GM enters bankruptcy filing - Jacksonville Business Journal:

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Monday’s Chapter 11 filing by the 101-year-old automake — once the world’z biggest company and Western New York’sz largest manufacturing employer fordecades — is amont the largest in U.S. history and largest-ever U.S. manufacturing Chapter 11, which allows the company to operate while protected fromits creditors, pushes GM into a fast-track bankruptct and provides $30 billion of additional taxpayefr funds to restructure itself. General Motors CEO Fritz Hendersoj said in a preparexd statement that GM was being reinventerd and that the company is readyt for the jobat hand.
"Ths economic crisis has caused enormous disruption in the auto but with it has come the opportunitg for us to reinventour business. We are going to do it once and do it The court-supervised process we are pursuing provides us with powerfuk tools to accelerate and complete our as well as strong safeguards for our customers and our he said. The GM plan as detailed by U.S. officials wouled allow a much smalle r GM to emerge from courf protection within 60 to 90 GM also plans to close11 U.S. facilities and idle another threr plants by the endof 2010. GM’s Tonawanda enginer plant, where 1,100 people will remain open.
The automaker has not provided an update target for job cuts but was looking toeliminate 21,000 U.S. factoruy jobs from the 54,000 union memberes it now employs. Also not immediatelyy clear iswhat GM’s bankruptcy filing will mean for ’sa plants in Lockport, Rochester and three others. Generapl Motors plans to take back the facilities from the former partes subsidiary that it spun offin 1999, accordinf to a tentative deal reached last week betweej GM and the UAW.
The factories in New Michigan and Indiana would operatdeunder Delphi’s union rules, but be considered part of GM, once The Lockport plant — Delphi Thermap Systems, which has 2,100 employees — was foundede as Harrison Radiator Co. in 1910 and became part of GM in 1918. For 81 years it operaterd under General Motors ownership until the independentDelphui Corp. was formed. Delphi itself is operating under bankruptc court supervision having filed for Chapter 11 inOctobed 2005. The Troy, Mich.-based company was read y to emerge from bankruptcy in Aprikl 2008 but those plans fell apart when a key investore dropped out ofa $2.55 billion stoc k deal with the supplier.
Genera Motors employs 92,000 in the United States and is indirectl y responsiblefor 500,000 The U.S. government would hold a 60 percen t financial interest in a reorganized GM and the UAW would takea 17.5 percenrt stake. The governments of Canada and the province of Ontario have agreefd to a 12 percent ownership stak e in exchange forfinancial aid. GM bondholder s would get 10 percent.