New Delphi Tech Ensures No More Dead Keyfob Batteries

Delphi, makers of all kinds of vehicle electronic gadgetry, will become the first manufacturer to use what is being called "segmented display cell." SDC is a type of e-ink used in electronics and will soon be implemented into a wireless bi-directional keyfob. SDC will make integrating displays into keyfobs a little more reasonable. SDC also looks a hell of a lot better than the third-party jobbers with displays that look like those handheld videogames from the 1990s. This technology isn't just about looks, either. More »

Delphi accepts that $2.55B Appaloosa offer. Jeez, and you thought we liked saying Geelong. [Detroit News]

The bankruptcy bill for Delphi will top $200 million and may go as high as $300 million. [Detroit News]

Delphi UAW Workers Agree To Wage Cuts And Plant Closings!

Forget the "Jesus Phone" — folks at Delphi, General Motors and the executive offices of the UAW are praising the real thing this early afternoon because according to Automotive News, UAW workers voted by more than a 2-1 ratio to approve the deal calling for top production wages to drop from $27 an hour to $18.50. Also, Delphi plans to close 10 US plants, keep four open, sell four others and transfer to the General three plants if they can't be sold. We'll get you more as soon as we know more — but for the time being this has got to make stress-induced angina in the folks at the automakers-once-known-as-the "Big Three" feel a little less painful. – Ray Wert More »

Gettelfinger Pats GM On Head For Delphi Agreement

The man in charge of the UAW doesn't for a moment credit Delphi for the agreement worked out at the end of last week between the union, the auto parts supplier and General Motors. Nope, he's giving some mad praises to the General, saying this morning on a local Detroit radio station:

"If it weren't for [GM Money Man] Fritz Henderson and his team...then this agreement never would have come about..."

Aww, isn't that adorable to see Ron playing all nice and stuff with GM? Yes, we think so. But don't ask us what he said about Delphi — ooh, those two never get along! – Ray Wert More »

Even Google News Gets An Oracle When Searching For Delphi

Yeah, we know you think she's hot. Apparently even Google News thinks women dressed in presumably traditional Greek dress are the best thing it can find when it thinks of Delphi. That's a lot better than the silly Wall Street Journal story to the right of the picture, given the sorry financial state of the beleaguered auto supplier. And it's a helluva lot better than what we're hearing from the Associated Press, that the auto supplier now sees a $1.3 billion pension payment in their future. Yup, the Oracle could have really helped them with that one. Picture of Google News headline below the jump. – Ray Wert More »

Delphi Loses $533 Million In First Quarter Of 2007

The Oracle, she has spoken — and the words coming out of her mouth are most assuredly not good for the General's big auto supplier. Delphi said it took in $6.7 billion in revenue and lost $533 million during the first three months of this year. That's substantially worse than the $7.0 billion in revenue and $363 million in red ink they dripped during the first quarter of 2006. Although Delphi claims $73 million of that loss was "attributable to employee termination costs," there's still a question of why they're hemorrhaging almost $100 million more year-on-year. We're sure glad all the great execs at Delphi were paid that $38 million in bonuses though, aren't we? More »

CNBC Uses The Delphi Rhythm Method Too!

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The Delphi Rhythm Method: Cerberus Pulls Out Early

Jeez, can't the auto industry give us a break today? Don't they know we've got the new concepts from BMW and Audi at the Shanghai show to cover? People these days — so inconsiderate. Well, let's put our industry hats on for a moment and let you know what's going on at everyone's favorite auto supplier, Delphi. Apparently private equity fund Cerberus Capital Management won't be getting a second scare photo-op like the one they got from the GMAC sale we've got pictured above. That's right, the private money-making fund is withdrawing from a deal to buy Delphi Corp. and help pull the little bugger out of Chapter 11 reorganization. Delphi claims Cerberus is pulling out over differences over Delphi's future value. Cerberus claims — well, they ain't claiming anything other than that they might still play with Delphi when it finally does leave Chapter 11 — but one wonders whether the deal's being killed because of an inability for Cerberus to get concessions out of the UAW, inflexibility and ineffectiveness of management or because they're saving their bank for the big prize — the Chrysler Group. Who knows? – Ray Wert More »

