Vivian Floyd's $100,000 investment in General Motors has been good to her, providing about one-third of her retirement income for the past six years. But the 80-year-old from the Villages in Sumter County is on the verge of losing almost all of it.
As GM teeters toward bankruptcy, her son, Jim Graves, has joined other GM bondholders to protest their treatment. They want a voice in the talks on GM's future.
"These are the little folks who put a little bit away for retirement," said Jim Martin, president of the group that organized the event, the 60 Plus Association, based in Alexandria, Va.
The group, known as a conservative alternative to the AARP, is speaking for individual investors who own about $5 billion of GM's bonds. Big investors such as hedge funds and pension plans own the rest - worth about $22 billion.
A 60 Plus Association gathering in Tampa drew about a dozen people, plus the media. Martin said his group rushed to put it together because the deadline in GM's negotiations with the government is only a couple of weeks away.
The government is working with GM and the autoworkers union, "but no one is talking to us," said Graves, 58, who lives in Celebration. He also owns GM bonds.
As GM negotiates to restructure its debt, it has proposed giving the union a 39 percent stake and the U.S. government a 50 percent stake in the company. GM owes as much to its bondholders as it does to the union and the government, but its plan would leave the bondholders with only pennies on the dollar.
They've been told they will fare even worse if the company declares bankruptcy.
"This is patently unfair," said former state Rep. Sandra Murman, who is working with the 60 Plus Association.
"They're being denied a voice in a decision that will truly affect them the rest of their lives."
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement
Advertisement