Back in February, a tipster told us that pre-C11 GM was cutting white collar pay. And so it did. Thousands of non-union GM workers—both here and abroad—took a three to seven percent hit for the team. Executives salaries received a 10 percent haircut. The move saved the on-the-cusp of nationalization automaker a reported $50 million. That’s not much compared to, say, the $100 billion in taxpayer funding and subsidies and whatnot that GM’s received since. But at least the move signaled the beginning of a new era of accountability at GM. Just kidding. In any case, we now read that GM workers’ in-boxes received a notification from HR that New GM is restoring previous pay levels.
“GM was losing employees to other companies because its pay scales were no longer competitive with other automakers and manufacturing companies, spokesman Tom Wilkinson said Friday. He did not know how many had left or exactly how many workers were affected.”
To quote the Talking Heads,”facts are simple and facts are straight; facts are lazy and facts are late.” Or, to quote the Sex Pistols, never mind the bollocks. Anyway, the pay restoration is retroactive, and highly recommended.
“Salaries were restored starting Sept. 1 because GM needs to retain workers and keep them happy, Wilkinson said. “We’re into a period where employee morale is really important as we’re starting to launch products and rebuild the business,” Wilkinson said.
The simple truth: New GM still has too many models, brands, factories, dealers and workers, at all levels. That’s how they rolled into this mess. That’s how they roll now that we own them.
[Hat Tip: DaedRuo]
As a regular reader of the “Zombie Watch” let me just say… “brains, brains, brains”
What are GM HR folks talking about? People moving to other job? What other jobs? Nobody, and I mean nobody, is hiring over here in Detroit.
Talent leaving. Brain Drain. Does it really take a lot of Talent to make crappy, uncompetitive cars that wind up driving the automaker into bankruptcy? I can pretty much pull a homeless guy off the street, sit him at a desk at GM, and get similar results…
This is just another example of old GM thinking still in place. Because of the pervasive entitlement mentality almost all benefits will be restored in a matter of time. I argue again that no one, no one has made significant sacrifices in this situation other than the employees that were asked to leave as a result of headcount reductions and the US taxpayer. I know for a fact that there has been little voluntary brain drain from GM. It is full of “lifers” that would never think of going elsewhere.
As a former hourly employee,and now a retiree,the long term survival of GM/my pension,is my number one priority.
Hourly people retired, and active,have seen thier numbers slashed,benifits reduced,pay frozen,along with many other concession’s.
UAW/CAW folks have been dragged through the dirt,by all media,including TTAC. Yeah yeah I’ve heard it all. Drunken, lazy no good for nothing,leeches. I could go on forever. People that have never worn a blue collar or set foot inside a factory,became overnight experts in working peoples culture.
Truth be known,we laughed at you all,most of the venom directed at us was born from envy. We knew that, and perhaps thats where we got some of our attitude.
That being said,one might think I’d be bitter at the news of GM giving back some of the salary concession’s. Not at all. I know for a fact,that GM cut a lot of dead wood. At the same time GM lost a lot of good people. GM and its owners can’t afford to lose anymore good people. If a few dollars is what it takes to improve morale and retains the people,that GM needs to be sucessfull,I’m all for it.
Are these the “brains” that put GM in its current condition? If so, no big loss.
And yes, I know there are smart, hard-working people at GM just like every other big company. The problem is they will never be allowed to rise above their idiot co-workers and save the company. In most big companies the clueless bureaucrats and fat-cat, do-nothing executives drag everyone else down.
Nobody, and I mean nobody, is hiring over here in Detroit.
I’d have to think the pay cuts were enough for the odd Oracle DBA or accountant to say “F**k it, we’re short selling the house and moving out of this God forsaken hole.”
UAW/CAW folks have been dragged through the dirt,by all media,including TTAC. Yeah yeah I’ve heard it all. Drunken, lazy no good for nothing,leeches. I could go on forever. People that have never worn a blue collar or set foot inside a factory,became overnight experts in working peoples culture.
Mikey, I have worked in a union shop before and would agree that many of my co-workers were lazy. Continually I was told to “not work so hard.”
