September 26, 2008 Chrysler 1979: Lessons From An Early Corporate “Bailout” by Tom Eley/The World Socialist Website In 1979, Chrysler Corporation, the third largest US automaker, hovered on the verge of collapse, a victim of sharply declining revenue and cash-on-hand that had reached the level of threatening daily operations. In August 1979, President Jimmy Carter’s Treasury Secretary, G. [...]

September 26, 2008 Delphi To Send Pension Obligations To G.M. by The New York Times Delphi Corporation was preparing to send $3.4 billion worth of pension obligations to General Motors on Thursday, in an unusual transaction that Delphi said would remove a major obstacle to its emergence from bankruptcy after almost three years. The transaction was a victory for [...]

September 26, 2008 New GM Plant To Be Built In Flint Will Be Land-Fill Free by The Oakland Press General Motors Corp. is tuning up its traditional Pontiac-Flint connection to build the motor for its new electric vehicle — the Volt. GM’s Pontiac-based Powertrain Group Thursday unveiled two variants of its new 1.4-liter engine. The 1.4-liter motor will be used [...]

September 25, 2008 GM To Build $370 Million Engine Plant In Flint, Mich. by The PR News Wire General Motors chairman and chief executive officer Rick Wagoner on September 25 announced that the company will invest $370 million in the U.S. to build a new manufacturing plant for its global 4-cylinder engines in Flint, Mich. The plant will [...]

September 25, 2008 Cal Rapson Welcomed Home By Thankful Workers by Ron Fonger/The Flint Journal Who got the biggest cheers from workers at GM’s Thursday announcement of a new engine plant in Flint? It wasn’t GM Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Rick Wagoner, Flint Mayor Don Williamson or even Gov. Jennifer Granholm. None of them got a poor reception, but [...]

September 25, 2008 GM Will Build Volt Engines In Michigan by Philip Nussel And Richard Truett/The Automotive News General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner said today the automaker will build engines for the new Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid vehicle at a new plant here, with an investment of $370 million. The plant will begin making the global four-cylinder engines in [...]

September 25, 2008 UAW VP: GM Hasn’t Sought VEBA Delay, Union Willing To Talk by The Dow Jones Newswire General Motors Corporation hasn’t approached the United Auto Workers to push back payments due in 2010 to create a massive fund to pay for retiree health care, a top union official said Thursday. But the union would “do the right [...]

September 24, 2008 House Approves $25 Billion In Industry Loans by Harry Stoffer/The Automotive News Automakers and suppliers soon should be able to seek $25 billion in low-interest federal loans to retool plants to build fuel-efficient vehicles and components. The House of Representatives today voted 370 to 58 to approve a broad spending bill that includes $7.5 billion to [...]

September 24, 2008 Delphi Gets OK To Freeze Pensions by David Shepardson/The Detroit News Supplier will resume talks with creditors critical of deal with GM to exit bankruptcy. Delphi Corp. won permission from a bankruptcy court Tuesday to freeze its hourly and salaried pension plans, but will have to resume talks with its creditors before seeking approval of a [...]

September 24, 2008 Bay City Would Welcome GM’s Volt Business, If It Comes by Eric English/The Bay City Times The Chevrolet Volt is unveiled at a General Motors centennial celebration in Detroit Sept. 16. General Motors launched its next 100 years today by unveiling the much-anticipated production version of the Chevrolet Volt—a vehicle that delivers up to 40 [...]

September 24, 2008 Chrysler Switching Gears, To Add Electric Car By 2010 by The Toledo Blade 3 prototypes include Jeep Wrangler. Chrysler hopes to get a jump on competitors in electric powered vehicles. The mountain-climbing, desert-traversing Jeep Wrangler could be headed on a new adventure: to an electric outlet. Manufacturer Chrysler LLC yesterday unveiled an electric-drive prototype of the Toledo-built [...]

September 23, 2008 House To Vote Wednesday On Auto Loans by David Shepardson/The Detroit News Congress will fund up to $25 billion in low-cost government loans for the auto industry, congressional leaders said today, but won’t expand the program to allow automakers to use the funds for other projects. Rep. David Obey, D-Wisc., chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, [...]

September 23, 2008 Delphi Asking Bankruptcy Court To Approve New Deal With GM by David Shepardson/The Detroit News Delphi Corp. returns to bankruptcy court today seeking approval of a new deal with General Motors Corp., its former parent, that could help the Troy-based auto supplier finally emerge from bankruptcy. But the new deal announced Sept. 12 faces strong criticism [...]

September 23, 2008 Delphi To Ask Court To OK Changes To Fix Pensions by The Detroit Free Press Delphi Corp. today enters a crucial hearing in its nearly 3-year-old bankruptcy case, as the supplier asks a judge to approve what has become a highly disputed set of changes to deals with former parent General Motors Corp. that would [...]

September 23, 2008 One Year Since Chrysler Murdered My Uncle by The Socialist Worker Derek Wright tells the terrible story of how Jon Kelley Wright was killed in a gruesome and utterly preventable workplace “accident.” Jon Kelley Wright: ON SEPTEMBER 22, 2007, the Chrysler Corporation murdered my uncle, Jon Kelley Wright. After working over 22 years at the die casting [...]

September 23, 2008 McCain Aides Earned Nearly $2.4 Million From Foreign Car Manufacturers by The Huffington Post Early on Tuesday, Barack Obama’s presidential campaign launched an ad in Michigan pointing out that, despite assurances that he only purchased domestic, three of John McCain’s 13 cars were foreign-made. The spot was designed to paint McCain as both removed from his [...]

September 23, 2008 General Motors Playing Chicken by Rich Duprey/The Motley Fool Initiating what seems like a game of chicken with Congress, General Motors (NYSE: GM) has announced that it intends to draw down the remaining $3.5 billion on its revolving $4.5 billion credit line to boost its liquidity. While tapping the funds will provide the company with [...]

September 23, 2008 Fitch Sends GM’s Rating Deeper Into Junk Status by The Associated Press Fitch Ratings downgraded General Motors Corp.’s credit rating deeper into junk status Monday, saying the automaker faces headwinds in almost every direction and its liquidity could drop to “minimum required levels” within the next year. The credit ratings agency said it reduced GM’s issuer [...]

September 22, 2008 UAW Blasts McCain For Buying Foreign Cars by The Associated Press The president of the United Auto Workers hammered U.S. Republican presidential nominee John McCain over his claims he only buys American cars. The Detroit News reported Monday that UAW President Ron Gettelfinger accused McCain of being disingenuous after Newsweek magazine reported that the McCains own [...]