General Motors Corp. Chief Executive Officer Rick Wagoner said seeking bankruptcy protection or a government bailout wouldn't be good options for the company, which is threatened by a strike at its largest supplier.

"Those approaches are not the right approaches for GM," Wagoner said today on CBS's "Face the Nation" program, reiterating remarks he's made in other recent interviews. "They aren't good for our consumers, they aren't good for the people that count on us for our contributions to the economy, they're not the right thing for our business."

GM, the world's largest automaker, plans to eliminate at least 30,000 U.S. factory jobs by 2008 and has offered its 113,000 union workers buyout or retirement packages, part of an agreement among GM, the United Auto Workers and Delphi Corp., the bankrupt auto-parts supplier that used to be part of GM. GM's troubles helped push Delphi into bankruptcy in October. Delphi is trying to shed 20,000 union jobs.

Delphi Chief Executive Officer Steve Miller last month asked a judge to scrap UAW contracts as part of a plan to exit bankruptcy. The UAW has threatened to strike if Delphi imposes terms such as wage cuts. Wagoner said last week that avoiding a long strike at Delphi is the highest priority for his company, which lost $10.6 billion last year. Asked on CBS if GM is stockpiling parts or taking other actions to prepare for a possible strike, Wagoner said that "we're doing some of that," though "that is not going to really avoid the issue." Wagoner said he doesn't expect a lengthy strike. "A long- term strike at Delphi would have huge ramifications for General Motors," other manufacturers, the unions and Delphi, he said. "Shame on us, the leaders of all those groups, if we can't come to a solution that avoids that kind of drastic action."

Wagoner, 53, said he has no plans to resign. "I wouldn't be in this job if I didn't think I was the right guy to do it," Wagoner said. GM expects about 45 percent of employees already eligible to retire and 9 percent of the workers within three years of retirement to take buyouts at the nine locations slated for closing, according to a March 28 regulatory filing. Bloomberg

The automaker didn't disclose how many workers were involved.