GM turnaround depends on labor and executive sacrifices

Workers on the factory floor and executives on Wall Street each will play a role in whether General Motors’ turnaround plan continues to advance.

The plan, which asks the federal government for up to $30 billion, won’t be complete until the automaker reaches deals with the United Auto Workers and its bondholders. Conditions of future federal funding include reduced labor costs and revised loan agreements.

Fritz Henderson, GM chief operating officer, said on a conference call Wednesday that the automaker didn’t have enough time to complete those negotiations before submitting its viability plan to the Treasury Department the day before.

GM and UAW have reached a preliminary agreement on lowering labor costs, but details aren’t being released because the two sides are continuing to talk about revising a retiree health care plan.

UAW members will have to ratify the changes.

Dave Green, president of UAW Local 1714 in Lordstown, said he hasn’t heard anything about what the two sides have agreed upon so far. It could be weeks before details are explained to local union officials because negotiations over the health care plan, called a VEBA, are complex, he said.

The Associated Press reported the deal limits overtime, changes work rules, cuts lump-sum cash bonuses and gets rid of cost-of-living pay raises.

Read more in Thursday’s Vindicator and Vindy.com