That said, today I work in a white collar office job. People in this environment are equally lazy and unproductive. The difference is that if you get caught here there is no union to hide behind. I’ve seen many people get “weeded” out.
Problem with GM is that anyone with any intelligence already weeded themselves out of that environment years ago. Their brain drain happened already. Why restore higher pay to the lazy people that should’ve been weeded out in the good times? Today it’ll take above average salary and benefits to get the people GM needs back into the company.
I think it’s more a case of Ford, Toyota, Honda, etc. being able to move in a pick and choose star engineers, programers, etc. as they all have facilities in Detroit.
mikey :
So has the rest of the country, the world’s changed, all the UAW/CAW are doing is paying the price of refusing to change with it. Use to be once upon a time landing a job with the D3 was punching a ticket to life long security, just as once upon a time having a business degree from a large university was punching a golden ticket, now its just a basic job requirement. Instead of being able to say hey lets look at what’s happened to the textile and steel workers and adjust, a decision was made to just die along with the companies you worked for. Don’t think the nation takes glee in that, but there sure is hell isn’t any sympathy either.
Set free from the reins of the beancounters the departed probably made their mark somewhere else. Remember most of GMs problems came from the top.
People that have never worn a blue collar or set foot inside a factory,became overnight experts in working peoples culture.
And by that time it was too late. Now, we’re stuck with you, and the “working peoples culture”.
@johnny Canada “we’re stuck with you” You are indeed “stuck” with me. Yes my fellow Canuck I was born here. That makes me a Canadian citizen intitled to all the perks and social benifits that I’ve been paying for for the last 40 years.
^^^Mikey, it sounds like you admitted to that drunken laziness by saying that those of us in the non “working peoples culture” are just envious of it. (lol)
Really, thanks for the reminder why I’ll never buy another UAW built vehicle.
I don’t want to hear about “working peoples culture”
Like I said what makes you fellas think you deserve to continue to get paid for doing nothing?
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124041946006244177.html
General Motors Corp. plans to idle most its plants for about two months this summer as the company races to cut costs and production to keep pace with sinking demand, said a person familiar with the plan.
…
United Auto Workers union members still receive most of their pay during such shutdowns.
Shameful. You are not doing -any- work but you still get paid. Why?
The white-collar pay cuts are now being revealed for what they were, a symbolic gesture used to pressure the unions into greater cuts to pay and benefits. Now that those blue-collar pay cuts have been locked into legally binding contracts the white-collar cuts are no longer needed or wanted and were rescinded at the company’s earliest convenience. Is it any wonder that the union doesn’t trust company management?
As for GM needing to restore pay levels in order to retain talent, what a crock of shit. GM management has systematically selected against just about all smart and tough-minded people willing to take smart risks in an honest attempt to succeed in favour of compliant yes-men who never missed a chance to take the easy way out and made comfortable but destructive choices for the company.
I have absolutely no love for the UAW/CAW but the cynicism of GM’s management here is truly astounding. These people have no shame.
Airhen, powerpeecee, and Johnny Canada Thanks guys you have proven my point. The old green eyed monster is alive well.
PS airhen Do you really believe that the non union Honda and Toyota plants havn’t got the same blue collar culture? So the line workers don’t sneak a beer in on Friday night at the Honda plant eh?
Right,and bunch of guys arn’t passing a doobie around at break in the prime booth at the Toyota plant either. I happen to know people that work in both plants. Believe me its no different at any other manufactoring facility.
Thats right Toyota only hire PHD’s and dedicated workers that sing the company anthem at break.
With all due respect guys. The factory floor is a whole different world.
How has this turned into union bashing? Granted, there seemed to be bad apples in the UAW/CAW, but for the most part a lot of those guys worked at a horrible, repetitive soul-stealing job. I give guys like Mikey (hey, props to a fellow Canuck! – you heard back from Ford on the MyKey thing yet?!) a lot of credit for doing a job for 25 or 30 years that a lot of people wouldn’t have the fortitude to see through for a tenth of that time.
And lest we forget, the unions built the middle class on the back of that labour.
