The Detroit News reports that General Motors has offered a $200 million dollar buyout option to American Axle & Manufacturing Inc, to help end a two month long company strike, which recently caused GM to stop production of their pickup trucks. The $200 million dollar buyout will help the parts supplier pay for their own employee buyouts, retirement accounts and incentives for workers for the differences in wages. American Axle spokeswoman, Renee Rogers, stated "Now that GM has agreed to provide financial assistance ... hopefully both parties can work to bring an agreement to this terribly costly strike".

Overall, it sounds like General Motors really got screwed with their parts supplier, costing the company more than $800 million and 100,000 vehicles in lost production. But in a declining United States market, the timing might not have been any better.