General Motors To Release Valukas Report On Ignition Switch Thursday

Automotive News reports General Motors will release Thursday the results of attorney Anton Valukas’s three-month independent internal investigation into how and where the automaker went wrong before recalling 2.6 million vehicles affected by an out-of-spec ignition switch linked to 47 accidents and at least 13 fatalities. The announcement will come at 9 a.m. Eastern via webcast, with what CEO Mary Barra says will be an “unvarnished” look at the events surrounding the recall. In addition, GM will have an update on plans for compensating victims of the switch, though the attorney heading up the affair, Kenneth Feinberg, says a formal announcement won’t come until a few weeks down the road. Reuters adds the Valukas report will likely exonerate Barra, former CEO Dan Akerson and other senior execs and board members of any wrongdoing over the recall, with “a number of people” to be formally dismissed from the company due to their ties to recall. The report will be turned over to the federal government by the end of June.

Speaking of turned-over documents, The Detroit News reports some 1 million pages of records linked to the ignition switch have been turned over to the U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee in its investigation into the matter, now expected to last well into the summer. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration also delivered a total of 15,000 documents related to its handling of the recall to the committee, as well. As for when Barra will return for a second round of testimony before Congress, the first potential date may be set sometime in July at the earliest.

Finally, Reuters says Canadian labor union Unifor will strike at GM supplier Johnson Controls Whitby, Ontario plant if the powers that be refuse to reconsider plans to shut down the plant and move production outside of Canada in two years. The strike would “shut down GM” at its Oshawa plant according to statements made before the 36th UAW Constitutional Congress by Unifor president Jerry Dias, with the strike and negotiations set to commence in August. The Whitby plant supplies interior components for the Chevrolet Camaro and Impala, which are assembled in Oshawa alongside the Cadillac XTS and Buick Regal.