Top Officials Meet About Gm Strike

General Motors Corp. and the United Auto Workers held their first top-level meeting in 2-1/2 weeks over a crippling labor dispute that saw another analyst on Monday slash his earnings estimate for the automaker.

GM said Gerald Knechtel, its vice president for North American personnel, met in Flint, Mich., with Richard Shoemaker, UAW vice president for GM bargaining. GM declined to say whether any progress was made.

The strikes at two parts plants in Flint have closed 26 of GM’s 29 North American assembly plants, idling 162,700 workers. Lost profits now amount to $80 million a day, and up to $1 billion for the second quarter.

“GM is in a no-win situation,” said Joseph Phillippi, a Lehman Brothers analyst. “It desperately needs to get cost-competitive. The market, however, has serious doubts about the returns that General Motors will get” from what has become its longest labor dispute at GM since a 67-day strike in 1970.

Phillippi cut his second-quarter earnings estimate for GM to 70 cents a share from $2.10 a share.

GM shares have declined 9.5 percent since the day before the first walkout began June 5.