From the Detroit Free Press on Friday:

November 11, 2005

BY MICHAEL ELLIS and SARAH WEBSTER
FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITERS

General Motors Corp. is unraveling -- fast.

Its stock price plunged to a 13-year low Thursday after the latest in a string of financial problems dismayed shareholders once again.

Wall Street experts say the unthinkable is more likely than ever before: Michigan's largest company could be bought by a corporate raider like Las Vegas billionaire Kirk Kerkorian, forced to file for bankruptcy, or both. [snip]

Experts say a buyer like Kerkorian could sell GMAC (the division that lends money for everything from cars and homes to Manhattan skyscrapers) for $10 billion to $15 billion, take GM's $15 billion in cash and stock, put GM's automaking business into bankruptcy, and walk away with a huge profit.

In a note to investors on Thursday, Bank of America said bankrupcy for GM is now "inevitable." It looks like GM's day of reckoning is approaching faster than most thought, and it will be extraordinarily painful when it arrives. GM workers agreed to a first round of cuts over the weekend, and the company announced a new "red tag" promotion today to try and boost sales, but the writing is on the wall.

On a related note, two weeks ago The New York Times ran a predictably biased article bemoaning the decline of African-American union membership under the headline "Labor's Lost: For Blacks, A Dream in Decline." Here is an excerpt (reg req):

Immigration, retirement, automation, the shifting of work overseas, low seniority and privatization have all played a role in the lopsided decline of unionized jobs held by African-Americans. That decline is especially noticeable in manufacturing and the federal government, two strongholds of black employment that have gone through cutbacks in union workers in recent years.

The cutbacks are particularly severe in the auto industry. In addition to the latest problems at G.M., Ford Motor said Thursday that it would soon announce ''significant plant closings.''

The impact on blacks has gradually drawn the attention of labor leaders, including John J. Sweeney, president of the A.F.L.-C.I.O. ''The percentage of black workers who have been knocked out of union jobs is one of the little-known tragedies of the last five years,'' he said.

The flipside, of course, which The New York Times fails to mention is that African-Americans are thriving in non-unionized factories all across the South like this brand new $1.1 billion Hyundai plant in Montgomery, Alabama.

Not too long ago a good friend of mine who works for a GM supplier in the midwest spent roughly two months on assignment at the Hyundai plant. His report: more than 90 percent of the workers on the floor are African-American. Wages are high for the region - but still only half of GM workers in Michigan and Wisconsin. The cost of living is low. Health benefits are excellent. And - here's the kicker - the quality of the work is five to ten times better. The result is that Hyundai is kicking Detroit's butt with a higer-quality, lower-priced car made right here in the USA.