Best. Headline. Ever. But then Canada’s Globe and Mail threw out their word mincing machine sometime around the turn of the last century. The paper shows its stones by revealing that the new deal between Generous Motors and the Canadian Auto Workers isn’t what you’d call onerous. Not by a long chalk.
The extra holidays remain intact in the new, cheaper version of GM Canada’s deal with the CAW, negotiated over the weekend. So does the child care subsidy (up to $2,400 per kid per year) and the car purchase discount (up to $2,600), which GM Canada – despite being on the brink of crisis – generously extended last spring to some 30,000 retired workers. Of course, current GM workers who think their jobs might vanish will want to hold off on buying that new GMC Sierra, to take advantage of the $35,000 vehicle voucher they would receive as part of their $100,000 restructuring allowance.
Then there’s the pension plan, GM’s Achilles heel. The pensioners won’t get any increase between now and at least 2012. But the old “30-and-out” system stays; production workers with three decades of service can retire well before 65 and draw $3,500 a month, or more if they’re skilled tradesmen. And the shrinking contingent of employees still won’t have to contribute a dollar to the fund.
Scribe Derek DeCloet pauses just long enough to lose his “I’m being ironic” emoticon.
That’s not to say GM workers didn’t give up a lot last weekend. They did. They’ll get five fewer scheduled paid absence days, nicknamed “spa days.” (“It’s an unfortunate acronym,” confesses Jim Stanford, the CAW’s chief economist.) A worker with 10 years of service at GM will have to make do with four weeks of holidays, down from six weeks just a couple of years ago. They’ll lose an annual bonus, their wages are frozen until 2012, and they’ll have to stump up $360 a year in new health care premiums. Retirees will pay more for their health benefits.
Bottom line? “The new deal is expected to shave the total cost by about $7 an hour, or an estimated 10 per cent.” Just enough to liberate CA$4b from Canadian taxpayers for GM subsidies—I mean “loans”? We shall see.
The paper shows it’s stone
Only one?
Well, that’s obviously one more than the whole GM management negotiating team has between all of them.
Did they keep their company paid lawyers?
I believe they get 100k plus a 35k voucher to buy a new vehicle if they will be so nice as to retire. This after 26 years seniority.
So the bailout money will be used to payoff these workers to retire when they shutdown the Windsor tranny plant and St. Catherines.
And then you have a whole bunch more retirees to pay for, for several decades. An unworkable business model.
And the government copied it.
But the Canadian economy also threw a bone to GM by allowing the dollar to fall to 77 cents US. Took only 5 months to go from par to this. Quite why, nobody really knows.
Lemme see, C$7 an hour saving plus a 23 per cent discount on wages vis a vis the US, plus two weeks vacation gone, etc., and no annual $1700 bonus for actually showing up for work.
GM Canada should be profitable again in 2039.
Even though I wholeheartedly agree that GM should have extracted much, much more from the CAW, and believe these “concessions” are just a smoke screen, I don’t think I have a say on this matter since, after all, it’s GM’s money, not mine, we’re talking about… Oh, wait a minute!!!! Fed and Ontario bailout? $7 billion and counting…? Never mind.
Four weeks vacation? Annual raises and bonuses? $2600 extra off a new car, on top of rebates and incentives? I should’ve gone to work for American Leyland instead of going to law school.
Just enough to liberate CA$4b from Canadian taxpayers for GM subsidies– I mean “loans”? We shall see.
Not if there aren’t job guarantees, no. There’s precious little appetite in Canada for rolling out the red carpet only to have the recipient subsequently defile it. GM burned far too many bridges in it’s handling of Oshawa Truck’s closure to expect anything.
Hey, when people in Oshawa are saying “Let’em burn”, GM has real perception problems.
They should have everything going for them: they’re a big part of the (erstwhile) economic engine of Canada, their head office and largest plant is located in the riding of the Federal Finance minister and the belt of blue-collar automotive workers more or less directly overlaps with their strongest supporters. And yet a bailout is in question?
My government is going to take my money and give it to these people? I’ve never been to a job interview offering the type of benefits the CAW workers get. This is insane!
Maybe the Globe and Mail should get thier facts straight first.SPA days?never heard of them.Scheduled Paid Absence consists of two weeks a year.Picked by seniorty.We lost one of them in the latest round of consessions 40HRS gone.Not to
mention the 1700 Xmas bonus gone.What about the 30$ a month health care cost?That was a little gift to active and retired.The cap on dental?the incresed co-pay on drugs.The CAW ageed to extend the contract untill 2012.Keep in mind we just signed a deal in June.Yeah thats the one where we gave up 40 vacation hours,and co-pay on drugs.
