UAW Says: 15K to 20K GM Workers to Take Buyouts

DEARBORN, Mich. February 14, 2008; Tom Krisher writing for the AP reported that about a quarter of General Motors Corp.'s hourly work force represented by the United Auto Workers could leave the company under a new round of buyout and early retirement offers, the UAW president said Thursday.

President Ron Gettelfinger estimated that 15,000 to 20,000 GM workers could take the packages, but said they all must be replaced under terms of the UAW contract deal reached with the company last year.

GM is offering buyout or early retirement packages to all 74,000 of its UAW-represented workers.

Most of the replacement workers, he said, will do non-assembly jobs and be paid at a lower wage scale, which is about half the $28 per hour that average hourly workers now make.

GM has about 46,000 hourly workers eligible for retirement incentives, but Gettelfinger said that economic uncertainty could hold down the number of workers leaving.

Many of those who have taken a previous buyout have found that it didn't meet their expectations, Gettelfinger said, while others have found leaving very beneficial.

"I just think that it's dependent on each person's situation," he said. "If you just look at the economy overall, everybody's concerned about right now whether we're headed into a recession. You've got the subprime issues. You've got tight money markets out there. So a lot of things have changed in people's lives."

GM's move won't reduce UAW membership, Gettelfinger said. Under a contract reached with the company last year, all the workers will have to be replaced.

GM, Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC are all in the midst of offering buyout and early retirement packages to their UAW hourly workers, and all three have provisions in their contracts allowing them to replace at least some of the workers with those making far less money.

Gettelfinger said Ford likely will be able to hire second-tier wage workers after its round of buyouts this year, but Chrysler may not be hiring replacement workers.

GM won't say how many workers it hopes to shed or how much it expects the buyouts to cost, but under its new contract with the UAW it will be able to replace up to 16,000 workers with those making the lower wage.

Ford will offer packages to all 54,000 of its hourly workers as it tries to close or sell some former Visteon Corp. parts plants, eliminate workers who are paid most of their salaries while on layoff and then hire the lower-paid workers. Ford officials won't say how many workers they expect to take the packages, but said about 12,000 are eligible for retirement.

Chrysler is trying to cut up to 21,000 of its 45,000 U.S. manufacturing jobs, giving workers on temporary or indefinite layoff up to $100,000 to sever ties with the company.

Offers from the other two automakers vary, but are similar to Chrysler's.

Gettelfinger said the union has not discussed with GM the possible use of pension funds to help struggling parts maker Delphi Corp. emerge from bankruptcy protection.

"We would be very cautious about that," he said.

Delphi, GM's former parts operation that was spun off as a separate company in 1999, is having trouble raising the $6.1 billion it needs to emerge from Chapter 11 due to the tight credit market.

Gettelfinger spoke to reporters after accepting the Crain's Detroit Business Newsmaker of the Year award.

United Auto Workers: http://www.uaw.org