AMY GOODMAN: Auto giant General Motors filed for Chapter 11 yesterday in one of the largest bankruptcy cases in US history. Shortly after the filing, GM said it would close fourteen more plants, including seven in Michigan, and cut up to 21,000 more jobs. More than 2,000 car dealerships will be shut down, as well. After the factory closings, GM will have fewer than 40,000 workers buildings cars in the United States, one-tenth of a workforce that numbered nearly 400,000 in the 1970s.
Monday’s bankruptcy filing caps a remarkable fall for the century-old company which was once the world’s largest car manufacturer. After the filing, GM was removed from the group of thirty blue chip companies that comprise the Dow Jones Industrial Average, where it had been listed for the past eighty-three years.
Under the proposed restructuring plan, the US government will invest another $30 billion in GM and take ownership of 60 percent of the company. The Canadian government, a union health trust and current bondholders would own the rest.
On Monday, President Obama laid out his case for the nationalization of GM.
http://www.democracynow.org/2009/6/2/ralph_nader_and_labor_professor_harleyhttp://play.rbn.com/?url=demnow/demnow/demand/2009/june/video/dnB20090602a.rm&proto=rtsp&start=00:11:34
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