Things do change. When the "Legacy Benefits" were first introduced, the company was in a state of growth & they were making a lot of money. Now, not the same story. I do not believe in any way that the company should completely cut employees benefits. Not at all. Line level salaried workers have suffered the most. They have had the most taken from them. When I was building the Cadillac CTS, GM was making about $9000+ per vehicle when the average base cost was around $31,000 per unit. The quality standard of that particular vehicle was very high . Right on line with Toyota. I think poor vision & a record of repeating past mistakes cause the most problems for GM & the other American auto manufacturers.
They spend millions to save thousands. A perfect example is having a jobs bank for laid off skilled trades workers when they could be put back on the line as an assembly worker. Instead, the company pays them (& their benefits) to sit in an air conditioned room all day & do nothing. This is a fact, because the jobs bank was a couple miles away from my house & I seen it firsthand. The company can be much mare sensible about their spending & programs for their employees. When I left in 2005, I was making almost $28 per hour. Add COLA & shift premium, more like $30. Free benefits for my entire family NO out of pocket expense at all except for some minor copays. I never would have minded paying into my benefits package to cover a part of it. Nearly everyone else in industry is doing that already & has been for quite some time.
My point is, much like Iaccoca expressed, if everyone gave a little a long time ago, we all wouldn't be in the mess we're in now. The company will eventually pull the plug on the benefits because a compromise cannot seemed to be reached. Historically, the UAW refuses to budge on healthcare & eventually, the refusal to do so will result in dire consequences for everyone. Sure, the company has cash reserves in excess of billions of dollars. If they continue to make poor decisions regarding spending & investment (they gave 2 billion to Renault to bail them out) it will ruin them. They have traditionally passed all inflation of non value added costs along to the customer with increased vehicle prices. The market is far too competitive to continue with that train of thought now. The customer will buy a vehicle someplace else if they can't get what they want for the price they want to pay. Even their stocks have already neared junk bond status. Something has to give. I worked there over 5 years & know it for a fact.
It's not the same place my grandpa & both of my uncles worked. The stress to produce profit & save money has reached all the way to the line worker & they are being driven harder to do more with less. I never had a cake job in 5 years. I worked the line every day & have degeneration of the discs in my spine & carpal tunnel in both hands. They better figure out something. I got out because I didn't want to spend the rest of my life on nights, humping the line to find out after 25 years that they're pulling the plug on everything I was told I was going to get when I retired. It's too bad soo many people are effected by poor management, but no one's perfect. :-) S.W.
My cousin's wife left GM in '95, She was about 34 years old, was making over 100K/year and got a "golden handshake" package when She left. She quit on Her own, to spend time with He Mom & move back to Our area after He Dad died.
Someone She knew, I think a former boss, got "displaced" a coupple years ago in a downsizing. He gets His full salary untill retirement, and then His retirement package kicks in. All He loses is a company car and health insurance, but since His wife is still employed by GM He is covered as Her spouse. This is executive downsizing, GM pays everything they used to pay Him when He worked minus a company car, He does nothing.
Measures like this can't save a company.
Yep. That's the stuff killing them. Like I said earlier. The floor level supervisors, the ones on the bottom tier are the ones that lost big. They have to pay a good portion of their health insurance & no longer have an actual pension. Just a 401K type plan. The execs take care of their own though.
I got $70K to quit. I can't ever go back, but after working in that new plant, working endless overtime & seeing no light at the end of the tunnel, I decided there were more important things than GM. I may not have a lot financially now, but I do NOT regret it. That's just me though. S.W.
Forum