So GM wants to Reward the very incompetent morons that drove it to bankruptcy, from a position of MIGHT, more than 50% market share, to less than 20%, and going down to 10% soon (smaller GM, less divisions etc)
UN be EFFING lIEVABLE!
Appartently the idiots that run GM learned NOTHING form FORD’s example, which AVOIDED bankruptcy and becoming an enormous welfare queen by DITCHING its own idiots and hiring some TOTAL OUTSIDER, MULALLY from Boeing!!!!
PS and if Ford ditched MARK FIELDS as well, it would be doing STELLAR today…but unfortunately the slick weasel survived.. too bad..
Monty :
September 24th, 2009 at 3:18 pm
How has this turned into union bashing? Granted, there seemed to be bad apples in the UAW/CAW, but for the most part a lot of those guys worked at a horrible, repetitive soul-stealing job. I give guys like Mikey (hey, props to a fellow Canuck! – you heard back from Ford on the MyKey thing yet?!) a lot of credit for doing a job for 25 or 30 years that a lot of people wouldn’t have the fortitude to see through for a tenth of that time.
And lest we forget, the unions built the middle class on the back of that labour.
Yeah. Working 8-10 months out of 12 but still getting paid for 12. Sounds rough. Nothin’ but respect here.
Monty has a point, lets go union bashing another day. And the answer is no, Monty, Ford tells me I’m not the only mikey in the world. Who knew?
Kalapana, everytime a UAW member acts egregiously, or uses benefits they legitimately won in bargaining sessions, it doesn’t represent every single union or union job in the country.
I foolishly went to work right out of high school, and worked in a factory that was unionized in all but formality, and I spent more than a year working in drudgery before I wised up and went into university. It was hell. It was boring, dangerous and mind-numbingly repetitive. It was, in a word, awful.
But many people of my father’s generation worked their asses off so that their children would be better paid, and better educated. They were the middle class. And I thank them for it.
I don’t have much use for union leadership (I rank them right up there with the management at GM and Chrysler), but I have no issue with the union membership. Most of those guys are salt of the earth, and I’m proud to say I was one of them, even if only for a year and a hlaf.
Now that those blue-collar pay cuts have been locked into legally binding contracts the white-collar cuts are no longer needed or wanted and were rescinded at the company’s earliest convenience.
I think the big difference is the white collar workers at GM are being paid market wages. An Internal Auditor or Oracle DBA at GM is being paid the same as they would make at Honda or Toyota or GE or John Deere or any number of other manufacturing companies. The UAW is being paid wages they could never get at Honda or Toyota. It’s not like you can quit your job hanging bumbers at GM and apply at the new Chattanouga VW plant and expect the same pay rate. I’d be willing to bet that an Accountant at GM could move to VW and expect the same, if not more pay, if he started with VW.
That’s the big cultural divide between the white collor and the blue collar in a union environment.
The factory floor is a whole different world.
Buh. It doesn’t matter if you are not. there. (and still getting paid almost as though you are)
I worked at FedEx for a while so I know what hideous, tiresome drudgery is. I never got paid for not coming to work though.
Jealous isn’t the right word. I am disgusted with anyone who would be happy to be paid by an employer for nothing.
Disgusted, not jealous. UAW Goons should be ashamed of themselves.
Wow… We have “wrath” to go hand in hand with envy. Goon’s eh? I like it sounds so much more menacing than lout.
Mikey does Canada have a national pension guarantee corp.?
So mikey are you going to address the point of the “don’t work so hard/fast” culture within UAW workers or the “Haha I get paid for not coming to work be jealous of my cushy position in life!” thing?
I stand by my statements previous. The UAW is disgusting. Just disgusting. The way a job should work is you come to work, you -do- something gainful to your employer and they compensate you monetarily. Why are you so happy to be so lazy? Explain this to me.
I assure you that I am not jealous, merely curious why you would behave in such fashion, cut the entitlement attitude and answer my questions. Why should I be jealous of you for getting paid for either doing nothing at all by not being there or by doing as little as possible while you are there. Utterly contemptible.
