My dad worked for GM in an engineering capacity for about half a century, just after WWII to thru the 1980s. My 81 year old mom has a pension thru GM because of this. GM has already dumped health-care benefits for all retirees over 65.
I'm not in favor of bailing out GM because frankly, GM has been run by a lot of useless bloody loonies since Roger B. Smith the Beancounting Moron was CEO. I think GM has made its bed, its SUVs and crushed its electric EV-1 (which I worked a bit on at Delco Kokomo) and that means GM is FAIL!
But, what about the retirees?
Other major companies in the US (airlines come to mind) have screwed retirees once they went into bankruptcy. What will GM do if they continue to slide down the tubes?
This is the sort of thing that keep me awake at night. Automobile manufacturing as it has been practiced by GM with its contracts and 7000 dealerships and its denial (lobbyists) of global warming and its SUVs and lousy designs (4-6-8, 1990s Skylark, Crossfire Injection, Alero, Vega, Hummer H1/2/3, The Caddy that Zigs (WTF!), etc) is walking dead.
But what about the retirees?
:-(
PS - I wrote Mike Pence (the new-used and re-elected Conservative assmunch anti-gay poo-bah from Indiana http://mikepence.house.gov/ ) this morning to ask him WTF the Republicans are going to say when GM fails out and they get the blame. And, they will get the blame. Just curious about that too.
PPS - Just so I can say I'm completely biased and scared spitless, I work in the automotive/trucking manufacturing industry.