GM Sued By UAW For $450m Delphi VEBA Shortfall

Edward Niedermeyer
by Edward Niedermeyer

As if to confirm that GM’s benefit obligation situation could actually be worse than today’s GAO report lets on, Automotive News [sub] is reporting that the UAW has sued GM over $450m in unfunded healthcare obligations for Delphi retirees. GM promised to fund a $450m Voluntary Employee Benefit Association for Delphi retirees in 2007, and Delphi’s bankruptcy court confirmed the commitment in last October. But, according to the UAW suit:

the UAW made a written demand that the company honor its contractual obligation to make the foregoing payment [last October… but] that UAW demand was rejected and since that time the company has failed and refused to make the contractually required payment.

That obligation apparently was not voided by GM’s bankruptcy, although The General’s spokesfolks have yet to officially comment on the UAW’s suit.

One thing is for certain though: this news clearly aggravates GM’s benefit cash crunch at a time when it is still barely able to cover its “cost of sales” with sales revenue and is still bleeding cash.According to the GAO report, GM’s payment schedule to meet minimum pension obligations looks something like this:

Adding another nearly half-billion dollars in Delphi VEBA costs doesn’t make a huge difference in light of these giant looming obligations, but it’s just one more cash suck that will weaken GM at a time when it needs to conserve cash on hand for these future outlays. Not to mention the necessary investments in new products, rescues of struggling overseas divisions in Germany and Korea, and maintaining the incentives that have been necessary to achieve current volume levels. To use the parlance of our elected leaders, a billion here, a billion there, soon you’re talking about real money.

Edward Niedermeyer
Edward Niedermeyer

More by Edward Niedermeyer

Comments
Join the conversation
2 of 16 comments
  • Porschespeed Porschespeed on Apr 08, 2010

    Life is a never ending series of 'one time charges'. At the end of the P&L all that matters is if you are positive or negative. I'd love to GM be positive. I want my money back.

  • Z72_Silvy Z72_Silvy on Apr 08, 2010

    You guys really think Ford, Visteon, and their contracts with the UAW are any better? Really?

  • Wolfwagen Is it me or have auto shows just turned to meh? To me, there isn't much excitement anymore. it's like we have hit a second malaise era. Every new vehicle is some cookie-cutter CUV. No cutting-edge designs. No talk of any great powertrains, or technological achievements. It's sort of expected with the push to EVs but there is no news on that front either. No new battery tech, no new charging tech. Nothing.
  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
  • Oberkanone Where is the value here? Magna is assembling the vehicles. The IP is not novel. Just buy the IP at bankruptcy stage for next to nothing.
Next