Hey Mikey,
I, too, am an Oshawa (Car Plant) retiree. What people don’t realize is that there have been, and continue to be, pockets of excellence within GM. The Oshawa organizations (Truck and Car) is an example of that excellence, and we have the awards (be it quality, or efficiency) to back that up. Many here “pooh-pooh” the validity of these awards (JD Power, and Harbour). But, they are applied to all North American Plants, including transplants, and we’ve whipped them all. You and I can keep our heads high.
For what its worth, I am a salaried retiree, and have nothing but praise for the CAW members that I have worked with over the last 30+ years.
I have visited many of the US GM plants during my career … sadly, I cannot say the same for many of these facilities.
Sad to see some of the nastier comments in this thread. I think the pay increases make sense. GM has plenty of extremely talented people who could decide to leave if/when someone starts hiring.
I support the union but not that union managememnt. I support the workers like Mikey but not their leaders who helped put Detroit in this mess.
And…
I support the salaried workers but not the executive management. I support them but not the execs and board members who were weak or sleeping at the job and like the union leaders helped put Detroit in this mess.
Powerpoeecee most unionized workers have the same thing, It called a guaranteed work week. You will be paid for 40 hours. You can count on the fact that unionized auto workers in Germany, Japan, South Korea and Mexico (yes they are unionized just not UAW) have a guaranteed work week. Every union has a contract between the union and the employer outlining rights and obligations.
Now I am not an auto worker nor am I a UAW member but I am a union member in a right to work state no less. At my work place we are 90 percent unionized even though no one has to belong to the union.
When they publicly announced an opening to to take a test for my job 20 years ago 34,000 people took the test in the tampa bay through Ft Meyers area. I scored a perfect score and I was one of only 18 hired from those 34,000.
I go to work everyday and never call in sick, I work diligently and do what I am told to do by my boss just like most people. I am college educated, I use to own my own small business. I don’t drink nor do I partake in narcotics. My parents fled real communism.
Yet supposedly because I am a union worker (I also use to be a union steward) I am suppose to be a lazy uneducated drunken communist thug.
On the other hand Mikey I also drive a Scion Xb
I have had 20 trouble free years of driving just 3 imported cars. Half of my unionized co workers drive imports including my union stewards. One of my stewards husband use to be a Chrysler mechanic and they now drive Hyundai cars. When I first started work probably 80 to 90 percent of the cars were domestic.
Also Mikey just so you know I have been assigned to a unit that regularly drives a small fleet of GSA cars to audit small post offices across the state. We mainly have Impalas. The Impala is a nice car. It is extremely comfortable, drives pretty good ( I use to have a 2000 Honda Accord EX). The interior is decent maybe a notch below the Honda but decent. However I wouldn’t buy one unless it was for an extreme discount because I have seen too many minor mechanical glitches that I have never seen on my Hondas or my Scion. Right now one of them when you turn the AC to a lower level or off there is something that sounds like a gnome is trying to break out of the glove compartment. Just last week one of my co workers was stranded in small town when her Impala wouldn’t start.
“Mikey does Canada have a national pension guarantee corp.?”
