GM hearing for relief from supplier bankruptcy takes place today

Staff report

LORDSTOWN

The U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Worcester, Mass., will consider GM’s request during a 2:30 p.m. hearing today to get the equipment and inventory it needs from a supplier that has filed for bankruptcy.

GM is fighting to get equipment and inventory from family-owned Clark-Cutler- McDermott Co., or CCM, of Massachusetts, a 115-year-old interiors supplier, so production at 19 North American GM plants is not interrupted.

CCM filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy last Thursday. It blamed the bankruptcy on an unprofitable contract with GM that has drained it of $30,000 a day since 2013.

“GM will be required to shut down all of its North American plants and suffer immense, immediate economic damages in the tens of millions of dollars,” GM lawyers said. “GM will also suffer immeasurable and irreparable injury to its goodwill and reputation, in addition to the significant disruption of the North American supply chain.”

The impact on the General Motors Lordstown Assembly Plant is still unknown, but GM has said the dispute will not affect production before the hearing.