Attorney for GM urges quick sale

NEW YORK, July 2 (UPI) -- A lawyer for General Motors Corp. told U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Robert Gerber a quick sale of the automaker is needed to preserve the "fragile" company.

In the two-day hearing on the sale of GM's viable assets, Harry Wilson, of the Obama administration's automotive task force, told Gerber the government intends to stick with a July 10 deadline for GM to sell its best assets.

GM attorney Harvey Miller said creditors who objected to the sale, "fail to recognize what we're dealing with is an asset sale of fragile assets."

Miller said creditors were simply saying, "I want more, cut someone else out."

More than 850 objections to the sale have been filed, The Detroit News reported. IUE-CWA Attorney Tom Kennedy said the plan would shift the retirement benefits of thousands of union workers to the responsibility of the "old" GM, which would be composed of the remaining assets left behind after the sale.

"People are being deprived of their fundamental rights," Kennedy said.

But Miller said there were not enough good assets to make all the parties happy.

"If everybody here could do it, they would move all the liabilities to the new GM," Miller said.