The Province of Ontario does … though its not in much better shape than the US one. Seems the Ontario one pays out less than the US too …
Well I just gotta chip in here! I have worked as a ‘blue collar’ worker (electrician) in many different industries over the last 30 years (yawn!): Power generation, electronics, chemicals, airlines, Liqour and automotive industries on both sides of the Atlantic. I have seen lots of abuse of work and plant rules of different kinds such as Drinking, drug abuse, leaving early, sleeping on the job, guys getting others to clock them in and out and many others. However only in one of those workplaces, GM Oshawa, have I seen all of these things togather, pressed down and multiplied by a factor of 10! Back in the Chevy Lumina days, I once ran one of the door assembly lines on my own for 3 hours one friday night because the 5 guys who normally work the line were too drunk to stand. Their supervisor was grateful enough but on the following Monday morning I got hauled up to the Plant Manager for doing work outside of my classification (which I was) and was handed dicipline for it (3 days off without pay). One of the workers who should have been sober enough to do his job filed a grievience against me for doing his work while he slept of his belly full of beer. I was warned never to do it again and I gave all involved my full assurance that hell would freeze over before I would ever attempt to try and keep a line in production and drunken workers safely out of harms way by doing their jobs. I had abuse screamed at me by the union rep because I had the temerity to defend myself in front of the manager by telling all involved exactly what happened. I have been on shop floors all my life and I have never seen the abuse of plant rules anywhere which compares with what went on in the Oshawa car plant and often with the full knowledge of first line supervision. One could write a book on it. Sure it goes on to some degree in most places and I have seen it but nothing like GM in those days. That was a long time ago and as I understand it, things have changed somewhat. It is common knowledge among industrial workers in Ontario that this sort of thing was/is rampant in the auto industry. The anger that many people feel towards workers in this sector has only a little to do with envy and a lot more to do with the disparity between them and autoworkers with respect to pay/benefits and what is expected of them for that pay. Now that this industry is in big trouble and in receipt of taxpayers money to bail them out, it should come as no surprise that there is little public sympathy for union workers in automotive now that their jobs are at risk and their employers are not able to build cars profitably. Unfortunetly the good workers are tarred with the same brush as the bad ones and all are seen as lazy. This is not true of course but there is good reason why UAW/CAW workers are often seen in as poor a light as they are.
OK powerpeecee. For a start, I’m retired so I get paid to do F.A. all the time.
This idea that UAW/CAW get paid for not coming to work is a myth. A laidoff worker gets paid a complicated formula involving unemployment benifits and S.U.B.
I will use myself as an example 36.4 in the plant. I spent approx 2.7 on some form of layoff.
I just did some rough math.I probably got 75% of
the money I lost back.
I will tell ya that back in the 70s and 80s you might wait for 4 months for your checks to come.
For example I was layed off for 13 consecutive xmases. Either 2 weeks before or 2 weeks after,or both. That means NO cash for Santa. Try to explain that fact, to two little girls. Will Santa bring me a Cabbage patch kid or Malibu Barbie daddy? Of course he will Daddy just has to put it on his credit card at 28% interest.
Oh Dad….I know your layed off,but I need 10,000 for university…here just let me write you a check,sweetheart.
I deliverd pizza’s to make my morgage payments MR PEECEE! You be carfull with that lazy word dude.
Mikey – Reading you gripe about your financial obligations to your kids makes me so very glad I am not a breeder. Also – If you can make mortgage payments delivering pizza then you guys must have some cheap houses or something up there.
Thanks for the thoughtful explanation, Sherman Lin. I still don’t get what on earth Mikey says I am supposed to be jealous of. Jealous of having a standard work week’s worth of pay and a pension? Standard stuff that is.
I am rather dubious of the guarantees though because my experience at FedEx and their ~20hr (part time) guarantee was only honored when they felt like it.
Don’t get me wrong I hate both sides equally, GM for making such utter, utter dreck, and the union folks for bending them over the table and taking them so hard. Damned if you do, and damned if you don’t.
I wonder if, in the absence of the gigantic financial obligations that GM has to the unions they could have been competitive at least? How much of the sale price of a new GM vehicle goes toward satisfying that obligation? Another poster here said that they made bad deals in the 1950s and someone should’ve gotten them some actuarial tables.
God forbid GM loose Maximum Bob to one of the transplants. That would widen the perception gap.
I’m with GM on this. They have to pay better. They can’t get a decent CEO for 14 million, so they’ll have to pay 28 million.
pnnyj :
September 24th, 2009 at 3:00 pm
The white-collar pay cuts are now being revealed for what they were, a symbolic gesture used to pressure the unions into greater cuts to pay and benefits. Now that those blue-collar pay cuts have been locked into legally binding contracts the white-collar cuts are no longer needed or wanted and were rescinded at the company’s earliest convenience. Is it any wonder that the union doesn’t trust company management?
For the record, there were zero blue-collar pay cuts. None. Zero. Also, there were no health care cuts, nor pension benefit cuts for active hourly employees. None.
What the voting membership of the UAW did was sell out their retirees and new hires – they’re the ones that are taking cuts. Or, more correctly in the case of retirees – risk – that the payments to the VEBA will not cover their current gold plated coverage.
