DETROIT - For all the good in GM’s 2007 results — the near-record worldwide sales, the reduction in labor costs and in retiree health obligations — there is no getting around the $38.7 billion in red ink.
The largest annual loss in the history of the auto industry signals that even with a garage full of hot vehicles and a historic new labor contract, GM has little hope of making a profit again before 2010 as the weak U.S. economy and competition eat away at its gains.
GM reported the record-setting loss on Tuesday and promptly offered a new round of buyouts to 74,000 U.S. hourly workers in hopes of replacing some of them with lower-paid employees.
GM wouldn’t say how many workers it hopes to shed or how much it expects the buyouts to cost, but under its new contract with the UAW, it will be able to replace up to 16,000 workers doing non-assembly jobs. The new employees will be paid half the old wage of $28 per hour.
Under the offer, retirement-eligible workers could get between $45,000 and $62,500 as an incentive to retire with full pension and health benefits. Other workers will have the option to retire early or take up to $140,000 to leave with no pension or health care.
I hope that the GM workers take some time and think about what they are being offered. Yea $45,000 to $140,000 sounds like a great deal. However is it enough to take care of you through the long run. Do you want to take the money and run and end having to work the rest of your life? Nobody ooffers you that kind of money because they care. Also I do not think that it fair that they have an employee that they pay $28.00 an hour now and when they leave they can rehire at $14.00. Same job, same responsiblities, they economy is not getting better, gas is not going down, so how are people going to survive making less.
The largest annual loss in the history of the auto industry signals that even with a garage full of hot vehicles and a historic new labor contract, GM has little hope of making a profit again before 2010 as the weak U.S. economy and competition eat away at its gains.
GM reported the record-setting loss on Tuesday and promptly offered a new round of buyouts to 74,000 U.S. hourly workers in hopes of replacing some of them with lower-paid employees.
GM wouldn’t say how many workers it hopes to shed or how much it expects the buyouts to cost, but under its new contract with the UAW, it will be able to replace up to 16,000 workers doing non-assembly jobs. The new employees will be paid half the old wage of $28 per hour.
Under the offer, retirement-eligible workers could get between $45,000 and $62,500 as an incentive to retire with full pension and health benefits. Other workers will have the option to retire early or take up to $140,000 to leave with no pension or health care.
I hope that the GM workers take some time and think about what they are being offered. Yea $45,000 to $140,000 sounds like a great deal. However is it enough to take care of you through the long run. Do you want to take the money and run and end having to work the rest of your life? Nobody ooffers you that kind of money because they care. Also I do not think that it fair that they have an employee that they pay $28.00 an hour now and when they leave they can rehire at $14.00. Same job, same responsiblities, they economy is not getting better, gas is not going down, so how are people going to survive making less.
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