The company reported its third-quarter earnings Tuesday, one day after full production returned to its U.S. plants. Its net quarterly income was US$2.3 billion—down nine per cent from the same period the year previous—and revenue fell from US$35.8 billion to US$35.5 billion. (New York Times)

Talking point: Forty-nine thousand unionized workers at GM’s U.S. factories walked off the job on September 16; in the 40 days they were on strike, the company missed out on the production of around 300,000 vehicles. While the walkout, which also affected most of GM’s Mexican and Canadian plants, cost the firm US$1 billion this quarter, it will feel the impact more in the next one, because the strike shut down its North American operations for nearly all of October. The new four-year deal to which the United Auto Workers agreed Friday—which will bump the company’s labour costs by around US$100 million per year, according to analyst estimates—means GM can close three U.S. factories that were making less popular vehicles.