Main Street Bondholders Call for a Seat at the Table

The prospects of the second American manufacturer entering bankruptcy next week has raised concerns with all the parties involved. The Main Street Bondholders Coalition, a union of GM's small bondholders, calls for a meeting with the auto task force to discuss their concerns over their exclusion from the GM bankruptcy negotiations. Their request comes after weeks of in-house talks with small bondholders.

"From current seniors to working people still decades from retirement, these small bondholders came forward to join others like them to advocate for a seat at the negotiating table and to get the attention of the Auto Task Force. Average Americans are a part of GM, too, and the future of the corporation affects so many of them that they deserve the chance to have their voices heard about its fate," Jim Martin, the coalition's president said.

The small bondholders' worst fear is that following bankruptcy they will lose their retirement savings. The coalition says there are hundreds of small bondholders facing this threat and who have asked for help.

"I hope Senator Chris Dodd will use his leadership as Chair of the Senate Banking Committee to stand up for his constituents," Joan Pryor, a retired antique dealer from Essex, Connecticut, said. "I hope Senator Dodd will intervene on behalf of us small bondholders from his state. Small bondholders want to be part of the negotiation process."

The bondholders say that bankruptcy is not the only option for GM. Despite this, they believe that the Obama administration and GM itself want this to happen.

"Bankruptcy is not our only option, but it surely seems like the only option President Obama and GM want us to have," Jim Graves, a former GM employee and current bondholder said. "In my personal analysis, I just do not see how a contentious and protracted bankruptcy would be better for GM or the American people than reaching a reasonable agreement with the bondholders."