U.A.W. Says Applications for Buyouts Soar at G.M.

Wahington DC June 16, 2006; The AIADA newsletter reported that with a week to go before the deadline, it looks like at least 30,000 United Automobile Workers union members at General Motors will opt for incentives to leave or retire, according to The New York Times.

This number is equal to the number of jobs G.M. plans to cut under a restructuring plan that calls for it to close all or part of a dozen plants.

The union's president and new lead negotiator for each of the Detroit auto companies, Ron Gettelfinger, said Thursday that 25,000 G.M. workers — or roughly 22 percent of its work force represented by the U.A.W. — had signed up thus far.

Another 8,500 workers at the parts supplier Delphi, or a little more than a third of its U.A.W. membership, had accepted the plans, according to outgoing union vice president Richard Shoemaker.

Next Friday, June 23, 2006, marks the deadline for workers to decide on the incentive packages, which are available to all U.A.W. members at G.M. and Delphi. Under the packages, workers who have 30 years on the job and are eligible to retire would receive $35,000 as well as full health care benefits and a pension.

Workers with less experience would receive up to $140,000 to give up their jobs while keeping their pension benefits but forfeiting their retirement health care coverage.

Those who do not accept the packages and lose their jobs would go into a program called the Jobs Bank, where they are paid their full salary and benefits until the U.A.W. contract expires in late 2007.