The finer details havn’t been released yet.I will
know later today.Cause I’m a long standing part
of the B&B I will E mail TTAC with such details.
Car Purchase
An active or retired employee gets a $2600
discount stacked on top of his employee price.
Or so it was.That might of changed we will see.
Under the June agreement the retierment package included $35000 car voucher[TAXED]and $100,000 incentive[also taxed]The package did allow the employee price on the new vehicle.But you CANNOT STACK the $2600 on top.This may also have been changed.
The whole agreement goes in the garbage if some conditions arn’t met.
#1 New product to run on the flex line with the Camaro.Doesn’t seem too tough eh?Lots of demand for new cars right?
#2The Canadian government Provincial and federal cough up 4to6B.But these guys are keeping thier check books closed.Ottawa and Queens Park first need to see,the road our good friends to the south are going to take.
The whole freakin issue,the CAW/UAW the new
contracts,the old contracts,product alocation,quality,percieved or not,hourly head counts,bloated salaries,too many brands,too many dealers.It all adds up to diddly squat.Cause nobody is buying cars!Thus creating problem number one.THE IMMEDIATE CASH CRISIS.
@ bluecon 26 years will NOT give you the full retirement package gott’a have 30…Just setting the record straight
That is what they say in the Windsor Star.
“Just finished reading your article “Bailout Or Not, Jobs Will Go” and thought I would ask you a question. You mention Windsor Transmission’s 1,400 employees might become enraged if their buyouts are reduced in concession talks with GM.
“What you forgot to mention is, GM Oshawa has 2,400 employees that signed up for a similar buyout and most of them won’t be taking it ‘till late this year and early next.
“The total for these outrageous 4,000 buyouts (at $100,000 cash, $35,000 car coupon, 26 year seniority gets 30 year pension) is $2.5 billion dollars which has YET TO BE PAID.”
http://communities.canada.com/windsorstar/blogs/vanderblogger/default.aspx
I had a buddy retire from Chryco at 48 after 28 years work. They payed him full pay to sit at home for 2 years and then gave him his full retirement.
@bluecon 26 years buys you a “grow in”The Windsor
paper Star sort’a has it right.
Personally, I think grow ins suck.I put in 36.4 and I think a when push comes to shove the 26 year
grow in are going to be in for a shock.
DeCloet, the Globe and Mail “scribe”responsible for the gun-to-head story, works not 30 miles from GM Canada Headquarters, yet I seriously doubt that he has ever been there. For someone who aspires to inform his readers he is really casual about informing himself. Mikey is right that his current piece is full of misinformation and misunderstanding.
It isn’t that hard people. Auto assembly is no longer a labour intensive industry. It stopped being that starting in the mid eighties and has become ever less so in the 25 years since. The unskilled workers especially aren’t that numerous or that important any more. The new Oshawa flex plant has the fifth or sixth generation of GM automation and robotics. If the workers mattered still, as so many including DeCloet seem to think, they could save the company. They don’t. They can’t.
I don’t know whether it is worth repeating again because it doesn’t seem to stick but employee compensation accounts for ten percent or less of the cost of auto assembly. If that seems wrong to you maybe you are stuck in 1957.
If it makes anyone feel better to dump on workers for ideological reasons, not to mention reasons of class prejudice and envy, go right ahead. Have a good time. But it doesn’t have much to do with the truth about cars.
By the way, psarhjinian, the GM Autoplex isn’t in Finance Minister Flaherty’s riding. He is the MP for Whitby-Oshawa. The MP with the Autoplex is Colin Carrie, a back bencher.
Well when GM Canada retires reach 65 years of age and if they live in Ontario, most of there everyday Drugs are covered by the Province, so one last item to worry about.
From what I hear on the Radio, the Federal Minister of Industry has some real concerns that the 48 hour Collective agreement is not enough to satisfy him, so this whole agreement is in Flex, there is probably a lot of misunderstanding and maybe jealousy too on behalf of a lot of workers everywhere, As I too am retired and used to work I dont think that Vacations of six weeks are too much, in our Western Provinces from Manitoba West everyone gets three weeks vacation whether in a Union or Not, whereas in Ontario two weeks are Max without a Union!
Man, I wish I could get the CAW to negotiate the purchase of my next house. I could probably get the seller’s daughter thrown in for free.
The Detroit 3’s killer issue remains unaddressed. They have burned too many consumers too many times with lousy vehicles and abysmal customer care for the majority to ever buy another car from them.
The truly outrageous part is:
The Canadian auto sales never tanked. It’s about on par, as compared to 2007 level.
And GM is asking for one million for each job kept.
And we Canadians still don’t have free access to the US and will need a passport.
The USA is a foreign Country and Yes you need a Passport to go there too, the USA is not like the European Union where if you live in that community you can move and work freely in that Community!
