GM Lordstown workers to get details of offer

STAFF/WIRE REPORT

DETROIT — General Motors Corp. will give the United Auto Workers union 17.5 percent of its common stock, $6.5 billion of preferred shares and a $2.5 billion note to fund a trust that will take over retiree health-care costs starting next year.

The funding is part of a tentative agreement that union members will vote on this week as GM tries to pull together the remaining pieces that would allow it to restructure outside of bankruptcy.

Workers at GM’s Lordstown complex will hear details on the plans at meetings Thursday at the MetroPlex in Liberty. A meeting at noon will be for workers who are laid off and those working afternoon and midnight shifts. A meeting at 4 p.m. will be for those working day shift.

The meetings will be for both Local 1112 and Local 1714 members. Voting will be held at each session.

If the deal is passed, a meeting will be held in June to explain the details to retirees, said Jim Graham, president of UAW Local 1112.

Members of the Canadian Auto Workers union approved wage reductions and other concessions Monday, but GM’s unsecured bondholders have resisted an offer to take a 10 percent stake in the company to wipe out $27 billion in debt. Analysts say it’s unlikely enough bondholders will approve the offer, meaning GM would still be forced into bankruptcy protection by next Monday.

Plant-level union officials met in Detroit on Tuesday to hear details of the agreement that GM, the UAW and the government reached last week. Several local presidents said after the briefing that they voted unanimously to recommend that members approve the concessions.

Local union leaders said the 14 factories that GM intends to close were not identified in the agreement or by UAW international officials. Those are part of GM’s restructuring plan to be submitted to the government by the company’s June 1 deadline, said one of the officials.

The company did commit to reopening three closed assembly plants and one stamping factory if demand warrants, according to the summary sheet.

Union members will vote on the concessions today and Thursday.

“If you don’t ratify it, you go into bankruptcy court with nothing,” Green said. “If you go in with this, at least you have an agreement here. It’s a good-faith agreement.”

GM’s bondholders have argued that the offer they’ve received gives them too small a stake for the amount they are owed.

The Associated Press obtained a summary of GM’s agreement with the UAW, which also gives the union trust fund a warrant for another 2.5 percent of GM’s stock.

The summary also says GM will take back five facilities from Delphi Corp., its former parts arm now in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

GM will take ownership of Delphi Saginaw Steering in Saginaw, Mich.; Delphi Thermal Systems in Lockport, N.Y.; Delphi Powertrain in Rochester, N.Y.; Delphi Powertrain Systems facilities in Rochester, N.Y., and Grand Rapids, Mich.; and Delphi Electronics and Safety in Kokomo, Ind.