New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

GM Bankruptcy - Page 2

post #51 of 54
11/26/10 at 9:48pm
From the "no shit" files...

Quote:
Nov. 26--General Motors Co.'s recent stock offering was staged to start paying back the government for its $50 billion bailout, but one group made out much better than the taxpayers or other investors: the company's union.

Thanks to a generous share of GM stock obtained in the company's 2009 bankruptcy settlement, the United Auto Workers is well on its way to recouping the billions of dollars GM owed it -- putting it far ahead of taxpayers who have recouped only about 30 percent of their investment and further still ahead of investors in the old GM who have received nothing.

The boon for the union fits the pattern established when the White House pushed GM into bankruptcy and steered it through the courts in a way that consistently put the interests of the union ahead of many suppliers, dealers and investors -- stakeholders that ordinarily would have fared as well or better under the bankruptcy laws.

Union claims ordinarily do not receive such special treatment in bankruptcies.

The generous share of GM stock given to the union trust fund under the White House deal puts it not only ahead of the Treasury but on a par with secured creditors such as banks, which normally receive the most favorable treatment from bankruptcy courts.
Reply
post #52 of 54
11/27/10 at 9:33pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by The Closer View Post
You know, I really don't like Unions (think the idea is good but in practice they always seem to degenerate into Mafia like gangs of thugs, at least in the US), but in this case, I think the workers should be protected as far as possible. If they lose their jobs (and many have and will) they will never have anything close to the pay and benefits they got at GM. And if you are a 40-50 white male with little/no formal education, the prospects are bleak.

Gotta hand it to Obama: in a strict political sense this was well played.
Reply
post #53 of 54
11/27/10 at 9:39pm
He should have just gone around and handed each UAW worker a wad of cash and said "Vote for me."

Just as blatant but it would have saved a bit of paperwork.
Reply
post #54 of 54
11/27/10 at 10:03pm
Quote:
He hinted that the union in the next round of collective bargaining that begins next summer may seek to recoup still more of the concessions it made in bankruptcy, given GM's growing profitability.

"The best outcome is a successful GM that then shares fairly with our membership," he said.

John Paul McDuffie, a professor at the Wharton School of Business, said the full funding of the union's pension and health care trust fund through the bankruptcy process represents progress because it helped solve one of most "persistent and difficult" bones of contention between GM and its union.

GM and the UAW had been at loggerheads for years over how to deal with GM's so-called "legacy" costs -- funding the generous worker health care and retirement benefits it promised in earlier eras.

The bankruptcy settlement enabled GM to proceed with a hard-won 2007 plan it negotiated with the union to spin off those huge liabilities and let them be funded in the future by the trust fund that received the stock.
In other words, as soon as we can GM is going to have to begin "sharing" these retirement and health care costs with us.

Quote:
Originally Posted by The Closer View Post
He should have just gone around and handed each UAW worker a wad of cash and said "Vote for me."

Just as blatant but it would have saved a bit of paperwork.
Hey, it kept Reid in office.
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Political Discourse