GM helps UAW "jobs bank" grow yet again
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GM has pulled the plug on its Oklahoma City assembly plant, which produced the long-wheelbase versions of the
Envoy and Trailblazer, as part of its recently-announced downsizing plan.
What's really disturbing, however, is where those 2,200 displaced workers went. They didn't receive a traditional settlement package, but instead got dropped into the UAW's "jobs bank" - a holding tank of sorts for temporarily unemployed autoworkers. This is the first time that a plant's entire workforce has been dropped into the bank. Of course, no one really believes that the drop in GM's labor needs is temporary, so the question remains: What will the General do in the long term with its downsizing and labor surplis issues? At the moment, the plan appears to be a 'wait and see' what happens during the '07 labor contract renegotiations. If history tells us anything, the issue won't be forced.
As a side note, we should point out that the $31/hour wage described in the article isn't quite accurate. According to the UAW, the pay rate for an assembly worker in the 2nd year of the current contract is just under $26/hour. We want to make sure we get this "wage inflation" under control, as the hourly rate of a line worker seems to be creeping upward with every article that's written on the topic.
In other news, Moody's nailed GM with another bond rating downgrade yesterday.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
what is this now? 1:17PM (2/23/2006)
Is this a UAW site now?
First of all the article says $28, not $31. Second of all, there's more people being laid off here than just assembly workers. Thanks to the UAW negotiations, there are plenty of redundant supervisors, foremen and up. The average wage across the workers laid off could easily be $28 instead of just the $26 for the lowest level jobs.
The Jobs Bank is crap, but it's a fact of life. It is the traditional settlement, not some kind of special thing, it is something the UAW got in the years that Michael Moore said they were getting decimated (1984). GM would love to eliminate it, but unless GM breaks the UAW or there is legislative action, don't count on it.
Note that other companies work under the same onus. When VW lays someone off (like, say, 20,000), they have to pay them for a while too.
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Tom W 1:33PM (2/23/2006)
Just so I understand this correctly, does this mean that the guy who fills the windshield washer fluid reservoir on each car earns $28 per hour?
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Bob Miller 1:57PM (2/23/2006)
Perhaps Toyota can take these people now?
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Finished.Law.School 2:11PM (2/23/2006)
It isn't like they are doing anything different now. The only real difference is that they do not need to come into the plant to get paid to do nothing. They just sit at home, get paid and still do nothing. Losers.
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Nick 2:14PM (2/23/2006)
could it be that GM finds their financial situation hopeless, and wants to be in even worse condition pre-Delphi settlement, in order for them to strengthen their negotiating with the UAW? Maybe they've accepted that bankrupcy is imminent, and want to accelerate the downfall so as to get out of the UAW contracts asap, reorganize, and get back to designing/building cars from a more competitive standpoint.
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Lithous 2:47PM (2/23/2006)
I guess it is something we must role the dice on, these people either draw unemployment for the next 40 years since assembly jobs are all gone or we let GM try and find them another job. Many companies do this, like a holding tank for people to go while waiting for a security Clearance. I've heard of people in the tank for 1.5 - 2 years while waitiing for a Clearance and getting paid for it. It doesn't make the UAW tanks any better but these were negotiated a long time ago. As mentioned, I'm sure GM loves having to pay people for doing nothing, maybe when they are $320 billion in debt they won't love it so much i.e. I agree that these tanks aren't something GM is probably happy about since they aren't swimming in profits.
"Just so I understand this correctly, does this mean that the guy who fills the windshield washer fluid reservoir on each car earns $28 per hour?"
In your simplistic mind of how you would have an assembly line operate, yes, one guy does that and nothing else. The guys on the assembly line have to have their work go up against the world's best everyday, my guess is that your work isn't even the best in the country for which you live.
"It isn't like they are doing anything different now. The only real difference is that they do not need to come into the plant to get paid to do nothing. They just sit at home, get paid and still do nothing. Losers."
Yeah, I'm sure you and I both work as hard as these guys seeing how we have time to surf during the day. For someone who went to law school to call someone else a loser. Pretty funny. I mean, lawyers are some of the biggest dicks known to every joke book. In my book dick = loser. How funny.
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Josh 2:50PM (2/23/2006)
Boo-Hoo the poor illiterate sap with a GED only makes 26$ an hour
I can't wait for the fast apporoaching day when Union influence in this country is gone for good
Maybe then we can have a workforce that gets paid what they are actually worth rather than self serving union pigs dictating what the market must pay
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Eric Bryant 2:53PM (2/23/2006)
"Is this a UAW site now?"
Hardly. I'm more than just a bit frustrated with both parties involved.
"First of all the article says $28, not $31."
That's not what the article said at the time this post was written.
"When VW lays someone off (like, say, 20,000), they have to pay them for a while too."
There's a different between paying a laid-off worker for a while, and paying for them indefinitely.
Finished Law School,
One would think that if vehicles rolled off the line before and vehicles will not be rolling off the line after the plant is closed, then there is indeed a difference.
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Lithous 2:58PM (2/23/2006)
Pretty funny. Goonies, Kung Fu Hustle, Mr.& Mrs. Smith. Are you are Springer fan?
http://www.blogger.com/profile/7080571
My guess is that most lawyer's would represent a job bank if that was the case that came up for their company. No problem. Yet here you are trying to act like the people in the job banks are bad (lazy or whatever).
Please, tell me more about your colon while your at it. (source: http://finishinglawschool.blogspot.com/#114071459665926958). You're f-ing shitting me, right?
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JP 3:03PM (2/23/2006)
Lithous I believe its time for your father to give you your dick feeding. Hurry now!
