Business and Finance

DETROIT – General Motors Corp. would still prefer to avoid bankruptcy protection while restructuring, but "if it’s required, that’s what we’ll do," new CEO Fritz Henderson said yesterday.

President Barack Obama and his auto industry task force have indicated that bankruptcy protection "may very well be the best solution for the company to achieve these goals," Henderson told CNN’s State of the Union.

That’s why, "when you look at the situation, we said, `Okay, we’ll spend the time to try to complete the work, more aggressive work, outside of the court process, but if it’s required, that’s what we’ll do.’"

Obama had said GM’s initial plans to become viable didn’t go far enough affordable health insurance. Last week, he told the company it had 60 days to make more cuts and get more concessions, or it would not get any more government help. The administration also forced out Rick Wagoner as CEO.

In Canada, both GM and Chrysler have also been told they haven’t met requirements for long-term government bailout loans and that more concessions are needed from unions, creditors and others.

The federal and Ontario governments have demanded that the Canadian Auto Workers get back to the bargaining table with GM.

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