GM Posts Industry Record $38.7B Loss

General Motors today posted a $38.7 billion loss for 2007, the largest annual deficit ever for an automotive company, beating its own 1992 record of $23.4 billion. GM also struck a deal with the United Auto Workers on buyout options for the remaining 74,000 hourly UAW workers at US plants, reports the AP, clearing the way for low-cost replacement labor.

GM reported a fourth-quarter $722 million loss, worse than analysts projected. In a breakthough with the UAW, GM will pay retirement-eligible employees up to $62,500 to leave early, and younger UAW workers up to $140,000 to completely sever ties with GM, Bloomberg reports. The company hopes it can induce workers to leave by July 1. (More Rick Wagoner stories.)