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Lithous 3:06PM (2/23/2006)
"Maybe then we can have a workforce that gets paid what they are actually worth rather than self serving union pigs dictating what the market must pay"
Welcome to America where 90% of the people get payed more than their worth (compared to people outside America). Take our minimum wage, do you think a Chinese worker sees that hourly wage in a day in most cases? I guess we can start with the unions and clean the whole country up, right? Or are we just going to stop there?
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Lithous 3:11PM (2/23/2006)
"Lithous I believe its time for your father to give you your dick feeding. Hurry now!"
That hurts JP. How did you ever know that my dad dick feeds me? Wow, I didn't know anyone knew. Whatever. Go back to to onanizing yourself.
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Michelle 3:32PM (2/23/2006)
Wow, what is it with all the people here thinking that assembly workers are all uneducated, unskilled, GED clad, good-for-nothing (but assembling your vehicles), stupid-ass lazy people? Give me a f-ing break. Have you guys every actually been into one of these plants to how the process works. I don't care if it's GM or Honda. When it comes down to it, we all do the same thing.
Did it ever occur to you guys, that the workers make as much as they do because the work is hard. We didn't have someone pass out on our line last night because they were doing nothing, or JUST filling wiper fluid. It's tough, and not everyone can do it. I doubt any of you can. I doubt you even want to, because god forbid, you ever have to work hard for a living.
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Sarcasm is necessary 3:33PM (2/23/2006)
There's that word again. "Onanizing." Never heard that word before today, now I've heard it twice.
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Rastus 3:34PM (2/23/2006)
You guys stop arguing, or I'm gonna lock you up in the Jobs Bank for punishment :)
Seriously, aside from the Jobs Bank, let us bow our head in grace as we witness an end to the production of that extended wheelbase TrailBlazer. It was an absolute POS to begin with, and now that the end is near, we can breath a sigh of relief that no more of these trash beasts will be produced. This is WONDERFUL news!!!
GM's all-out assault on SUV's is NOT what the latest marketing spiel (especially re. the new Suburban and Tahoe) is cracked up to be.
I mean, the "assumption" that the market will forever embrace "SUV"s is truely not the case. I mean, if this line were profitable, we wouldn't be witnessing this dark cloud.
But in actuality, it is not a dark cloud...it is a ray of sunshine, a new beginning!! As far as the employees go, I hear Kia is contemplating opening a plant not far from Hyundai's Alabama plant...all you have to do is learn how to replace your Okra with Kimchi. Easy! I mean, a screwdriver is a screwdriver, right? There is no shame in working for a foreigner, none whatsoever.
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Steve 3:43PM (2/23/2006)
Not only are some of these people getting $28 an hour to fill up washer fluid, but some of them are making a lot more than that. I know people that make more like $60 dollars an hour or more to build cars when overtime is involved. Overtime being anything over 40 hours a week, or anything more than 8 hours a day, or anything on Saturday, or double time for holidays and Sundays (regardless of how many hours you have worked in that week). Now, for the record, I have never worked at an auto plant before. But my grandfather did, and I have many friends that do so I understand that they work hard. But hey, wouldn't you? If someone was paying me $60 an hour they would have to drag me off the line at the end of the night. I know people, some with GEDs & others with college diplomas, that make 6 figure salaries building trucks. I would work hard, too.
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Marc 3:53PM (2/23/2006)
I can't believe it. I agree with Lithous.
You do seem to have an understanding of the industry and workers. It just seems to often play out in a nationalistic fervor. Yes I am an "import fanboy" in your eyes, but I believe in the American worker (especially the ones that made my Toyota) and will buy an American car as soon as a maufacturer builds one better then my beloved Toyota.
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Lithous 3:56PM (2/23/2006)
" It was an absolute POS to begin with, and now that the end is near, we can breath a sigh of relief that no more of these trash beasts will be produced."
What facts are you basing your opinion off of(that they were POS), Ratsass?
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lalaland 4:23PM (2/23/2006)
Way to sock it to the UAW, Rickster!
Pansy.
GM will fold like a cheap tent at next year's UAW negotiations, and collapse under its financial obligations approximately six months after that.
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David Robinson 4:27PM (2/23/2006)
After leaving college I got a contract position at a GM plant as a production supervisor for a 1 year term. At the end of that time I could only say that the asylum was being run by the inmates. Day after day the examples of waste and lack of pride or workmanship was an amazing thing to see. One day I ordered my normal requisition of productions supplies from stores which was located in another building, when I got my order I found that the gallon of solder flux was missing.
I called to the stores and informed them, they checked, sure enough the flux was behind the seat of the van. I assumed that the driver would get it right over to me as it was needed to continue production. The driver said no, he had made his run for the day and it was Friday afternoon, and he would bring it on his next scheduled run on Monday. I needed it to run 3 weekend shifts that were scheduled. So I offered to send one of my employees over to pick it up.
He said no, he would not give it to anyone who was not a delivery classification to drive between buildings. Also if anyone but him brought it he would file a grievance and demand to be paid overtime for the whole weekend. As my people were already scheduled to work overtime we could not cancel the time without paying my 42 people, the rate was on average $34.00/hour straight time.
I tried everything to try and get a gallon of flux, but they all lead down the road to grievances and using unapproved material. In the end my General Foreman just let 42 people come in for 3 weekend shifts at overtime pay and sit around playing cards. Trying to keep these people from wandering off to talk to their buddies around the plant led to me being in trouble for not controlling my people. I was not allowed to send them to other areas of the plant to work because the overtime had to be offered to people in those areas first. I don't know how a company that allowed it self to be so strangled by such ridiculous work rules could have gotten so big as General Motors unless it was just pure lack of competition. Well guys the other team has showed up and the unions have let their players get fat and lazy. My first though is that a lot of the union people have been practicing for the job bank for a long time.
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