GM offers buyouts to entire hourly workforce

[Steven B.]

BREAKING NEWS:
General Motors offers buyouts to 74,000 employees -- its entire U.S. hourly workforce represented by the UAW.

Not sure what all this might mean for the long term, but can anything say happy 100th birthday to your employees better than this!!!

[Terry D.]

Re: GM offers buyouts to entire hourly workforce

Steve

You are kidding right? Wher do you think those jobs are going to go?
Terry

[Art A.]

And now the rest of the story..............from GM

FOR RELEASE: 2008-02-12

General Motors and the UAW Reach Agreement on Comprehensive Special Attrition Program

DETROIT - General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM) and the United Auto Workers (UAW) union have reached an agreement on a comprehensive special attrition program that will be offered to all of GM's 74,000 UAW-represented employees.

The special attrition program offers a choice of several pension and buyout incentives. GM is offering retirement pension incentives of $45,000 for production employees or $62,500 for skilled trades. Eligible employees can select from a variety of ways to receive their incentive:

One time, lump-sum cash payment
Direct rollover into their GM 401(k) or into an Individual Retirement Account (IRA)
Monthly annuity
Combination of partial lump-sum payment and direct rollover into their GM 401(k) or an IRA
The other retirement and buyout options available are similar to those offered to employees in 2006. These options include:

Mutually Satisfactory Retirement (MSR) for employees who are at least 50 years old with 10 or more years of service. This option provides a pension payment with full benefits.
Pre-Retirement Program in which employees with 26, 27, 28 or 29 years of service can grow into a full "30 and out" retirement. Until they reach 30 years of credited service, participating employees would receive a fixed monthly payment with full benefits.
Cash Buyout for employees who agree to voluntarily quit and sever all ties with GM.
$140,000 buyout incentive is offered to employees with 10 or more years of credited service or seniority
$70,000 buyout incentive to employees with less than 10 years of credited service or seniority
In December 2007, GM and the UAW reached an agreement on what the company was calling the first phase of a comprehensive special attrition program. Details of this program were rolled out to employees at select locations last month. Those employees are now eligible for the enhanced provisions of this new agreement.

"We've worked with our UAW partners to ensure our employees have a variety of attractive options to consider," said Rick Wagoner, GM Chairman and CEO. "The special attrition program is an important initiative that will help us transform the workforce."

General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM), the world's largest automaker, has been the annual global industry sales leader for 77 years. Founded in 1908, GM today employs about 266,000 people around the world. With global headquarters in Detroit, GM manufactures its cars and trucks in 35 countries. In 2007, nearly 9.37 million GM cars and trucks were sold globally under the following brands: Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, GM Daewoo, Holden, HUMMER, Opel, Pontiac, Saab, Saturn, Vauxhall and Wuling. GM's OnStar subsidiary is the industry leader in vehicle safety, security and information services. More information on GM can be found at www.gm.com.

# # #

GM strives to ensure that all of the information contained in a press release is accurate at the time it is issued. However, changes in materials, equipment and specifications, prices, availability, etc do occur over time. For the most up-to-date information on currently available models, please visit GM.com/shop.

Attachment(S):

Download release in MS Word

[Chuck S.]

Re: GM offers buyouts to entire hourly workforce

It's not as bad as American jobs going to China. GM is taking advantage of the new labor agreement to replace employees paid at the higher assembler rate with employees in less skilled jobs paid at a lower hourly rate. But...how many janitors can they use?

At least that's what Wagoner said in an interview on CNBC this morning. The buyouts themselves are a significant business expense...I'm not sure how the economics works out. This reminds me of the efficiency of making fuel ethanol out of corn. Unlike ethanol, I suppose in the GM case they'll pass a break even point after several years, and then it's gravy.

[Clem Z.]

on the ethanol deal

we have been paying farmers for years NOT to grow corn now we are going to pay them to grow it. i think turn around is fair play.

[Chuck S.]

Re: on the ethanol deal

Yeah, but if they continue to crank up ethanol production from corn, when you go to the market for a nice sirloin strip, you'll see who's "getting it in the end". The hardest hit will be those poor Africans waiting on the next ship load of soybeans...no laughing matter for them.

I say...Hey, Dubya...How about payin'em to figure out how to make ethanol OUT OF THE HUSKS!

[Michael W.]

It's already had an

effect on my 'other hobby' that consumes mass quantities of malt barley, hops, yeast and water. I'm paying 50% more for barley than last year and 300% more for hops, partly due to a bad crop last year, but also due to farm land being converted over to the more lucrative corn crop.

Cheap gas OR cheap beer. Please choose one.

[Duke W.]

Re: It's already had an

Even at 95 bucks a barrel for crude oil, ethanol is more expensive to produce on a $/BTU basis than an equivalent amount of gasoline, so the result is BOTH more expensive gasoline AND beer, both of which are car guy staples.

Duke

[Clem Z.]

even with the poorer MPG

every gallon of E-85 uses less middle east crude and that is the reason for doing it NOT to make it less expensive to drive your car. this is never going to happen because the price of gasoline should have been going up with inflation all these past year. since the price rise happened all at once everyone is upset. i wonder if the guys with older corvettes are as mad about them going up in selling price ???

[Duke W.]

Re: even with the poorer MPG

Americans actually don't use much of the Middle East's crude output. Most of it goes to Europe and Asia, but we import a lot of crude from Mexico and Venezuela. It's all about the cheapest transportation matrix from producing fields to the regional refineries.

Some of our North Slope crude goes to Asia, but most goes to the West Coast.

Duke

[Clem Z.]

Re: even with the poorer MPG

we must use enought middle east oil to cause us to get involved in these middle east dust ups. if we can reduce that amount to "0" we would be better off and if E-85 can do that we should be better off.

[Chuck S.]

Ah, Give It Up, Clem...

You got a few acres planted in corn out behind the house, don'cha?

I agree that zero oil from the middle east should be our goal, and soon, but actually...Duke has it right. Whether you use Mexican or Saudi crude, or coal from West Virginia, you use more energy to make ethanol than the energy equivalent of the ethanol you make.

Given those facts, making ethanol to solve our energy crisis should only make sense to a politician or a corn farmer. I'm sure you remember that 55 mph was the last politician's answer to an energy crisis, and not much has changed in the interim. Maybe ethanol will begin to make sense when our foreign crude supplies are interrupted, and we're using coal to convert plant material into liquid fuel for the military...by implication, ethanol should be a short term, last resort bridging solution.

[Noel K.]

Re: Ah, Give It Up, Clem...

As one of my friends said, asking the government to fix the energy problem is "like waiting for aliens to land, eat feces, urinate gasoline and flatulate ozone."
It 's a little funnier if you don't have to use such polite language !

[Bert L.]

Re: Ah, Give It Up, Clem...

"Please correct me if I err, but doesn't the USA import more oil from Canada
then from any other source?

[Duke W.]

Re: Ah, Give It Up, Clem...

Yes, I think Canada may be one of our biggest suppliers, but I'm not sure if they are the biggest.

Remember about 30 years ago when Carter (aka "Jimma" the former president) told us we had to get off middle east oil? It's no more likely now then back then, maybe less.

When the price of oil gets to $150-200 a barrel extracting oil from shale may be viable as long as no one objects to strip mining the western slope of the Rockies.

Duke