"The UAW and our people have been very focused on being part of the solution and not part of the problem," Henderson said. "The hardest thing to gauge in this situation would be the progress of the bond exchange."
In the meantime, he said he would be closely watching the unfolding of the Chrysler bankruptcy in New York.
On Monday, the federal judge overseeing the case, Arthur Gonzalez, gave the carmaker interim access to $4.5 billion in federal financing, despite objections from some of the company's debt holders.
At the same time, he listened to creditors' demands in delaying a decision to transfer Chrysler assets to a new entity that would be controlled by Italian automaker Fiat. That move is a key step toward their planned merger.
Henderson said the smaller automaker's legal situation "is not a test case" for a possible GM filing, but legal experts said it could indeed set the tone should GM be forced to go that route.
Indeed, said Larry Engel, a bankruptcy attorney at Morrison and Foerster in San Francisco, the progression of the Chrysler case this month could help the administration decide whether to push GM -- which it has loaned $15.4 billion to date -- into court as well.
"Observers will be able to quickly decide whether the normal bankruptcy rules apply," Engel said. "Sophisticated bankruptcy players will see those patterns early."
Even as that case progresses, GM has plenty of other matters to attend to.
Henderson said GM would restart negotiations with the UAW, which has already made big concessions to Chrysler, this week.
GM's goal is getting the union to accept equity in exchange for roughly $10 billion in cash obligations to a retiree healthcare fund.
Though that would make the fund the company's second-largest shareholder, Henderson said it was "his expectation" that the union would sell off much of that stake.
The UAW has not commented on disposing of possible GM holdings. On Monday it said it planned to quickly sell off its stake in Chrysler, which would amount to 55%, after the bankruptcy case is resolved.
Meanwhile, late last week GM began the process of notifying more than 40% of its 6,100 U.S. dealers that they were targeted for closure.
Henderson declined to provide details of the offers being made to those dealers, but he said that cash settlements were a possibility.
He added that GM did not anticipate problems in redistributing the inventory from dealers slated for closure, which by law the company is obliged to buy back.
