GM to Cut 21K US Factory Jobs

(NEWSER) - General Motors will file for bankruptcy protection Monday, insiders tell Bloomberg. The company has apparently decided that it cannot make the government-mandated June 1 deadline to shed $44 billion in debt. The timeline is unclear, but bondholders' agreement today to forgive debts in exchange for a stake in the “new” post-bankruptcy GM apparently helped the company firm up its course of action. More»

Treasury directed GM to prep for Chapter 11 as options dwindle

(NEWSER) - General Motors is in high gear, the New York Times reports, prepping for a possible bankruptcy that would allow the company to reorganize and emerge from protection in as little as 2 weeks. Since the Treasury Department instructed the automaker to prepare for a bankruptcy filing by June 1, in case other options for reorganization don't work out, the focus has been on a quick turnaround, so that the company's image and sales are damaged as little as possible. More»

Seeks one month extension to allow negotiations with UAW, bondholders

(NEWSER) - General Motors, about to miss its March 31 deadline for completing the cost-cutting restructuring plan it submitted to the government, is expected to get a 30-day extension, reports the Wall Street Journal. Though the UAW has agreed to shed 7,600 jobs at GM next week, and another 10,000 by October, according to Journal sources, it’s still haggling over restructuring retiree health care and is holding out to see how many concessions GM is able to extract from the company’s bondholders, who hold $27 billion in debt. More»

Analysts see 'equal-opportunity recession'

(NEWSER) - The financial sector is slashing workers, and Silicon Valley employees are dropping like prices on last year's iPod. What industry is next? All of them, Moira Herbst writes in BusinessWeek. Every company relies on credit and consumer purchasing power, making this an “equal-opportunity recession,” a staffing agent says. The damage could be 20 million jobs globally, Reuters adds. More»