Bonus! Delphi Loses $2 Billion In Third Quarter

Obvs this is pending any restatements, but earlier this morning the General's biggest supplier saw a net loss of $2 billion in the third fiscal quarter. That's over $1.2 billion more than they lost during the same quarter last year. So even if you "take away" the $1 billion of the loss related to employee attrition programs, the beleaguered, broke and bankrupt company still did $200 million worse than they did during the same period last year. How much were they thinking of spending on bonuses again? But hey, you've got to pay competitively if you want to keep your good people. Maybe that's the problem — maybe they just aren't paying their execs enough. Yeah, that's it. – Ray Wert More »

Breaking! Delphi Gets $3.4 Billion As A Little Something To Keep It Going Through The Show

Well, it looks as though the saga of whether auto parts supplier Delphi will drag the General underwater into the inky abyss is getting a bit of a reprieve today. That reprieve is coming to the tune of $3.4 billion in stock buybacks of the broke n' busted auto supplier from Appaloosa Management LP, Cerberus Capital Management LP, Harbringer Capital Partners Master Fund I (no LP!), Merrill Lynch and YouAndUs Securities, LLC. The five companies, in a show of throwing good money after bad, appear to be in support of the Delphi plan to re-emerge from bankruptcy during the second quarter of 2007 and you know, start paying back the money it owes to the banks currently providing a hot capital injection. – Ray Wert More »

Gettelfinger As Soup Nazi: "No More Concessions For Delphi!"

Well, it's close enough to warrant the picture — but can you blame the UAW chief? Ron's watched as 54,000 of his members took early retirement or forced to take up to a 50% cut in salary — while at the same time, 467 white-collared workers received a bonus for you know, not letting the company slide into the darkness during bankruptcy. So we guess we can understand why the guy'd be of the opinion that: More »

Breaking! Delphi Drops $2.6 Billion During The First Half Of 2006

Embattled auto supplier Delphi's released the first half numbers and — who would have guessed it — they're awash in red ink. Yup, they're drowning in it — losing $2.6 billion during the first half of the year. But just like Delphi's baby-daddy, General Motors, the majority of those losses are associated with its attrition program. That'd be the more than 12,000 hourly UAW and IUEW workers who've taken the early-retirement plan. But that only accounts for $1.9 billion of the loss. Delphi's well-heeled, well-salaried and well-bonused execs still need to explain why the bankrupt company lost $700 million with revenue only up $100 million or so from the $13.9 billion it made in the first half of 2005. More »

Broke? GM Fires Multibillion-Dollar Claim Against Delphi

It's been a while and we hadn't heard from Delphi recently...we were wondering what those guys have been up to. We found out when late yesterday, broke-as-a-joke auto supplier Delphi said the General made a "multibillion-dollar" demand for payments. That's not so good for Delphi considering it's kinda been relying on GM's help to carry out its bankruptcy reorganization. It's also interesting... More »

Breaking! Bankruptcy Judge Rewards Delphi Execs For Being Bankrupt

Somehow we don't think this is going to make things any easier during union negotiations. A federal bankruptcy court approved today a multi-million dollar bonus plan for Delphi senior executives. That's right — the court decided 467 executives of a bankrupt auto supplier needed bonuses — as long as they acheive earnings targets in the second half of the year. This is after they approved similar bonueses for the same executives for hitting performance goals in the first half of this year. Those bonuses were estimated at around $38 million. So — two questions. Is keeping your job when you've sent your company down the crapper no longer the incentive folks need, and where' the similar bonus plan for the blue-collar workers? Oh wait, Delphi's cut most of those jobs. By the way — anyone want to send us a copy of that list of 467 execs — just send it over to tips@jalopnik.com. More »

Breaking! UAW Strike At Delphi Still An Option

Ron Gettelfinger, UAW President and potential next spokesperson for "Just For Men Gel", responded to questions from reporters today during a break in a hearing on Chinese trade practices at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. The most important question asked was whether the UAW Prez saw a strike as a possibility. Ron's response: More »

Breaking...And Obvious! Unions Dislike Delphi Management Over Bonuses

The International Union of Electronic Workers-Communications Workers of America (NAMBLA IUEW-CWA) is bitching and moaning (for rather reasonable reasons, we might add) in a filing today in the Delphi bankruptcy hearing over a $60 million-a-year bonus program for Delphi executives at a time when the bankrupt auto parts supplier has just offered attrition programs to its union workforce. This also comes as the company reported a $2.4 billion loss for 2005 yesterday afternoon in a very much delayed annual report. We already know how Delphi management's going to justify this — it'll be the same old "you need to pay competitive salaries to get good people" argument we've heard in the past. And every time, we find it more and more funny for management folks to say this when they're talking about their bonuses — but later in the day they'll be the first folks to go after the unions for pay cuts. Wethinks maybe there's a flaw in logic somewhere around here. More »

Annual Report Rollback! Delphi Releases Numbers, Cuts Losses In Half

Although until yesterday, they were months behind in releasing an annual or quarterly report — they're finally able to tell the world they're doing...a bit better. Despite reporting a $2.4 billion loss, and reporting a warning they may be forced to sell or liquidate assets if the supplier can't work through problems in the bankruptcy courts — it's still only half as bad as last year. We guess that means investors and employees who own stock should only be half as worried they'll never see a single dime. More »

Hoosier Daddy, Baby? Nine Indiana Delphi Early Retirees Win State Lottery

Locals are calling them "The Delphi Lucky Nine" — they're nine soon-to-be unemployed Delphi employees forced to take either early retirement or be transferred to General Motors to live out the rest of their days in indentured servitude. All nine lucky Hoosiers belonged to a lottery club and due to luck of the draw, will be getting a little bit bigger check in their golden years than some of their contemporaries taking buyout packages. The group of nine found themselves on the receiving end of a nine million dollar Hoosier Lottery jackpot — but don't worry, they won't let it get to their heads — all nine showed up in their Sunday best short-sleeve button-downs...except the ones wearing tucked-in t-shirts, of course. More »

Get Yer Scab Jobs He-yar! Thousands Line Up For Delphi, GM Temp Gigs

Well, they really aren't "scab" jobs — but they really aren't union-protected jobs either. Despite the lack of protections, thousands are reportedly eagerly awaiting the day when they too can be one of the few, the proud...the replacement temps at GM and Delphi. Ah, the honor and privilege of busting yer butt 60 hours a week at a stamping or tool & die plant for 50% less pay than the previous job holder and no benefits other than your paycheck at the end of the month. Sounds like blogging but with more wit and manual labor required. More »

Breaking! 37,000 Workers Take GM, Delphi Buyout Offer

From Reuters:

About 37,000 hourly workers have accepted buyout offers by General Motors Corp. and Delphi Corp., potentially giving the automaker greater cuts than expected, a newspaper said on Friday.

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Breaking! Delphi And GM Jointly Offer Buyout Agreement To Unions

The General, Delphi and the UAW came together and reached an agreement to extend the limited early retirement buyout originally offered only to select employees — to all Delphi UAW workers. This means the original early-retirement offer which covered only 13,000 UAW members working at Delphi will now cover all 23,000 workers. Employees choosing the package with ten years or more of seniority will be eligible for $140,000 and less than ten years seniority are eligible for $70,000. Those who decide to take the package will forfeit their health care packages — and those who decide not to take the package — will probably end up having their asses fired or their plants closed. So although the General will have to be forking over a decent hunk of change to make this happen — we're starting to wonder whether Farago'll have to begin writing a "Life Watch" soon. More »

GM Looks To Spread The Buyout Love To Delphi While The UAW Goes To Vegas Baby, Vegas

