GENERAL MOTORS

More than 73,000 General Motors Corp workers walked off the job on Monday after marathon contract talks between the United Auto Workers union and GM stalled and the union called the first national strike since 1970 against the top U.S. automaker.

With General Motors Corp facing the prospect of its first strike in almost a decade, the $50 billion question for the struggling automaker is how badly it wants to buy peace with its major union.

The United Auto Workers union set a Monday morning deadline for reaching a contract deal with General Motors Corp. and threatened to send 73,000 GM factory workers on strike if no deal is reached.

General Motors Corp and the United Auto Workers union broke off negotiations early on Friday and agreed to return to the bargaining table later in the day, as 73,000 GM workers returned for another day of work without a new contract.

General Motors Corp would give new union members 401(k)-style retirement plans instead of traditional pensions for the first time under a proposed United Auto Workers contract, Bloomberg News said on its Web site, citing people with knowledge of the talks.

Negotiators for the United Auto Workers union and General Motors Corp were scheduled to resume discussions later on Tuesday as GM factory employees went to work as usual on the fourth day without a new contact.

Negotiators for the United Auto Workers union and General Motors Corp were back at the bargaining table on Monday after breaking in the early hours of the day, as thousands of GM factory employees went to work without a new contract.

Negotiators for the United Auto Workers and General Motors Corp agreed to a break in contract talks on Monday after a marathon 16-hour bargaining session that raised expectations the union and the top U.S. automaker were nearing an agreement.

Contract talks between General Motors Corp and the United Auto Workers union resumed on Sunday, a day before tens of thousands of GM factory workers were due to return to work at the No. 1 U.S. automaker in the absence of a new contract.

Carmakers wasted no time trying to show off their new-found green credentials -- as well as their glittering profits -- at the start of the Frankfurt International Motor Show (IAA) on Tuesday.

Auto parts maker Delphi Corp said it would file a reorganization plan on Thursday that lays out a definitive agreement with former parent General Motors Corp and a path to exiting bankruptcy by the end of the year.

General Motors Corp said on Wednesday its vehicle sales in China would exceed 1 million this year but intense competition would keep the heat on prices in the world's fastest-growing car market.

Major automakers posted mixed U.S. sales for August on Tuesday, as executives cautioned the embattled industry was facing reverberations from a weaker housing market and the shakeout in subprime lending. Industrywide sales for August were tracking at 16.1 million vehicles on an annualized rate, down from 16.2 million a year earlier.

General Motors of Canada will cut about 1,000 jobs at a truck plant in Oshawa, Ontario, in January amid slumping pick-up sales, the Globe and Mail newspaper said in its online edition on Thursday.

Japanese stocks hit their lowest close in a week after earlier falling by nearly 3 percent as a strong yen sparked sales of exporters such as Sony Corp after fears about the U.S. economy set off a Wall Street tumble.

General Motors Corp is testing a combustion engine that could increase fuel economy in traditional engines by up to 15 percent, the automaker said on Friday.

Toyota Motor Corp aims to sell around 10.4 million vehicles worldwide in 2009, up 18 percent from last year as it grabs market share in North America and taps growing demand in China and other emerging economies, business daily Nikkei reported on Wednesday.

Ford Motor Co is considering exporting more North American-built vehicles to South America to meet growing demand, Dominic DiMarco, president of Ford's South American division, said on Tuesday.

The top executive at General Motors Corp said on Friday that U.S. consumers appeared to be holding up well despite the recent credit crisis that roiled world markets and prompted the U.S. central bank to cut rates.

General Motors Corp. is raising incentives to boost sales in August, mainly for full-size pickup trucks, the automaker's global head of product development said on Thursday.

General Motors Corp.'s Buick brand tied Toyota Motor Corp's Lexus for top ranking in a widely watched U.S. survey of vehicle reliability released on Thursday.