Work for GM? 25% chance you're gone this year!

[Roland99]

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/13541353/

General Motors will on Monday disclose details of one of most dramatic corporate downsizings in US history, exceeding a key target of its turnround plan and accelerating the demise of the privileged American car worker.

Rick Wagoner, chief executive, is expected to announce that about 30,000 workers – more than a quarter of GM's blue-collar US workforce – have taken up its offer of early retirement and severance packages.

Almost all will leave by the end of the year, achieving in a few months what the company had set out to accomplish over more than two years.

A total of 50,000 workers or more is set to leave the industry over the next few months.

[Rosemary2205]

1. For the record

the early retirement package they and Ford both are offering is pretty damn good and the buy outs for lower seniority workers is pretty generous also. Granted, having a decent job would be BETTER, but For all the slamming of the UAW that comes from both sides of the aisle, I think they have done a heck of a job in doing something decent for their workers.

[Roland99]

2. But where will these jobs reappear? Look at Ford. Closing several plants

and just announcing a $9billion+ investment in plants in MEXICO!

[Rosemary2205]

3. Absolutely

and the union is powerless to stop it. - Americans keep voting for reps who support laws that help shift decent jobs someplace else. -- even many loyal Democrats I know think the unions are AT FAULT for driving our jobs away. It's bizarre. IMHO it's just going to keep getting worse until the underclass gets sick of it and fights back. I figure at least 40 years. Just my guess.

[BeatleBoot]

4. Those jobs won't "re-appear" - they are gone for good.

This isn't like the early 1980's or early 1990's, where things are going to get better again.

This is a permanent shift.

I hate to say it, but its Perot's "giant sucking sound" and no one in D.C. seems to give a shit.

[acmejack]

5. Exactly right.

The only value I find in being old, is that I shall suffer less. Things shall deteriorate terribly in this Country, courtesy of the Reagan Revolution, aided & abetted by that hero of so many here, who held sway in between the successive republiclown administrations. The wheels have been set inexorably in motion and will not be stopped, our creditors, shall be satisfied and repaid their dollars-all 9,000,000,000,000.00 of them, plus interest of course.

It shall be a dark, cold time in America I fear. At least it shall be for many of us.

[madmom]

9. I have to some what disagree, my SO works for gm and unless

you have your house and car and everything else paid for and you were pretty much ready for retirement anyway the buy out wasn't that great. Why retire from a good paying job then have to go be a wal-mart greeter until you're ready to retire? Unless you're 62 you will not have an income. Did not make much sense to us!

[mdmc]

6. I wonder what the H5 will look like

:mad:

[skyblue]

7. Like a Monster Truck

[KharmaTrain]

8. Hasn't GM built a lot of plants in Mexico?

I remember seeing how they had moved a lot of their parts subsidiaries off shore...going for that cheap non-union labor in a country where wages are already supressed and depressed. And, thanks to NAFTA, they are free to do more of this. The elephant in the room when the discussion illegal immigration is presented...the one corporate American doesn't want people to hear. It's easier to pick on them "smelly Mexicans" instead. Nothing creates a better distortion and stirs up the wingnut like a good dose of racism and hatred.

The union movement in this country needs to be revived or rebuilt, and in a hurry. There's no one standing up for workers. When was the last time anyone can remember a major strike? As this economy continues to crash & burn its frustrating to see the rich get richer and the "working stiffs" get further and further left behind.

[blues90]

10. I'll tell you what it does do , trickle down

I can tell you from my personal experience which is not with ford direct but working for 30 years at ford dealerships . Now the factories close and part of the story is because the insureance costs more than the sheet metal to build one unit and the other side was given at the last dealship I worked when a ford rep came in to thank us for whatever it is we do for ford .
His mission was to visit dealerships all over the USA and begin with the wonderous story of good old Henry Ford and leaving out Fords relationship with Hitler . It was his success story .

We were told that it was a matter of ford could build many more units per year than they could sell , the cost of insurance never came up . He said there are many other car companies out there as competition that build units just as good as ford and ford was now focused on marketing stratagy .

What this trickles down to is far less in ford auto sales and which can be seen at dealerships which relates to far less repairs and service . The dealer I worked at was large , over 40 technicians and 8 service advisors and the staff in the office I was in in the service dept had 9 people . Within a year this was reduced to me and a service phone operator . I had to deal with tech training , difficult vehicle diagnoisis , heated up customers , customer relations , roadtesting , quality control so I knew it was fixed right and so on . I got no extra pay but instead longer hours and finally even though my performance was up and I was worn down i was fired using the at will clause and the new general manager brought in his own friends and crew .

It took me a year to find another ford dealer opening for a service advisor position with alot less pay and even more hours and this lasted 4 1/2 months before I was laid off for lack of work to keep me and the other one writer going . I was doing fine , at least I could pay the bills but they had to pay me 5% of all parts and labor so I was dropped .

Now there are no positions and it does not matter what auto dealer it is , all are hurting and dealers are closing and workers are all competing for that one job for alot less pay .

This what they ahve done , saturate the market , load their pockets and run off to mexico to now do the same to the mexican worker but for even less money and more freedom to ruin the air and water . Of course with bush letting the environment go to hell you have to wonder if this plays a big part , as you know it's ok to pollute in the USA now .