General Motors Corp. and Chrysler Group LLC retirees are flocking to Metro Detroit optometrists and dental offices for eye exams and teeth cleanings before those longtime benefits vanish July 1.
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General Motors Corp. won’t terminate its hourly pension plan, the United Auto Workers union told its members today — a move that could have cost retirees thousands of dollars in lost benefits.

But the union disclosed that both the Obama administration and GM, during the course of negotiations aimed at restructuring the company, had sought to terminate the company’s underfunded hourly pension plan.
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For General Motors Corp., the task at hand is so difficult that experts say a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing is all but inevitable.

To remake itself outside of court, GM must persuade bondholders to swap $27 billion in debt for 10 percent of its risky stock. On top of that, the automaker must work out deals with its union, announce factory closures, cut or sell brands and force hundreds of dealers out of business — all in three weeks.
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