Although General Motors’ latest viability plan wasn’t quite thorough enough to earn a stamp of approval from the Obama administration, GM’s plan outlined more than $1 billion in labor savings this year. Moreover, the plan promises to save GM even more in the subsequent years.
According to The Detroit News, the 17-page plan projects the automaker will pay out $6.5 billion in hourly employee costs this year. That represents more than a billion dollars in savings over last year’s $7.6 billion hourly employee costs, and a significant savings over the $18.4 billion paid out in 2003. Additionally, GM says it can bring that figure down to just $4.8 billion by 2012.
Much of that savings can be attributed to recent concessions by the UAW. Per a new labor agreement, GM can make new hires at roughly half the hourly wages of current UAW workers. More than 7,600 UAW workers recently took buyout or retirement packages — about 1,000 more than GM expected.
GM also revealed that it has requested $10.3 billion of the Energy Department’s $25 billion set aside for the production of more fuel efficient vehicles. However, since President Obama rejected GM’s viability plan on Monday, it remains unclear if the Energy Department will be able to move forward with those loans.
04/01, 1:33 PM
posted by:
Impulsive
All of this is good to cut the fat but Chapter 11 is coming to clean house.
It’s a brave new world.
04/01, 1:40 PM
posted by:
SHOspeed
Again no. It would be very very bad for the people if GM had to go into bankrupcy. We dont need a higher unemplyment rate then we already have. Their trying to avoid this. This plan sounds promising at least.
04/01, 2:09 PM
posted by:
shaver
Thank god, I hate the middle class. If you didnt go to college for atleast 6 years, you could not possible be productive at all, no matter how hard you work. So your pay should be capped at no more than double minimum wage.
04/01, 2:16 PM
posted by:
yarddog82abn
shaver
Thank god, I hate the middle class. If you didnt go to college for atleast 6 years, you could not possible be productive at all, no matter how hard you work. So your pay should be capped at no more than double minimum wage.
lol…. That my friend is a good one, You will hate me so mush if I told you my year to date, and I didn’t so to collage, just a trade school. I’m not a union person, I’m just a lucky bastard that can’t complain…
04/01, 2:32 PM
posted by:
Ed103
Shaver is a bit extreme, but I do think that some of the workers in the auto industry definitely make too much money. It’s good for them, of course, but the industry just cannot bear that kind of overhead. That happens with unions. They were created for a different time and are no longer necessary. Back when workers were forced to work in dangerous conditions for less than minimum wage. All that was a hundred years ago though. Now we have state and federal laws mandating minimum wages, work days and the like. Now unions, all unions, focus on getting as much as possible from the companies, whether the workers deserve it or not. Really, at a certain point, a worker’s experience/value reaches a maximum. A worker who has twenty years of experience will not know a whole lot more than one who has five years. But in many industries, that twenty year employee will be making quite a bit of money. Do they deserve it? Not likely.
04/01, 2:34 PM
posted by:
johnnycanuck
Damn yarddog, and here I had you pegged as a candidate for the Morning Wood Country Club.
04/01, 3:31 PM
posted by:
shaver
Im a commercial door contractor, that was sarcasm.
04/01, 3:46 PM
posted by:
RaineMan
It’s really a sad thing. American workers are essentially whoring themselves out to whomever is willing to pay a buck these days. Used to be you could find a good job that paid a living wage and offered decent benefits in exchange for an honest day’s work… no more. We’re trying to compete with nations that have a much lower cost of living and govt. subsidized healthcare for the masses… and it is our workers who end up getting the shaft in the end. I have little hope for the future of this nation if we can’t find a way to stop selling out our own people and take a little pride in ourselves again.
04/01, 4:51 PM
posted by:
Borat
shaver, a bit of modern history. The richest man on earth did not finish college, that would be Bill Gates. Larry Ellison, I don’t recall where he stands on top 10 richest man on Earth, never got his degree from U of Chicago. I worked with brilliant scientists who had not formal education and useless PhD’s. As much as I personally stressed the need for formal education to my own children, I did it out of fear that they are not brilliant enough to make it in this world without a degree. Gates and Ellison made it however.
04/02, 12:08 AM
posted by:
teahead
Pretty sad.
Typical autoworker will soon be making $10.00/hour w/few benefits. Might as well work for Wal-Mart.
Not out of a job yet? Keep buying foreign!