GM Contract Would Increase Entry-Level Workers

[alp227]

Source: The Wall Street Journal

General Motors Co. agreed to a rich buyout program that could result in the hiring of hundreds of new U.S. workers at entry-level wages, according to a summary of the proposed contract released on Tuesday by the United Auto Workers union.

The tentative four-year contract reached over the weekend between GM and the UAW calls for 6,400 new jobs, the vast majority expected to be for lower-wage positions. The tentative pact, to be voted on by UAW members this week, also would increase pay by between $2 and $3 an hour for entry-level workers and offer an about $5,000 signing bonus for existing workers, the union said.

"The auto industry is back," UAW President Bob King said on Tuesday. The UAW's vice president in charge of GM negotiations said the contract was a result of a focus on "jobs, jobs, jobs."

The Detroit auto maker agreed to reopen an assembly plant in Spring Hill, Tenn., which had been idled as part of its restructuring. The four-year contract also creates a new system of profit sharing that could improve workers' bonus checks.

Read more: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904194604576582771324537228.html

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(Google the title to read in full.)

[Sedona]

1. K&R Yay!

I bought a brand new 2012 Chevy Malibu last week.

[Bluzmann57]

3. Nice looking car

I'm a Ford guy myself, but that car looks pretty good. Hope it's built to last.

[Sedona]

5. Consumer reports rated it a close second to the Honda Accord

in the "mid sized sedan catagory".

I went with the American made car.

I traded in a 1992 Caddillac Sevile with 107,000 miles it that I bought three years ago for $3000.

Its my first new car in 20 years.

I have never owned a foreign car and I didn't think it was a good time to start.

[LiberalFighter]

12. My next vehicle will probably be a Malibu or similar car.

I currently drive a 99 Cavalier. 13 years in October. My total car loan payments averaged $92.31 each month. The only major problem I have right now is that the fuel gauge does not work properly. So I just reset the odometer each time I fill up and make sure to fill up when it reaches about 300 miles.

I get about 30 to 35 mpg.

[demosincebirth]

4. GREAT! BUY AMERICAN!!

[Bluzmann57]

2. I thought the bailouts were a bad thing?

Anyway, that's what repubs and several Dems said at the time. 6400 new jobs is nothing to sneeze at, even if they are "entry level" wage jobs. These people will move up the wage ladder, spend money on stuff, create more jobs, etc. etc. Now if only the gop could figure that out. And some Dems as well.

[stockholmer]

6. the GM bailout was horrible on so many levels

To break even, the remaining US government owned shares need to be sold at $53, as of today, GM is trading under $23. The only way GM will see $53 a share is when the US dollar is so hyper-inflated that is will take 20 or 30 to buy a loaf of bread.

GM also took billions of that bailout money to build factories over-seas, NOT in the US.

The US continuing erosion/transition from superpower to failed domestic economy is killing GM. Only 1/3 or so of Ford's sales are in the USA, versus GM, which relied up until the recent past for 60%+ of its total sales coming from within the American market.

Look at GM's US core marques: Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick, and GMC. All but Chevy are based on (compared to the rest of the world) petrol-guzzlers. GM is a day late and a dollar short. Most of their foreign acquisitions ended in tears, and just from 2005 to 2009, they lost over $100 billion dollars. It is a joke that they claim profit for 2010, as this is simply due to huge tax breaks ($45 billion over 10 years that was part of the bailout) and accounting practices that 20 years ago would have been illegal.

Current GM CEO CEO Daniel Akerson was a Managing Director of The Carlyle Group, nuff said there. This cruel joke is a pox on both parties. When those tax breaks, interest, and other hidden bankster/broker charges and fees are factored in, the bailout cost was over $100 billion. The US citizens, at the end of the day, are going to take a $50+ billion dollar loss on this bloated pig of a stock/firm.

To put it another way, that is $7.8 million per each one of these 6400 new entry-level jobs, which are also not created due to growth, but to hugely expensive (up front) buy-outs.