I agree, Mr. Schreiber, the word “breeder” is a slur. All those who bring children into this world and lovingly raise them to be decent, productive members of society deserve respect for that.
Now, back to the subject: My understanding is that GM, Ford and Chrysler have shed thousands of white-collar employees in recent years. Seems like it should be pretty easy to fill a vacancy should one occur.
How did this comments section turn into a big Dog Pile onto Mikey?
This article is about white collar workers getting back their previous salary cut because they are Geniuses who might move to another company.
Who do you think is responsible for all the quality issues and bad rep against GM? Those leaking 3.4L engines are an engineering design issue. Plastic 3.8L manifolds are an engineering design issue. What about most recently the rear ends on the Camaros, and the electrical problems on the LaCrosse? These are all problems created by the “Close Enough” mentality in the white collar work force at GM. I can’t think of a recent issue created by plant folks.
Make no mistake about it. The white collar folks at GM were paid very handsomely for very little effort or work.
Mikey, I have no issue with you personally. I’m sure you’re a nice fellow. However, almost everyone who’s ever spent time in a UAW facility as an outsider has a story similar to oboylepr. I have a couple myself, but I’m not going to get into the details.
If you want to blame anyone for the general public’s view of the average UAW worker, blame your brethren. Especially the ones who “sneak in a beer on friday night” and “pass around a doobie in the break room”.
As for your claim about transplant workers “do it too” please head to your local library and check out the following book: “On The Line at Subaru-Isuzu” (ISBN 0-87546-346-0).
In my opinion, it was written with too much of a (admitted) Union bias, but inadvertently shows the failure of the UAW since these workers never display any of the behaviors that you mention happen anywhere there is a shop floor.
They are simply too busy working.
Mikey, I have no issue with you personally. I’m sure you’re a nice fellow. However, almost everyone who’s ever spent time in a UAW facility as an outsider has a story similar to oboylepr. I have a couple myself, but I’m not going to get into the details.
If you want to blame anyone for the general public’s view of the average UAW worker, blame your brethren. Especially the ones who “sneak in a beer on friday night” and “pass around a doobie in the break room”.
As for your claim about transplant workers “do it too” please head to your local library and check out the following book: “On The Line at Subaru-Isuzu” (ISBN 0-87546-346-0).
In my opinion, it was written with too much of a (admitted) Union bias, but inadvertently shows the failure of the UAW since these workers never display any of the behaviors that you contend happen anywhere there is a shop floor.
They are simply too busy working.
I hate to bring this (irrelevant) union bashing thread to an untimely end with some facts.
White collar folks are not just car designers or product planners. They are the lifeblood of the folks you have to have to do business – IT folks, accountants, HR, PMs, and so on. Heroic individual efforts don’t produce cars today.
As an employer, losing a single highly skilled employee costs at least $20k-30k PER PERSON in
* Lost opportunity cost – their work is no longer being done, or is being done in a half assed manner by their now overwhelmed and demoralized cow-orkers. Guess what – the cow-orkers don’t do their own work properly either. Everything starts being late or not done properly, further causing stress and anger in the workplace.
* Danger of running far behind schedule. The resigning staff member could be a critical resource with lots of other folks and projects waiting for them to do stuff only they know how to do. I was that person in 2006. I really left my boss in the crap with 20+ projects and hundreds of project workers at risk. I still feel bad about it to this day.
* Recruitment costs. These are non-trivial for higher end white collar folks like IT staff and managerial accountants. Typical recruiter fees are 20% of the person’s first year salary.
* Spin up time. A person who has developed personal networks and knows how the system works is far more productive than an off the shelf contractor. I’ve found it takes about 18 months to be as productive as you can be in a large corporation. At a Byzantine hot bed like GM, I’d dare say it’s longer.
Adding all these things together – you want to make folks stay. It’s just cheaper not to treat them properly and give them decent benefits. It might only cost $4-5k per year to pay ’em properly and have free sodas. One place I worked at had free in-seat massage therapy. It was awesome.
Henry Ford worked that out about 80 years ago.
Andrew