We kinda feel sorry for the General today, cause it feels like GM's working real hard at this whole "Delphi/UAW buyout talks" thing — and even the Wall Street Journal's saying that the talks are going pretty well between the three parties. Today's Journal outlined a deal to offer thousands of Delphi workers lump-sum payments of $70,000 to $140,000 to leave the company and their health-care benefits behind. Additionally, GM's also close to offering Delphi worker-bee's in the five smaller unions an early-retirement package similar to the $35,000 packages offered to UAW workers back in March. The hope is that the tri-partate talks will deliver results sometime next week. In the meantime, the UAW is going on a quick little Vegas vacay for its annual national convo — one can only guess what they'll be talking about especially cause they don't have anything yet to talk about. Although we'd love to see Wagoner and Miller parachute in dressed like Elvis for a three-person presser at the beginning of the week. Come on folks, we know it's campy, but it's Vegas — that's how they roll. More »

Breaking! Delphi Judge Says "Meh!" To GM Request For Adjournment

Just as quickly as the motion was placed in front of U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Drain...just as quickly it was smacked down — like some crazy judicial game of whack-a-mole. Well, those thoughts of Delphi and UAW leadership sitting around for a quick tea n' crumpets and coming to a equitable solution were fun, weren't they? More »

Breaking! Poppa Bear Steps In For The Hug-Out; GM Asks Judge For 60-Day Adjournment In Delphi Proceedings

GM's totally looking for the hug-out to make Pivens proud on this whole Delphi/UAW contract situation. Lawyers from the RenCen today have asked bankruptcy court judge Robert Drain to adjourn the hearings for 60 days to give Delphi and the UAW some time to try to come to an amicable resolution to the dispute over little stuff like pay and benefits and jobs. More »

Breaking! Twenty-One Delphi UAW Locals Vote To Authorize Strike — Apocalypse Now? Soon?

Hoo-boy, this is totally no good thing — expected, yes — but still no good thing. Twenty-one UAW union locals voted by a 95% margin authorizing their leaders to call a strike if Delphi goes all unilateral, making changes to labor agreements without working with the UAW first. So what does this mean? Well, it means the ground war continues — because this doesn't mean a strike is certain, it just means the leadership can strike if they feel like it. Not like that makes us feel any less jittery for Delphi or GM. More »

GM Puts On Rose-Colored Glasses; Hands In Front Of Eyes, Thinks You Can't See It Anymore

Delphi's in bankruptcy court and simultaneously planning on dropping a few million on executive bonuses. The UAW's going to authorize a strike, like, yesterday. Negotiations between the two have basically stalled with the two acting like arguing sibling's — all the while GM's sitting over in the back seat — teetering between profitability and the deep, dark cavern of bankruptcy. So how odd was it to see Fritz Henderson, GM's Chief Teeterer...err...Chief Financial Officer, telling a group of auto analysts in New York last week he was "optimistic that Delphi would reach a negotiated settlement with its unions before the end of the summer?" Guess we're glad to see someone's feeling optimistic. More »

The Dog Ate Our 10Q: Delphi Delays First Quarter Earnings Report

Delphi's kinda like that kid in class who never seems to be able to get his math homework in on time, with assignment after assignment piling up on top of each other. One day, the kid finds himself with a seemingly insurmountable mountain of homework and missed assignments to do. And then he's gotta choose — do all of them in a week-long orgy of work or run off with his buddy Visteon to smoke a joint and eventually drop out of school, wandering aimlessly through life from one dead-beat OEM to another? And to think, this decision coulda been averted if only the parents had realized little Delphi had a learning disability. They totally could have called Sylvan Learning Centers and then gotten the little auto supplier some Ritalin. Oh, we see — it was a single parent household — in that case, GM maybe should have provided a bit more care and affection. Maybe then they would have gotten their accounting straight and not missed providing fiscal year end and quarterly audited statements to the SEC. Now they'll just be out on the street. More »

Delphi to Court: Let Us Eat Cake!

