BREAKING: Chrysler Group reveals details of union worker buyouts
This afternoon the Chrysler Group and the UAW released a statement revealing details of the early retirement and separation programs that will help the automaker reach its goal of shedding 13,000 jobs. Two-thousand jobs being eliminated are salaried positions, and we brought you details on those early retirement and buyout packages last week. Today's announcement affects the 11,000 hourly workers who the Chrysler Group hopes will choose to leave the company on a voluntary basis.
There are two plans available to hourly workers, which include an Incentive Program for Retirement (IPR) and an Enhanced Voluntary Termination of Employment Program (VTEP). The IPR allows hourly workers with 30 or more years of service with the company to accept early retirement in exchance for a lump sum of $70,000. It is presumed these retirees would keep all the benefits that are granted to a normal retiree. The VTEP, however, is available to any hourly employee with at least one year of credited service with the company. In exchance for leaving the company, the Chrysler Group is offering a lump sum payment of $100,000.
Any employees eligible for these programs were notified of their options via a letter today .
[Source: the Chrysler Group]
PRESS RELEASE:
Chrysler Group Statement on Hourly Packages
The Chrysler Group issued the following statement in regards to early retirement and separation programs for bargaining unit (unionized) employees:
Chrysler Group and the UAW today agreed to two special programs that will provide retirement and separation incentives for the Company's bargaining-unit employees in the United States as part of the Chrysler Group's Recovery and Transformation Plan.
The negotiated programs include an Incentive Program for Retirement (IPR) with $70,000 cash lump-sum amount for employees with 30 or more years of credited service, or who meet a combination of age and years-of-service eligibility, and an Enhanced Voluntary Termination of Employment Program (VTEP), which provides a lump sum payment of $100,000 for employees with at least one year of credited service.
"These actions enable us to become more competitive going forward," said Jason Vines, Vice President of Communications for the Chrysler Group. "Chrysler Group and the UAW want to ensure that we have socially responsible separation incentives that will allow us to align our workforce needs with the capacity needs of our manufacturing operations."
A letter outlining the plans was sent to affected employees Feb. 27.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Adam 5:59PM (2/27/2007)
I hate unions.
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Jake 6:00PM (2/27/2007)
Hell i would take the buyout, 100k could go a long way.
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chris 6:16PM (2/27/2007)
Not bad for just 1 year of service, what happens if you don't take the buyout? Get canned with no benefits? Yeah! The 100k is nice but you still have to find another job, Just not for the next few years.
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CaliberSRT4 6:19PM (2/27/2007)
100k is nothing when you have to pay for bills...so if someone took it, they would just have to get a new job.
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Lee Gibson 6:32PM (2/27/2007)
I am in the wrong line of work.
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DarkWizard 6:43PM (2/27/2007)
Holy...100,000? They must really want them to get the heck out of Dodge.
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DarkWizard 6:53PM (2/27/2007)
And no, that pun wasn't intentional...
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Barney 7:07PM (2/27/2007)
$70,000 bonus...For employees on the assembly line for over thirty years! A lot of money for a person who became a robot. Many will get pensions as well.
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big 8:27PM (2/27/2007)
Another sad story of the greedy ass UNIONS! boo whooo.... Oh well. Thats why Domestic companies are in the ruts. Cause of Greedy Union BASTARDS. WE can all thank them for The demise of American Car companies and the Rise of Exports such ass Japanese companies. It will be funny when they buy there vipers or what ever the crap they will spend there money on cause everyone knows that they will. They will wonder why they can't get jobs anywhere else??? It's very similar to the depletion ozone Layer.
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Craig N. Cote 8:33PM (2/27/2007)
Chrysler should have gone out of business years ago and this whole issue wouldn't be at hand. The government sure won't give me a loan if my business is in trouble. Fact is, if half the "Buy American" idiots still buying Chrysler/Dodge/Jeeps would educate themselves and learn the Germans own them (WW2 veterans rolling over in their graves), business would be even worse. Best description of Chrysler-German owned, Mercedes influenced (not a great thing), Mitsubishi blooded, and MORE & MORE Mexican built! Move over in your grave Plymouth, the rest of the crowd will be dropping in soon!
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tikirob 8:54PM (2/27/2007)
They never tell the employees that the government considers this "other" cash and tax the crap out of it.
Rob
http://www.autoshortlist.com
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Mike 8:55PM (2/27/2007)
This story makes me think of LAtrell Spreewell and him turning down whatever zillions of dollars to play in the NBA a few years back. "I got a family to feed" he said. Dudes making $35K a year getting handed a check for $100K in one day will piss that money away and be whining about it in 2 years.
http://www.jimimorrisonshead.com/
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WHOsaidHUMMERScouldn\\\'tHAVEnos~ 9:27PM (2/27/2007)
Hey Mike, I like you Latrell Spreewell metaphor, and your right about them pissing away the money. They would probably go blow it on a cheep Chrysler car :), and be back were they started, broke looking for a minimal paying job.
