The Big 3 - Bail out or Bust

[James48843]

Ford offers retirement, buyouts to factory workers

Ford offers retirement, buyout packages to all 41,000 factory workers to thin ranks


Monday December 21, 2009, 3:08 pm

DETROIT (AP) -- Ford Motor Co. says it is offering buyout and early retirement incentives to all of its 41,000 U.S. hourly workers to further reduce its factory work force.

Company spokesman Mark Truby would says Ford still has too many factory workers for its current sales levels.

He would not say how many workers the company wants to leave but said Ford is working that out with the United Auto Workers union. Ford currently has about 600 blue-collar workers laid off but available for recall.

The buyout offer includes $50,000 cash plus a $25,000 car voucher or $20,000 more in cash. The retirement package includes $40,000 cash for skilled trades and $20,000 for production workers.

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(You gotta wonder- if ALL of them took it, who would be left to build cars? Perhaps they plan to outsource that to China, don't cha think? Ford had 300,000 employees as recently as 2005, and is now down to just 41,000 hourly workers still making cars and trucks. How many will remain when the cutting is done? )

 

[Buster]

As of today, GM has repaid in full and interest," said GM CEO Ed Whitacre to a crowd assembled on floor of a GM plant in Kansas City, Kan.
To smiles and applause from workers, Whitacre also announced GM's plan to invest $257 million in that plantand another in Detroit to ramp up production of the Chevy Malibu.
Cheering on the floor of a GM factory would have been unthinkable a year ago, when the company was on a downward spiral towards its bankruptcy in June 2009.
When it emerged from restructuring last year, GM had converted most of the $52 billion in federal bailout funds into company stock, leaving a $6.7 billion outstanding loan from the U.S. Treasury. The Canadian government lent the company an additional $1.4 billion.

Benefits of Bankruptcy

With ownership of 61 percent of GM's shares, American taxpayers still have billions invested in the auto maker, but analysts say there's reason to believe that investment could now pay off

Do we still want to have 61% of GM to be owned by tax payers?...will we receive a dividend check when the stocks profit?


What does this all mean?

http://abcnews.go.com/WN/general-motors-repays-81-billion-government-loans/story?id=10437944

 

[Buster]

GM to pay more than $400 million in worker bonuses​

DETROIT – Less than two years after entering bankruptcy, General Motors will extend millions of dollars in bonuses to most of its 48,000 hourly workers as a reward for the company's rapid turnaround after it was rescued by the government.
The payments, disclosed Monday in company documents, are similar to bonuses announced last week for white-collar employees. The bonuses to 76,000 American workers will probably total more than $400 million — an amount that suggests executives have increasing confidence in the automaker's comeback.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110214/ap_on_re_us/us_general_motors_bonuses

 

[James48843]

GM to pay more than $400 million in worker bonuses​

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110214/ap_on_re_us/us_general_motors_bonuses

Analysts are now saying they expect GM to earn $4 per share by December 2011- that's the consensus estimate.

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/ae?s=GM+Analyst+Estimates


In order to fully pay back all debts to taxpayers, the price of a share will have to reach about $53 a share for the break even point. It's currently at $36 a share.

So, will the price go to $53 a share by this time next year? If so, should the government sell shares then, or hang on a while longer and make a profit on the deal?

I think over the long run, the taxpayer will be fine, getting more than they pitched in back from GM's recovery.

GM still owes taxpayers $2.1 billion dollars. I think within a year or so, that will get paid off. Then they just have to do well enough to raise share prices up to the $53 mark, and then start peeling off those shares, for taxpayers to be in the black.

 

[James48843]

Fuel-Efficient Vehicles Propel General Motors April U.S. Sales Increase of 27 Percent​

Chevrolet Cruze posts best month since launch with 25,160 total sales

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GMC Terrain, Chevrolet Equinox set April sales records
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Retail sales rose 25 percent for April; up 35 percent year to date


Incentives decline more than 10 percent while retail sales rise 4 percent from March​

DETROIT – General Motors dealers in the United States reported 232,538 total sales in April, a

27-percent increase versus April a year ago. Solid gains by GM’s lineup of fuel-efficient

passenger cars and crossovers powered the gains, led by the best sales month for the
Chevrolet Cruze and record sales for the Chevrolet Equinox and GMC Terrain compact
crossovers.​

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Retail sales, those to individual customers, rose 25 percent versus last April with cars and

crossovers up 49 percent and 28 percent, respectively. Retail sales for the Cruze were 180
percent higher than the Chevrolet Cobalt it replaced. The Equinox and Terrain also posted retail​

sales records, up 53 and 61 percent respectively.​

More:
http://media.gm.com/content/dam/Media/gmcom/investor/2011/9352001AprSales.pdf​

That's good news. ​

The economy and car sales continue to rebound, despite all the gloom and doom. ​

I'll take it. ​