August 29, 2008 GM’s Lutz Calls For $50 Billion In Government-Backed Loans by Steve Goldstein/Market Watch News General Motors Vice Chairman Robert Lutz was quoted by The New York Times as saying automakers deserve up to $50 billion in government-backed loans to build more fuel-efficient cars. Lutz told reporters in an event near Chicago that the American auto [...]

August 29, 2008 GM Offers Early Retirement To 9,000 Salaried Workers: Report by Sue Chang/Market Watch News General Motors Corporation is offering early-retirement packages to about 9,000 salaried employees in the U.S., or about 28% of its U.S. workforce, Bloomberg reported on its Web site Friday, citing people familiar with the plan. The employees have 45 days to [...]

August 28, 2008 Union At GM Daewoo Rejects Pact by Gary Anglebrandt/The Automotive News The union at GM Daewoo Auto & Technology Co. today voted against a tentative agreement, made this week, that ended two months of partial strikes related to contract negotiations. A spokesperson at General Motors’ South Korean subsidiary did not know whether strikes would begin again [...]

August 28, 2008 UAW Demands That Foxwoods Agree To Bargain by Heather Allen/The Day News Mashantuckets want union to organize under tribal law. The United Auto Workers union continued to beat its drum at Foxwoods Wednesday, demanding that management sit down and bargain collectively on behalf of nearly 3,000 dealers at the casino. The union is collecting signatures – 1,500 [...]

August 28, 2008 Unions Tackle Racial Issue In Election by Todd Spangler/The Detroit Free Press Leaders sell belief Obama is members’ ally. Every presidential election year is a big one for organized labor. For the UAW, the Teamsters, AFL-CIO and others, the prospect of putting a pro-labor Democrat in the White House and adding to Democratic control of Congress [...]

August 28, 2008 Wyoming UAW Leader Shares Layoff Story With 30,000 At Convention by Nate Reens/The Grand Rapids Press Robin Golden, an autoworker from Wyoming scheduled to lose his job at Lear Corp., speaks at the Democratic National Convention in Denver on Tuesday. The best part of Robin Golden’s speaking role at the Democratic National Convention: It’s finally over [...]

August 27, 2008 Deal Shifts GM Pensions To Delphi; Retirees Fear Its Default by Jewel Gopwani/The Detroit Free Press Rita Ertman, a salaried retiree from American Axle & Manufacturing, didn’t expect Delphi Corp.’s bankruptcy case to touch her life. Ertman, 61, of Birch Run, was a foreman at General Motors Corp. until 1994 when her plant in Three Rivers [...]

August 27, 2008 About 200 Delphi Workers Called Back by Melissa Burden/The Flint Journal New SPO plant hiring laid off Delphi-East workers. The new General Motors Service and Parts Operations Davison Road Packaging Center, 4134 Davison Road at Donegal Street in Burton. The facility began operations with some employees in March. It employs about 300 hourly workers, represented by [...]

August 27, 2008 Ford Delays Its Buyout Offers To Hourly Workers by Sarah A. Webster/The Detroit Free Press Ford Motor Co. has delayed the rollout of voluntary buyout offers to thousands of hourly workers in southeast Michigan, who had been expecting the deals to be offered earlier in the month. Joe Hinrichs, Ford’s group vice president for global manufacturing [...]

August 27, 2008 Volvo Says Layoffs Now Considered Permanent by The Associated Press Volvo says a recent layoff at the plant in Dublin is now considered permanent. The company laid off more than 900 workers earlier this year. At the time, the company characterized the cuts as temporary and workers hoped to be called back this fall. [...]

August 27, 2008 NLRB Victory by Doug Hanscom/UAW Local 435 Disgruntled Autoworker # 52 On 10.21.06, GM Wilmington management disciplined me for violating Plant Rule #29, “The making or publishing of false, vicious, or malicious statements concerning any employee, Advisor, the Company or its products.” Mgt alleges I made a false statement when I wrote in DA #35 that [...]

August 26, 2008 Supplier Cadence Seeks Chapter 11 Protection by David Barkholz/The Automotive News The owners of Cadence Innovation LLC sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection today after efforts to sell the plastic parts maker failed. Cadence is a key supplier to General Motors. It makes interiors for the GM crossovers made in Delta Township, Mich. Those vehicles are the [...]

August 26, 2008 Trial Of Former Chief For C&A To Go Forward by Carlyn Kolker/Bloomberg news Former Collins & Aikman Corp. Chief Executive Officer David Stockman, once President Ronald Reagan’s budget director, will stand trial with three other former executives of the auto-parts maker on May 4, a judge said. The fraud case has been stalled for almost 1 [...]

August 26, 2008 Delphi’s Emergence From Bankruptcy Is Uncertain by David Shepardson/The Detroit News Nearly three years after Delphi Corp. filed for bankruptcy, its prospects for emerging soon remain deeply uncertain as the Troy-based auto parts supplier faces growing pressure from investors and the government. Delphi remains mired in Chapter 11 bankruptcy because it cannot raise the money it [...]

August 24, 2008 Workers March On Chrysler Headquarters by Martha Grevatt/Workers World Magazine “Enough is enough” was a recurring theme as 800 Chrysler workers and their supporters rallied outside the corporation’s headquarters here on Aug. 14 to protest the latest attack on their livelihoods. The issue of the day was the recent announcement that Chrysler would indefinitely idle [...]

August 23, 2008 Mitsubishi, UAW Extend Deal by The Peoria Journal Star Both sides have eight more days to produce contract. Mitsubishi Motors North America and union workers at the Japanese automaker’s Normal plant agreed Friday to an eight-day contract extension, delaying a possible strike. The contact between Mitsubishi and United Auto Workers Local 2488 – itself an extension of [...]

August 23, 2008 Teamsters Reach Deal With Ford, End Strike by Jere Downs/The Courier-Journal Company agrees to hire new hauler in Louisville. A deal with Ford Motor Co. to bring in a new transportation company ended a Teamsters strike yesterday that had blocked shipment of vehicles from the Louisville Assembly Plant and the Kentucky Truck Plant for a week. “We [...]

August 23, 2008 Federal Judge Approves Goodyear Health Care Trust by The Associated Press Federal judge approves trust that will take on Goodyear’s retiree health care costs. A U.S. District Court judge in Akron, Ohio, has approved a trust fund set up by the Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. and the United Steelworkers union that will pay retiree health [...]

August 22, 2008 Highland Capital Seeks To Block Delphi Loan by The Reuters Highland Capital Management LP is trying to prevent Delphi from borrowing an additional $300 million from former parent General Motors court documents showed. In court papers filed with the U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Manhattan on Wednesday, Highland Capital said Delphi’s North American operations “continue to lose [...]

August 22, 2008 Another Hedge Fund Fights Delphi Over GM Loan by Stone Street Media Delphi Corp. has a second hedge fund thorn in its side. The bankrupt auto-parts maker, which is suing a group led by Appaloosa Management over a failed investment deal, finds that Appaloosa is not the only hedge fund that objects to it borrowing more [...]