GM may trim planned China imports in UAW talks

General Motors Corp., facing a probable bankruptcy by June 1, is willing to "substantially" cut planned U.S. imports from China and elsewhere to get a money-saving agreement with the United Auto Workers.

Using U.S. production instead of imports would pivot on whether the UAW can build the vehicles at a cost GM can afford, Chief Executive Officer Fritz Henderson said today in a Bloomberg Television interview. He said Detroit-based GM had forecast a 12-fold increase in imports to 235,000 by 2014.

"This is a discussion we're having with the UAW," Henderson said. "We're most profitable when we build where we sell."

GM's decision to shut 16 U.S. plants and boost imports to 7 percent of North American sales has emerged as a sticking point in talks on a new UAW contract. GM needs the accord as part of a plan to chop debt with the UAW, bondholders and the government by $44 billion or be forced into bankruptcy in 18 days.

Henderson said "it is probable" that GM will end up in court protection, going beyond a May 11 comment that a Chapter 11 filing was "more probable" than the automaker had previously thought.

UAW President Ron Gettelfinger and Vice President Cal Rapson met with members of an Obama administration auto task force May 5 in Michigan to protest the import plans, UAW Vice President Bob King said last week. The union also wrote to senators urging them to prod GM to reduce U.S. plant closings.

"I think you will see in the end a substantially lower amount of volume would be brought in and a substantially higher amount will be built here," Henderson said. "You've got to be fully competitive."

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