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aku1 发表于 2006-3-24 13:28:55 |
DETROIT, March 22 ? General Motors reached a landmark agreement Wednesday with the United Automobile Workers intended to reduce sharply the ranks of a generation of auto workers long envied by other blue-collar workers for their wages and benefits.
G.M., staggering under the weight of $10.6 billion in losses last year, said it would offer buyouts and early-retirement packages ranging from $35,000 to $140,000 to every one of its 113,000 unionized workers in the United States who agreed to leave the company.
At the same time, Delphi, the nation's biggest automotive parts maker and a unit of G.M. until seven years ago, will offer buyouts of $35,000 to 13,000 U.A.W. members, of 24,000 on its factory floors.
Despite the ambitious plan, G.M. still has much more to do in its effort to rebuild itself as a smaller, more competitive automaker after losing ground for two decades in the United States against the growing strength and sophistication of Asian and European rivals.
For G.M., which is paying the full cost, the buyout offer is an expensive way to persuade its workers and those at Delphi to retire rather than accept the full pay and benefits they would ordinarily receive when their plants closed or they were laid off. Analysts said the plan could cost G.M. as much as $2 billion, depending on how many workers took part in the buyout program.
On average, U.A.W. members at G.M and Delphi cost the equivalent of $67 an hour, including pay of about $27 an hour plus pensions and health care expenses.
The buyout plan, coupled with concessions on health care late last year, signals the willingness of the U.A.W. president, Ron Gettelfinger, to grant concessions without formally reopening the union contract for new bargaining ? something not done since the industry slump of the early 1980's. At that time, the U.A.W. renegotiated its contract only after Chrysler sought a federal bailout and both G.M. and Ford suffered deep losses.
For G.M.'s American workers, the offer presents a host of difficult choices, forcing them to consider the risk that the company may be even worse off in the future if the buyouts fail to spur a turnaround in business.
Amid all the maneuvering, analysts said, bargaining in next year's contract talks has already begun, with Mr. Gettelfinger gambling that if the union can address major issues now, it can stave off a bitter confrontation in 2007.
But the situation is far from resolved for G.M.'s chief executive, Rick Wagoner, whose future is now in serious doubt. He must deliver even broader cost cuts to save both G.M. and his own job. Already, he is under growing pressure from the company's largest individual shareholder, Kirk Kerkorian, whose representative has joined the board.
Delphi, which is operating under bankruptcy protection, remains a wild card. Despite G.M.'s assistance, it is still demanding that U.A.W. members accept sharply lower wages and benefits by the end of the month. Otherwise, Delphi has threatened to ask a bankruptcy judge for the ability to impose lower rates. If that happens, the U.A.W. has warned that it may go on strike.
In pursuing this substantial a downsizing, said John A. Challenger, president of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a Chicago firm that follows workplace trends, G.M. is finally recognizing that its dominant position in industrial America is over. "It's taken the company losing $10 billion," he said, "for the jam to begin to break."
Beyond the buyouts, analysts said, G.M. must take further steps to become more competitive or risk being pushed aside by strong rivals like Toyota, which could unseat G.M. to become the world's biggest auto company as soon as sometime this year.
A number of industry analysts have raised fears that G.M. could be forced into its own bankruptcy filing as a result of a flood of bad news at the company.
Late last year, G.M. announced plans to eliminate 30,000 jobs and close all or part of 12 plants through 2008.
It estimated that it faced a liability of $5.5 billion to $12 billion from the bankruptcy at Delphi, because it must pay for the pensions and health care coverage of workers who were at G.M. before Delphi was spun off.
Its once-sterling credit rating has sunk to junk-bond status, and its financial results have been restated twice in four months, most recently last week.
G.M., its union and Delphi began talking about the retrenchment plan shortly before Delphi sought bankruptcy protection last October.
Under the program, G.M.'s hourly workers would be offered packages to retire or leave, ranging from $35,000 for those who are already eligible to retire to $140,000 for those with 10 years at the company who are willing to cut ties and give up health care coverage.
At the same time, as Delphi will be offering buyouts to roughly half its unionized employees, G.M. agreed to take back 5,000 workers from Delphi, and those workers can opt for one of the G.M. retirement programs.
Employees are not under the obligation to accept a deal, and there is little likelihood that G.M. would give buyouts to all its workers ?something that would cripple factories.
Rather, it is likely to look for volunteers at the plants it already wants to close so it can make room for the Delphi workers who come back.