[Frustratedlady]

7. Dividing $7.8M by 6400 jobs doesn't give you a true picture, anyway.

If they have enough orders to hire that many new workers, then the sub-contractors will also be working/hiring, and those are all over the country.

My question to you is: Where would we be if we had allowed the auto companies to fail? I'm not saying this bailout was the only solution, but I'm sure it prevented a major disaster.

[stockholmer]

8. could not the same 'where would we be if we let them fail' be said of the 'too big to fail' banks?

When either a failed, or a corrupt business is allowed to go under, new firms always emerge to take their places. If new firms do not, then the entire business model of that bank or firm was no longer needed or was based on pure fraud and parasitic behaviour.

If the US is truly serious about transitioning back to a successful, non oligarchic economic system, then it needs to invest trillions in rebuilding and expanding its infrastructure, via 50 to 100 year-maturity successive tranches of government ZERO-PERCENT interest credit. Nationalize the Fed, liquidate the zombie banks, and all the other rentier leaches on the system. Suspend all foreclosures for the duration of the crisis, and move with all deliberate spreed to a not-for-profit universal health care system and a replacement of the dying petrol fuel culture via scale-of-economy build out of alternative energy production.

This will create millions of jobs, versus what BOTH the Democrats and the Republicans are doing now (huge tax breaks and bailouts that socialize losses, thus simply further concentrating wealth into the top of pyramid, whilst indebting each citizen to a life of chattel debt peonage).

[Frustratedlady]

10. The problem there was they bailed them out, but left the scum in charge.

They should have gone in and cleaned house, outlawed bonuses until and unless they could pull themselves up by their bootstraps for a period of at least 10 years without problems. You can't clean house with the same scummy water.

Either that, or send a bunch to prison and see how long it takes the rest to straighten up.

[Romulox]

9. OK. Now do the bankster bailouts (to the same level of detail!)

:hi:

[blue_onyx]

11. So much nonsense...

First, letting GM go under would've cost the government tax revenue, unemployment to the hundreds of thousands of people who lost their jobs, and damaged the economy further. If you factor in the costs that were prevented by government intervention, the bailout more than paid off.

Where are all the over-seas factories GM built with bailout money?

GMs non-hybrid vehicles are as fuel efficient as the foreign companies.

[Romulox]

15. Um, stockholmer???? You were telling us about how much each job saved by "bailouts" cost

But you didn't complete your work. How about the Bankster Bailouts? How much did each of those jobs cost, Mr. Slide Rule???? :hi:

[IamK]

13. will guarantee no raises for 10 years for tenured workers.. nice work GM

The beat down continues for UAW workers and the union calls it a win....


What happened to the $7,000 to $30,000 in concessions since 2007 that the workers were going to claw back from a very profitable GM?
The new contract has no wage increase for traditional workers and no restoration of a cost-of-living allowance.

Instead they'll receive a $5,000 signing bonus and an improved profit-sharing plan that includes profits from global operations, where hundreds of thousands of GM jobs have gone, rather than just U.S. profitability.

Keep in mind, the $5,000 signing bonus is for four years. That's $1,250 a year or 2 percent of a straight-time annual wage of $58,240. That won't even keep up with the rate of inflation. And unlike inflation, a signing bonus doesn't compound.
Because Detroit 3 hourly workers have not had a raise since 2003, the $58,240 a year they earn is worth 20 percent less today in inflation-adjusted dollars. They also gave up COLA in 2009.

Excuse the hourly at GM if they're not high-fiving this deal. If it is ratified, and I believe it will be a tight vote, it is only because they can't strike and they might get no better in binding arbitration, where transplant compensation is considered.


http://www.autonews.com/article/20110918/BLOG06/110919849/-1/mobile&template=art4

[bluebuzzard]

14. jobs in china

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/21/business/global/gm-plans-to-develop-electric-cars-with-chinese-automaker.html?_r=3&hpw
It's all about profits