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GM Plant Closures Will Hit Michigan Hard

General Motor Corp. is drastically shrinking its footprint in Michigan, closing another six factories by the end of next year. The company announced the names of the 11 plants that will close by the end of next year — and a 12th that will close in 2011.

GM will close Lake Orion assembly by September — though it will be on standby — and close permanently its Pontiac assembly plant by October. The Spring Hill, Tenn. plant will close in November and also go on standby. GM’s Wilmington, Del., plant will close next month.

On the powertrain side, Livonia Engine will close in June 2010, Flint North Components in December 2010, Willow Run in December 2010, Parma Components in December 2010 and Fredericksburg, Va., components in December 2010.

GM Filed Ch. 11 Bankruptcy This Morning

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — General Motors filed for bankruptcy protection early Monday, a move once viewed as unthinkable but became inevitable after years of losses and market share declines that were capped by a dramatic plunge in sales in recent months.

In the end, even $19.4 billion in federal help wasn’t enough to keep the nation’s largest automaker out of bankruptcy. The government will pour another $30 billion into GM to fund operations during its reorganization.

Taxpayers will end up with a 60% stake in GM, with the union, its creditors and federal and provincial governments in Canada owning the remainder of the company.

Nearly a dozen plants will be identified for closure by 2010, resulting in 20,000 job losses. Three more plants are set to be idled and put on stand by status in hopes for a rebound in sales that may never come.

GM will also shed its Pontiac, Saturn, Hummer and Saab brands and cut loose more than 2,000 of its 6,000 U.S. dealerships by next year. That will likely result in more than 100,000 additional job losses.

More than 650,000 retirees and their family members who depend on the company for health insurance will experience cutbacks in their coverage, although their pension benefits are unaffected for now.

GM Filing Ch. 11 Bankruptcy Monday in New York

General Motors Corp. president and Chief Executive Officer Fritz Henderson will hold a mid-day news conference from the GM Building in New York on Monday, the day the 100-year-old automaker is expected to file Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

GM, which has lost nearly $90 billion since 2005, is expected to file bankruptcy in U.S. District Court in New York, where rival Chrysler LLC is undergoing a court-ordered restructuring. President Barack Obama also plans to address the nation Monday on GM’s planned court restructuring.

GM Plans to Idle 20 Plants, 6 in MI

DETROIT — General Motors Corp., awaiting word on whether the auto industry will get emergency federal aid to stay afloat, will temporarily idle 20 plants across North America and slash production early next year to adjust to plummeting vehicle sales.

The temporary closures are unprecedented in scope. When combined with moves announced a week ago the closures mean GM will build 250,000 fewer vehicles than usual during the first quarter of 2009, company spokesman Chris Lee said. Normal production volume during the first quarter would be about 750,000 vehicles.

The plants affected in Michigan include facilities in Detroit-Hamtramck, Flint, Pontiac, Orion Township and two plants in Lansing.

Bailouts for Bankers but Nothing for Detroit Automakers?

This is the part of our nation’s surreal economic crisis that seems particularly surreal:

The US auto industry, which employs 3 million Americans in auto plants, parts and supplier networks and dealerships nationwide is broadly understood as being essential to maintaining America as an industrial force.

It’s financial collapse, which even critics of moves to bailout the industry suggest is imminent, would devastate workers, retirees and communities in every state of the nation.

Despite the grumbling from anti-union zealots, the auto giants have radically retooled in a manner that makes the cost of producing a vehicle at a unionized plant of General Motors, Ford or Chrysler roughly equivalent to the cost of running a car off the line at a non-union plant.

And to top it all off: Auto plants actually produce something that most Americans consider to be useful.

Yet, proposals to provide what now seems to be a very small bailout — $25 billion — are currently stalled.

At the same time, the whole of the federal government is scrambling to buy as much as $50 billion in “toxic assets” — bad loans and other products of irresponsible financial practices that are of dubious value — from Citigroup, a global banking concern that makes money by charging working families exorbitant interest rates for credit.

Perhaps, in some wild calculation of American interest, Citicorp is worthy of a bailout.

But what mad calculus would make Citigroup more worthy than the auto industry?

Something is fundamentally wrong with a federal government that offers bankers a bailout and autoworkers as cold shoulder.