American Axle looks to shake loose "job bank"
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American Axle Manufacturing (AAM), one of General Motors' main suppliers, isn't bankrupt,but it is feeling financial pain from the 1,100 workers that it is currently paying not to work. A grand total of $75 million is spent by AAM each year to maintain its share of the United Auto Workers "jobs bank", which represents approximately 2 percent of the supplier's gross sales and a substantial dent in the company's $56M of profit last year.
In order to cut the banked workers free from AAM's balance sheet, the company is mulling the same approach taken by others in the unionized auto world - massive buyouts. Assuming that workers would bite on a hypothetical figure of $100K/each (a number that has been thrown around in the context of similar action from Delphi and GM), the company would obtain a return on its investment in approximately 18 months. The company is intent on returning to its previous financial performance by 2008, which is a move that would require adding $100M to the bottom line each year.
[Source: Detroit News]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Ferguson McSqueege 10:09AM (5/25/2006)
$75 million per year...all going to people twiddling their thumbs.
Absolutely ridiculous.
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Timon 10:13AM (5/25/2006)
It's really tough to have people not working and getting paid.
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Shawn 10:27AM (5/25/2006)
Reminds me of that Simpson episode where Homer was trying to out-lazy some Union workers. As Homer found out, no one is lazier than a union laborer.
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Peter L. 10:40AM (5/25/2006)
Keep on getting paid to do nothing (probably at about $60~$70 grand a year) or a 1 time payment of $100,000? I'd keep on getting paid for doing nothing :)
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Anne 11:12AM (5/25/2006)
Wow, why do we have unions again? This is absolute nonsense. Who votes to enable this rubbish in the USA? No wonder all the jobs are going to China!
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E46 M3 Owner 12:06PM (5/25/2006)
While I do not think the jobs bank is a good idea - #5, you should really do some research before you make a statement that implies unions are not, or were not needed. As countires industrialize they tend to exploit their workers to the maximum extent possible. Unionizing, or grouping together to provide a single voice is a very common way people with similar interests can work together to reach their goals.
The problem is, in my opinion, things have gone too far. The UAM appears to no longer be soley to protect workers' interests - they exploit them to the maximum degree possible. While some might not think there is a different, to the bottom line there definetly is.
Like it or not, we in the US compete in a global environment that our government (and therefore us) has lobied in support of for decades. We all need to learn to adapt to the change that global enviornment is bringing.
It's really very simple - adapt or die - there is no middle ground. I hope the UAW can adapt because I'd hate to see our country regress.
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E46 M3 Owner 12:08PM (5/25/2006)
That should be UAW - not UAM - typo.
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Don McGuire 12:13PM (5/25/2006)
Hey for all you antiunion dumb dumds out there!
It's the COMPANY who puts these people in the jobs bank. This is because your superhero CEO's can't manage a pop-cycle stand.
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Bogey 12:44PM (5/25/2006)
There certainly was a place for unions in the past. Without them, many of the workplace safeties we all enjoy (around the world not just in the USA) might not exist. The unionised workforce *WAS* an important part of the industrial revolution. Even into the 70's and 80's unions were still important.
Now, I think they have failed to evolve with the times. Unions seem to think that were still in the 70's.
Job bank? Fark me. I wish I had a job bank option.
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gbh 1:20PM (5/25/2006)
The UAW lives in a fantasy land where getting up and doing a job that is less physically and mentally demanding than working in a busy McDonalds is rewarded like you are a VP. UAW is mostly unskilled labor that is often making more than skilled/educated trades (plumbing, electric, machinist). That is not the American way and is killing our country as much as management that wouldn't know good product if it bit them.
The really pathetic thing is that sense of entitlement, where just because you got hired and put in 5 or 10 years of doing just this side of nothing, now you're entititled to sit on your ass, read a paper and collect huge salary and benes. Gimme a break.
In the real world, without work there is no pay. If you don't like what you get paid for whatever you're doing, find something that has more value and do it. The world doesn't owe anybody a middle-class existence.
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Fabulo 3:18PM (5/25/2006)
Aren't unions blamed for killing the steel industry in the NE already? It's something I read, so I'm not sure.
In any case, only people currently in the job bank think it is a good idea. However, the people signing the contract when money was coming in by the truckload can now be accused of shortsightedness.
Easy way out: chapter 11, usa strike, move all operation to China, Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, etc. Fire every blue collar us employee. settle debt. be profitable. pay huge bonus to executives. unions not needed anymore.
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Mike B 424 5:16PM (6/05/2006)
I would bet the vast majority of workers in the jobs bank would much rather be working.
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Mike B 424 5:17PM (6/05/2006)
I would bet the vast majority of workers in the jobs bank would much rather be working.
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