At some point in the next three months or so, GM will be filing for bankruptcy.  This is just my opinion, of course,  but I am convinced it will happen.  It has to happen.

In the meantime, while everyone is getting used to the idea, here's what an autoworker might be facing for the next ten years or so using the real life experience of Delphi.  For those who do not know, Delphi is an auto parts manufacturer and was spun off of parent GM in 1999.

This is kind of a link fest that show the deterioration of the middle class factory worker.

1999   

"I think the union showed a lot of foresight in accepting these changes," says Steve Constable, plant manager at the Saginaw, Mich., facility. "They realized we need to do these things to be competitive. We made sure the union understood what we were doing, we got them involved on the ground floor, and they were right there when we implemented changes. They never fought us or resisted what we were doing, which is a great benefit."

2000  Tax breaks for the Corporation helps retain high paying jobs.

2005  Delphi files for Chapter 11

Date unknown...but has some interesting stuff

GM Chairman Rick Wagoner said at the company's annual stockholder meeting in June that the money-losing automaker  would make big cuts in its annual $5.6 billion health care bill, with or without the cooperation of the UAW.

and...

The UAW and GM are negotiating possible concessions.  But UAW President Ron Gettelfinger has said repeated ly that he will not reopen the union's GM labor contract, which expires in September 2007.

and....

"The idea that a large, well-established corporation with a household name can't go bankrupt is a casualty of the past," said Patrick Anderson, president of the Anderson Economic Group in East Lansing.

2007

The United Auto Workers union will brief Delphi Corp. employees today on a contract that ends the union's eight-year effort to keep pay and benefits at the auto- parts maker the same as at former parent General Motors Corp., people with knowledge of the matter said.

More

The pay cut would bring former GM workers at Delphi to the same level as those hired at the parts supplier since 2004. Under the proposed contract, the base pay of Delphi workers hired since 2004 would be $16.23 an hour. The former GM workers now receive $27.44 an hour. .

More

The tentative agreement reached last week calls for Delphi to offer wages of $14.50 to $16.23 an hour for all workers. Workers who began their employment with GM or who were hired before the lower-tier wage for new hires went into effect earned about $27 an hour.

More

2009

Union leader Mike Hanley doesn't see a "red flag" in a bankruptcy court judge's decision to delay until Thursday, April 2, approval of a deal that would allow Delphi Corp. to sell its steering business to General Motors Corp.

What?  Delphi to sell its steering business to GM?  But...but...but didn't GM cut Delphi loose?  Why would they want to buy back a business they didn't want 10 years ago?  You know, after Delphi went to all the trouble of downsizing 18 plants world wide to 4, after they cut their workforce down to 7700, after the UAW made concession after concession so that a worker's paycheck went from $900 a week to $560.  Why would GM want to buy back that business with their clean hands?  Just askin'.

Oh.  And then there's this...it's the one that set my hair on fire.

And today's headline...


*Hat tip to demosaur for the title