GM Gets Billions, Says No Money for Crash Victims
U.S. taxpayers have given $50 Billion to rescue General Motors, but the company says it should not have to pay a penny to people harmed by known defects in its vehicles.
Adrianne Appel, Inter Press Service, in CommonDreams
April, 2009: Engine fires prompts GM recall of nearly 1.5 million cars
Despite the billions, the company is in collapse and filed for bankruptcy Jun. 1 to re-work debts and restructure its operations. It will dump the Hummer and Saturn models, lay off 21,000 workers, shutter 3,000 dealerships and start anew as a largely U.S.-owned company with a green edge.
As it negotiates bankruptcy in a New York court, the company is arguing that it should be absolved from paying out money to people who are hurt as a result of known problems in its cars already on the road. Consumer groups are fighting against the plan, and a similar deal already granted to Chrysler.
Related:
'New' Chrysler Shielded from 'Old' Product Liability, Michael Orey, Business Week
Chrysler won't be liable for product defect claims on vehicles sold before it emerged from bankruptcy. Will the "new" GM win the same protection?
Under Restructuring, GM To Build More Cars Overseas, Peter Whoriskey, Washington Post
Former labor secretary Robert B. Reich, now a professor at the University of California-Berkeley, said, "It raises fundamental questions about the purpose of bailing out these big companies. If GM is going to do more of its production overseas, then why exactly are we saving GM?"
Auto Workers Taken for a Ride, Jane Slaughter, Labor Notes
Under the new contract that’s now up for grabs, wages for new hires would be cut in half, from $29 to $14, with no raises or bonuses for six years. New hires would also have reduced health care benefits and only 401(k) plans for retirement. That gives the company strong incentives to oust current workers.
Goodbye, GM, Michael Moore
History will record this blunder (GM's demise) in the same way it now writes about the French building the Maginot Line or how the Romans cluelessly poisoned their own water system with lethal lead in its pipes.