Our friends at GotDetroit got the right idea on the Delphi bankruptcy court hearings — pointing out the lunacy inherent in the two arguments made by Delphi and their customer/friend International Truck and Engine. We'll let Will over there explain: More »

The Truth About The GM Death Watch: Farago Goes All Contrarian

Now that the media's got themselves all caught up on the narrative of GM teetering on the brink of bankruptcy — Farago's decided to go all contrarian on the narrative he helped to create. And by contrarian we don't mean he's changed the name to the "GM Life Watch" — rather, he provides some non-Delphi-or-UAW reasons for the storms gathered around GM's RenCen HQ — and how many, if not all, may lead the General down the path of bankruptcy. It's always good to cover your bases, you know. More »

Breaking! Delphi Asks Judge To Screw UAW In An Extremely Uncomfortable Place

And no, we don't mean Delphi wants the federal judge to screw the UAW in the back seat of a Chevy Aveo. Rather, Delphi today in a New York courtroom done dropped the equivalent of a steel gauntlet to the floor, basically daring the UAW to ready the dogs of war. And that's totally what the UAW's likely to do after Delphi asked for a federal decree allowing them to void their union contracts if the bankrupt supplier can't reach an agreement with the union to cut jobs and slash wages. So yeah, that's kinda huge — but just as huge is hearing what GM CEO Rick Wagoner has to say about the Delphi "situation": More »

The GM Oracle: Delphi's Bankruptcy Hearing Begins!

Ladies and gentlemen, let's get ready to rumble! Seriously, we totally think that's how they should have started proceedings this morning — what with the ramifications the Delphi bankruptcy hearings will potentially have on the global automotive industry. I think we all know the narrative now — Delphi asks bankruptcy judge to cancel UAW contracts, UAW strikes, GM can't support itself without Delphi parts, GM production lines shut down and then, GM declares bankruptcy. So, the question is — do the dominos begin their final tumble today? Guess we'll all have to just watch and see what happens. And folks, just remember where you heard it first and second. And now, even mainstream media's on the Farago bandwagon. More »

Breaking! Dick Dribbles Out GM And Delphi Early Retirement Numbers

Richard "Dick" Shoemaker told a buncha union local leaders yesterday 12,400 workers at GM and 3,620 workers at Delphi have applied for GM's early retirement plan. Analysts seem to think these numbers, which are not only preliminary but also haven't been official-ized by anyone, sound like a pretty good number. Of course, there's still almost seven weeks left for employees to take the deal — so really — it's anyone's guess how many more'll take it. More »

Delphi Looking For The Dime-Bag Edge

Delphi, in a move smackin' with stupid, decided to piss the UAW off a li'l bit. Our friends at The Car Connection are reporting that Delphi has begun advertising for replacement's at the not-quite-union rate of $10 an hour at its Athens, Ala. steering parts plant. The ad (which we're still lookin' for) has provoked just a wee bit of controversy, due to Delphi's UAW contract requiring the bankrupt parts supplier to hire workers for a minimum wage of no less than $14 an hour. A reduction below $14 only flies if the UAW contract were to somehow be changed - or if Delphi was allowed to suspend its union contracts under a motion pending before the Bankruptcy Court judge. We doubt even Delphi would do something so stupid without a judge's ruling — wait, this is Delphi we're talkin' bout here — and Alabama. The only answer we can think of is — do they have the insider know-how allowin' them to be dropping an ad like this? More »

Uh-Oh! Spaghetti O's! Union - Delphi Talks Break Down!

Everyone agrees, whether a follower of the GM Death Watch or not, is GM needs — desperately, at that — for Union negotiations with Delphi to be cordial and effective. Well — word coming from negotiations between the embattled supplier and the just-as-embattled IUE-CWA, Delphi's second largest union, are not so good. Apparently the union, with 8,500 Delphi employees, has plotted a more "militant" course in their dealings with Delphi. Oh good, nothing like "militancy" to foster level-headed discussion. More »