By SHARON TERLEP and JOHN D. STOLL
General Motors Corp. and the United Auto Workers are expected to break a stalemate over how to change a health-care trust and resume negotiations on changing an existing labor contract Sunday. The move comes amid mounting pressure from the Obama administration.
Talks between the auto maker and its top union broke down last week over disagreements about a health-care agreement and other issues, but the two sides are ready to sit down again later Sunday in Detroit, according to a person involved in the negotiations. The talks are expected to extend until at least Tuesday, at which time GM must turn in a viability plan to the Treasury Department.
The Treasury Department is requiring viability plans from GM and Chrysler LLC under the terms of a $17.4 billion bridge loan that the White House extended to the companies in December. In order to keep from having to pay back the loans in April and potentially qualify for additional funding, the two auto makers need to prove they can be viable in the future.
While GM, and its rival Chrysler LLC, have spent the past two months crafting hefty restructuring plans for their global operations, the two companies have had trouble making progress with the union and bondholders on the concessions Treasury is demanding from those parties. The effort to get the UAW to agree to deep concessions hit a roadblock late last week after the union balked at an attempt by GM and Chrysler to stray from the terms that the UAW believed were initially supposed to govern the negotiations.
The UAW is accusing the two auto makers of wanting to change the terms of a health-care trust for retirees in a way that could damage the viability of the trust.
It is unclear whether Chrysler officials will also return to the bargaining table on Sunday.
On Sunday, a key adviser to President Barack Obama, David Axelrod, said the collapse of talks shouldn't deter the parties from crafting a solution for the auto industry. Mr. Axelrod, speaking during an interview with Fox News, said the solution is going to have to "include concessions on the part of everyone," including company management. (See related article.)
"Obviously this is a difficult situation, and everyone's going to have to continue to work toward a solution," Mr. Axelrod said. Fox News is owned by News Corp., which also owns Dow Jones & Co., the publisher of The Wall Street Journal
A GM spokesman declined to discuss the status of negotiations but said the company is still aiming to present its viability plan Tuesday.
"We continue to engage our stakeholder groups as we work through this," Chrysler spokesman Max Gates said on Saturday. The auto maker plans to meet the requirements for submitting its viability plan by Tuesday, he said.—AFP contributed to this report.
Write to Sharon Terlep at sharon.terlep@dowjones.com and John D. Stoll at john.stoll@wsj.com
GM, UAW Talks to Resume - WSJ.com
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Thursday, February 12, 2009
.: U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works :: Minority Page :.
Posted By Marc Morano – 4:01 PM ET – Marc_Morano@EPW.Senate.Gov
Climate of Change: UK Met Office Issues ‘Blistering Attack on Scientific Colleagues’ For ‘Apocalyptic Climate Predictions'
Arctic Ice Changes ‘Could Easily be Due to Natural Fluctuations in the Weather’
‘The political consensus surrounding climate policy is collapsing’
Washington, DC: Scientists at the UK Met office “launched a blistering attack on scientific colleagues and journalists who exaggerate the effects of global warming.” The Met office, “one of the most prestigious research facilities in the world” according to the February 11, 2009, article in the UK Guardian, is no hotbed of climate skeptics, as the organization accepts the UN IPCC view of man-made global warming. A U.S. climate expert has also declared that “the political consensus surrounding climate policy is collapsing,” and a U.S. Naval Academy chemist has accused the media of “journalistic malpractice” for hyping warming fears. Furthermore, NASA's James Hansen and RealClimate.org have also come under renewed criticism.
(see the rest of this blog at.. .: U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works :: Minority Page :.
Climate of Change: UK Met Office Issues ‘Blistering Attack on Scientific Colleagues’ For ‘Apocalyptic Climate Predictions'
Arctic Ice Changes ‘Could Easily be Due to Natural Fluctuations in the Weather’
‘The political consensus surrounding climate policy is collapsing’
Washington, DC: Scientists at the UK Met office “launched a blistering attack on scientific colleagues and journalists who exaggerate the effects of global warming.” The Met office, “one of the most prestigious research facilities in the world” according to the February 11, 2009, article in the UK Guardian, is no hotbed of climate skeptics, as the organization accepts the UN IPCC view of man-made global warming. A U.S. climate expert has also declared that “the political consensus surrounding climate policy is collapsing,” and a U.S. Naval Academy chemist has accused the media of “journalistic malpractice” for hyping warming fears. Furthermore, NASA's James Hansen and RealClimate.org have also come under renewed criticism.
(see the rest of this blog at.. .: U.S. Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works :: Minority Page :.
Monday, February 2, 2009
Senators Looking to Make Changes in Stimulus Plan - washingtonpost.com
By Paul Kane
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, February 2, 2009; Page A05
The Senate will open debate today on a nearly $900 billion economic stimulus plan that is similar in size and scope to the package the House passed, creating a possibly smooth path for sending a bill to President Obama's desk by the mid-February deadline. See the story @
Senators Looking to Make Changes in Stimulus Plan - washingtonpost.com
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, February 2, 2009; Page A05
The Senate will open debate today on a nearly $900 billion economic stimulus plan that is similar in size and scope to the package the House passed, creating a possibly smooth path for sending a bill to President Obama's desk by the mid-February deadline. See the story @
Senators Looking to Make Changes in Stimulus Plan - washingtonpost.com
Cattle sellers recoup $2 million that Agriprocessors owed them | DesMoinesRegister.com | The Des Moines Register
The Postville area received a rare piece of good news Friday with the announcement that cattle farmers and sale barns would receive more than $2 million in overdue payments for livestock they sold to the Agriprocessors meatpacking plant.
The payouts were announced by former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, who is now secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The farmers and sale barns sold cattle to the plant before it filed for bankruptcy last fall. Such transactions normally are safeguarded by trusts set up under federal law. But the money was tied up in complicated bankruptcy proceedings surrounding Agriprocessors, which has been in turmoil since an immigration raid there last May. Read the whole story at...
Cattle sellers recoup $2 million that Agriprocessors owed them | DesMoinesRegister.com | The Des Moines Register
The payouts were announced by former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, who is now secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The farmers and sale barns sold cattle to the plant before it filed for bankruptcy last fall. Such transactions normally are safeguarded by trusts set up under federal law. But the money was tied up in complicated bankruptcy proceedings surrounding Agriprocessors, which has been in turmoil since an immigration raid there last May. Read the whole story at...
Cattle sellers recoup $2 million that Agriprocessors owed them | DesMoinesRegister.com | The Des Moines Register
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