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View Full Version : GM offers all U.S. union workers buyouts



DoYouEverWonder
02-12-2008, 06:25 AM
Feb 12, 2008

DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Corp will offer buyouts or early retirements to all 74,000 U.S. hourly workers represented by the United Auto Workers in a sweeping deal with the union intended to clear the way for GM to hire lower-cost replacements.

The cost-saving agreement follows on a program launched in January for about 5,200 workers at GM's service parts and operations facilities across the United States and five other facilities, and comes with better terms than GM offered to UAW workers in 2006.

GM representatives said it would take weeks to roll out the complicated buyout offers to its workers, who will have 45 days to consider them and then seven days to reconsider. It expects to complete the voluntary program by July 1.

GM's agreement with the UAW follows similar deals the union reached with Ford Motor Co and Chrysler LLC following the 2007 contracts that allow U.S. car makers to hire many workers at lower wages and benefits, while guaranteeing some jobs.

GM executives have said the automaker will take advantage of a ground-breaking contract provision that will allow the automaker to hire workers at second-tier wages, but they have declined to say how many of the current workers who take the offers will be replaced.

http://www.reuters.com/article/ousiv/idUSN1117099220080212


General Motors on Tuesday announced a loss of $38.7 billion for 2007.

Maybe if they had stopped building gas guzzlers and focused on fuel efficient cars they wouldn't be going the way of the dinosaur with their fossil fuel based techology.

Virgil
02-12-2008, 10:48 AM
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080212/ap_on_bi_ge/earns_gm
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By DEE-ANN DURBIN, AP Auto Writer 1 hour, 8 minutes ago

DETROIT - General Motors Corp. reported a $38.7 billion loss for 2007 on Tuesday, the largest annual loss ever for an automotive company, and said it is making a new round of buyout offers to U.S. hourly workers in hopes of replacing some of them with lower-paid help.

The earnings report and buyout offer came as GM struggles to turn around its North American business as the economy weakens.

But GM Chairman and Chief Executive Rick Wagoner said that the company made significant progress in 2007, reducing structural costs in North America, negotiating a historic labor agreement and growing aggressively in Latin America and Asia.

During a conference call with analysts and media, Chief Financial Officer Fritz Henderson said 2008 will be difficult, but the company sees the potential for significant earnings increases by 2010 or 2011 once it reduces its work force and labor costs and transfers its retiree health-care costs to a new UAW-run trust.

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Terwilliger
02-12-2008, 11:37 AM
Oh, I'm SURE Latin Americans are just bubbling with great expectations :rolleyes: