50 an hour by 2011, if the car market improves, spokesman Mark Truby said.
Toyota’s comparable U.S. labor costs are about $48 or $49 an hour, Hinrichs said, adding that Ford will reach parity with the U.S. plants of European and Asian carmakers by 2011 as savings from concessions are fully realized.
GM said in its Feb. 17 report to the U.S. Treasury that it aims to reach labor-cost parity this year.
Changes to the GM contract “in the area of economics, pattern the UAW Ford agreement,” Rapson said in the letter. Other parts, he said, are “drastically different.”
For example, there are no mandatory physical examinations and “other parts of the agreement are different to better fit GM culture.”
Concessions Needed
GM must persuade the UAW to swap $20.4 billion in future obligations to the VEBA for half that in cash and the rest in equity as part of U.S. Treasury requirements. GM has said it needs at least $2 billion in fresh aid by the end of this month or it will be bankrupt.
The UAW walked out of GM talks on Feb. 13 in a dispute over the VEBA demands and later returned to approve only other concessions. GM UAW members must still ratify the agreement for it to be implemented.
GM needs labor concessions in part to win an agreement from bondholders to exchange about $27.5 billion in existing debt for $9.2 billion and new GM equity. The bondholders are still negotiating that demand.
GM’s bondholders meet with Obama’s auto committee March 5. The bondholders’ representatives are concerned GM’s viability plan may not keep it out of bankruptcy, a person familiar with the matter said last week.
The Ford contract changes won the support of 59 percent of production workers and 58 percent of skilled-trades employees, the union said March 9 in a statement. About 42,000 members were eligible to vote on the contract. The terms include elimination of annual bonuses and cost-of-living pay increases, as well as reductions in layoff benefits and in the company’s cash contribution to the VEBA.
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