The USA can admit or not admit anyone to there Country period.
For Years companies like the Detroit Three have been selling Canadians defective vehicles in both design and manufacture, it was only when we had a chance to purchase Asian and European vehicles that the Detroit Three sat up and noticed there shortfall.
i dont get how the xAWs have such bargaining power… cant anyone do these lame brain jobs? including things that dont have brains like robots?
I’m located in Michigan.I am retiring,with 36.3 years of seniority.I work at the GM Flint Truck assembly plant.
It’s easy to bash the little guys,we workers know all about it.We feel bad for those who did not have the same benefits as we had.The operative word is had.
Here’s the High Points, at least what I know:
Our local Union, Local 598 recently passed a new contract after a threat was made by Management:No concessions, no future work.Our local union gave GM 99% of everything they wanted.We did so in October 2007 at the national level, and now in March ’09 at the local level.
Please keep in mind that our once strong union negotiated benefits and wages that pressured other employers to raise their workers’ standard of living.
All told, here’s what the “National Agreement” and our Local gave up:Vacations are now mandatory.An employee cannot work the whole year and get paid the following year those untaken hours.During Change-overs, usually around July 4th,no sub pay will be available.Vacation will usually consist of 2 weeks off,with unemployment compensation, subtracting the 4th (holiday)pay from it.
It is my understanding that SUB pay is going away, I may be wrong on this.
Vacations will be granted by seniority…2 people may go on vacation at once per department,subject to ‘modification’.
Leaves of absence will be examined to determine if they should be counted against an employee’s absence record.A new absentee procedure allows 5 days/year for sickness and/or personal business.After 5 days,absences will stay on an employee’s “Absence Record” for 18 months, with increasing penalties extending that time limit and ultimately leading to Dismissal.
Once in the “Absentee Program” employees will be sent before a panel of two Management people, and a Union person.The panel will decide by simple majority vote,if the employee is in violation of the Absentee Program.
Jobs bank is eliminated.New hires after 10/24/07 will recieve 1/2 the hourly wage as earlier hires.Also new hires after that date will not qualify for a pension…401k’s only.New hires benefits will require a co-pay.
Overtime pay will be given only after an employee has worked 40 hours in a week,my plant is going to 4 – 10 hour days.
*Retirees on the Salary side of Delphi have lost in court,all health care benefits.15,000 people.*
Now that Delphi has re-occupied their former GM-owned factories with
“Much Less than half the hourly wages” of GM older employees….GM is starting to buy back certain facilities…Saginaw Steering Gear is one.Delphi has been in Bankruptcy for 4 years.
Retirees (April 1st, 2009) now will get a “Gross” of approximately $3150.00/Month, USD. Those monies are subject to Federal Taxes,maybe City? Retirees must pay, to start, $23.00/Month for health care “Co-pays”.The Union(hourly) Pension fund in the USA is incredibly underfunded….which means if it goes broke, or GM goes bankrupt,the Federal Pension Guarantee Fund will pay 65% of retirees pensions.
Workers who are less than 67 1/2 years old are penalized a percentage for early retirement.
In 2009,Workers whose age + service time (30 years, or more)equals 85 ‘points’ get an (up to) $25,000.00 New GM Auto Voucher, which federal taxes will be paid on.State sales taxes(6% in Michigan),license,document fees,advertisement fees,and miscellaneous fees will be paid at time of purchase.
Workers who are not 55 years old take an additional hit of 10% reduction in money.
Also, a $20,000.00 incentive will be given to retiring employees, I believe these incentives are the same for both Skilled Trades and Production workers….I may be mistaken.Federal income taxes in the amount of 25% will be withheld as well as applicable State, and Local taxes.
Us workers were extremely lucky, I’ll admit it.We had a strong union that enabled us to make a living wage, and put food on the table, and covered most of our health care costs.Those days appear to be over.The UAW under the terms of the Federal loans must reach parity with the Foreign Auto Companies operating in the USA.This is an insult, but we must do it.
Our Chairman of the Shop Committee, who negotiated this new Local contract,announced after it’s passage that he was all done;he’s retiring 4/01/09.He’s held the job since 1988.
We worked long hours, in incredible heat,dust,fumes,noise…tore up our bodies with repetitive motion injuries,spent more time at work than with our families,endured the taunts of other workers who didn’t have it as well.
I’d like to see other workers get the same or better Wages,Benefits,and Pensions that we got.
I’d like to see Unions in General get stronger,and grow dramatically in numbers, all over the world.I know if I didn’t have a union, I would never have been able to retire, and that I’m fortunate.
I’m very happy,and lucky;to be retiring.I don’t think I could work much longer under the new conditions.