DETROIT, March 22 ? General Motors reached a landmark agreement Wednesday with the United Automobile Workers intended to reduce sharply the ranks of a generation of auto workers long envied by other blue-collar workers for their wages and benefits.
G.M., staggering under the weight of $10.6 billion in losses last year, said it would offer buyouts and early-retirement packages ranging from $35,000 to $140,000 to every one of its 113,000 unionized workers in the United States who agreed to leave the company.
At the same time, Delphi, the nation's biggest automotive parts maker and a unit of G.M. until seven years ago, will offer buyouts of $35,000 to 13,000 U.A.W. members, of 24,000 on its factory floors.
Despite the ambitious plan, G.M. still has much more to do in its effort to rebuild itself as a smaller, more competitive automaker after losing ground for two decades in the United States against the growing strength and sophistication of Asian and European rivals.
For G.M., which is paying the full cost, the buyout offer is an expensive way to persuade its workers and those at Delphi to retire rather than accept the full pay and benefits they would ordinarily receive when their plants closed or they were laid off. Analysts said the plan could cost G.M. as much as $2 billion, depending on how many workers took part in the buyout program.
On average, U.A.W. members at G.M and Delphi cost the equivalent of $67 an hour, including pay of about $27 an hour plus pensions and health care expenses.
The buyout plan, coupled with concessions on health care late last year, signals the willingness of the U.A.W. president, Ron Gettelfinger, to grant concessions without formally reopening the union contract for new bargaining ? something not done since the industry slump of the early 1980's. At that time, the U.A.W. renegotiated its contract only after Chrysler sought a federal bailout and both G.M. and Ford suffered deep losses.
For G.M.'s American workers, the offer presents a host of difficult choices, forcing them to consider the risk that the company may be even worse off in the future if the buyouts fail to spur a turnaround in business.
Amid all the maneuvering, analysts said, bargaining in next year's contract talks has already begun, with Mr. Gettelfinger gambling that if the union can address major issues now, it can stave off a bitter confrontation in 2007.
But the situation is far from resolved for G.M.'s chief executive, Rick Wagoner, whose future is now in serious doubt. He must deliver even broader cost cuts to save both G.M. and his own job. Already, he is under growing pressure from the company's largest individual shareholder, Kirk Kerkorian, whose representative has joined the board.
Delphi, which is operating under bankruptcy protection, remains a wild card. Despite G.M.'s assistance, it is still demanding that U.A.W. members accept sharply lower wages and benefits by the end of the month. Otherwise, Delphi has threatened to ask a bankruptcy judge for the ability to impose lower rates. If that happens, the U.A.W. has warned that it may go on strike.
In pursuing this substantial a downsizing, said John A. Challenger, president of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, a Chicago firm that follows workplace trends, G.M. is finally recognizing that its dominant position in industrial America is over. "It's taken the company losing $10 billion," he said, "for the jam to begin to break."
Beyond the buyouts, analysts said, G.M. must take further steps to become more competitive or risk being pushed aside by strong rivals like Toyota, which could unseat G.M. to become the world's biggest auto company as soon as sometime this year.
A number of industry analysts have raised fears that G.M. could be forced into its own bankruptcy filing as a result of a flood of bad news at the company.
Late last year, G.M. announced plans to eliminate 30,000 jobs and close all or part of 12 plants through 2008.
It estimated that it faced a liability of $5.5 billion to $12 billion from the bankruptcy at Delphi, because it must pay for the pensions and health care coverage of workers who were at G.M. before Delphi was spun off.
Its once-sterling credit rating has sunk to junk-bond status, and its financial results have been restated twice in four months, most recently last week.
G.M., its union and Delphi began talking about the retrenchment plan shortly before Delphi sought bankruptcy protection last October.
Under the program, G.M.'s hourly workers would be offered packages to retire or leave, ranging from $35,000 for those who are already eligible to retire to $140,000 for those with 10 years at the company who are willing to cut ties and give up health care coverage.
At the same time, as Delphi will be offering buyouts to roughly half its unionized employees, G.M. agreed to take back 5,000 workers from Delphi, and those workers can opt for one of the G.M. retirement programs.
Employees are not under the obligation to accept a deal, and there is little likelihood that G.M. would give buyouts to all its workers ?something that would cripple factories.
Rather, it is likely to look for volunteers at the plants it already wants to close so it can make room for the Delphi workers who come back.
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