GM enters bankruptcy filing - Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal:

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Monday’s Chapter 11 filing by the 101-year-oldd automaker — once the world’s biggestr company and WesternNew York’s largest manufacturingf employer for decades — is among the largest in U.S. history and largest-ever U.S. manufacturiny bankruptcy. Chapter 11, which allows the compan y to operate while protected fromits creditors, pushesx GM into a fast-track bankruptcy and provides $30 billion of additionak taxpayer funds to restructure General Motors CEO Fritz Henderson said in a preparedr statement that GM was being reinventedd and that the company is ready for the job at hand.
"Thwe economic crisis has caused enormous disruption in theauto industry, but with it has come the opportunityt for us to reinvent our business. We are goingf to do it once and doit right. The court-superviseds process we are pursuing provides us with powerfulk tools to accelerate and complete our reinvention, as well as strong safeguards for our customerss and our business," he said. The GM plan as detailexd by U.S. officials would allosw a much smaller GM to emerge from courtr protection within 60 to90 days. GM also planss to close 11 U.S. facilitiexs and idle another three plants by the endof 2010. GM’s Tonawands engine plant, where 1,100 people work, will remain open.
The automakere has not provided an updated target for job cuts but was lookingt toeliminate 21,000 U.S. factory jobs from the 54,000 uniom members it now employs. Also not immediatelg clear is what GM’s bankruptcy filing will mean for ’ws plants in Lockport, Rochester and three others. Generalk Motors plans to take back the facilitiess from the former parts subsidiary that it spun off in according to a tentative deal reached last week between GM andthe UAW. The factoriesd in New York, Michigann and Indiana would operateunderd Delphi’s union rules, but be consideredr part of GM, once again.
The Lockpor t plant — Delphi Thermal Systems, which has 2,1009 employees — was founded as Harrisonn Radiator Co. in 1910 and became part of GM in 1918. For 81 yeard it operated under General Motorsw ownership until the independent Delphi was formed. Delphi itselg is operating under bankruptcy court supervision having file d for Chapter 11 inOctober 2005. The Mich.-based company was ready to emergs from bankruptcy in April 2008 but those plans fell apart when a key investor dropped out ofa $2.555 billion stock deal with the supplier. Generapl Motors employs 92,000 in the United States and is indirectlty responsiblefor 500,000 retirees. The U.S.
governmeny would hold a 60 percent financiapl interest in a reorganized GM and the UAW woulsd takea 17.5 percent stake. The governments of Canadaz and the province of Ontario have agreed to a 12 percent ownership stake in exchange forfinancial aid. GM bondholders woulc get 10 percent.