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idpimp 9:44PM (2/27/2007)
THIS is total BS!
Some stupid ass kid gets a job in a factory pushing buttons because he fucked up his future. Hell a 100K severance, what a life lesson this is. Join a union, use outdated worker's rights policies, leverage the law for ill gotten personal gain.
This makes honest blue collar work look silly.
I'm glad I had to rack up 100k in student loans to land a great career. If I get fired....its 90 days salary.
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david 9:53PM (2/27/2007)
Oh Lord, why do these subjects bring out the ill informed morons that seem to have only one brain cell
between them?
big, how can someone with a name like "big" have such a pea sized brain? you have no clue about unions. not even a single iota of a clue. unions have very little to do with the demise of domestics, i'ts product, it's design, it's quality control, it's perception that all others are better, it's better marketing by others, it's the value of international currencies being manipulated, it's a host of other things that a simple minded person like you would have no idea how to comprehend. most import manufactures that have decided to set up shop here in the states pay damn close to what union workers get paid, but that is where the parallel ends. union workers recieve a much better pension (isn't that what we all work for?) and granted, separation pay (layoff) is out of line.
no denial here that for a long time american made was something not to be proud of, however, for a much longer time japanese, korean, and many european products were a joke. now that domestics are making a 180 turn around, and quality is dipping in many imports, especially toyota, your unfounded comments are the more laughable.
just for the union bashers, i'd seriously like to know what your lively hood is like. ie. pay per hour, health care, dental, vision, pension, etc. unions made this country, and the unions are directly responsible for a good standard of living of which you, if there were a law that banned all unions today, would stand to lose everything.
newsflash: on this autoblog a few weeks back, toyota announced it was going to try to trim wages of the factory workers by if i'm not mistaken, 20%. so, being as how toyota is non-union here for the most part, they can choose to lower your pay any time they want and there ain't jack shit you can do about it. except join a union.
I'm union, you probably already guessed, and i have 34 employees that are union. no union was forced on me or my employees, i requested they join. no, i'm not stupid, for the price of health and pension it's cheaper in the long run. and i also know in the end, if you treat people well, help give them a piece of the pie, they do tend to work better.
so continue on with that wal-mart mentallity, you're bound not to go far.
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Frank 10:21PM (2/27/2007)
MORE & MORE Mexican built! Move over in your grave Plymouth, the rest of the crowd will be dropping in soon!
Posted at 8:33PM on Feb 27th 2007 by Craig N. Cote
Craig, could you tell us the "MORE & MORE" that Chrysler is making in Mexico? I mean you must know right? Oh, you don't - Ok I will tell you.
They have 5 plants in Mexico out of 30 facilities total in NA. In those 5 plants they make the PT Cruiser, the Ram pickup, a stamping plant, the 2.4 liter engine (with and without Turbo - mostly for export markets) and the Hemi engine (5.7 and 6.1 varieties). The Ram is also made in Michigan and a good portion of the Mexican Rams are for export to other countries and not the US. That's all folks! All the other models (20 or so), the transmissions (at least 4 or 5), and engines (3 4 bangers, 4 V6's, 1 V8, and 1 V10) are made in the US or Canada. And Canada? They have 3 plants.
So keep thinking that "MORE & MORE" Chryslers are made in Mexico if you want to believe it. Just don't say it on autoblog like you know what you're talking about when you don't.
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BOB 10:50PM (2/27/2007)
Funny baloons on the photo __________
UNLESS YOU ARE PART OF A FAMILY WHOSE BREADWINNER IS GOING TO BE OUT OF WORK
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big 12:05AM (2/28/2007)
15# Posted at 9:53PM on Feb 27th 2007 by david
Irony at it's best.. David lol For your pleasure here is my rebuttal. 1# I work for one of the Big three soon to be the Big two.lol .. so i have abit of insider knowlege to back up my comments. Did you know that one of the main reasons that percieved quailty until of recent turnarounds, has been "dumbafied" or i should say "simplified"? It is so that simpleminded money grubbing knuckle dragging Union Auto Workers can actually fit the square peg into the square whole. Sounds simple doesn't it??
#2 Whether you know it or not. A big reason that Import companies like Toyota DO NOT want to open any kind of assembly plants anywhere near Michigan is because of the Auto Unions. They don't want to deal with the bureaucracy of the matter or have the privilege of paying off legacies for years to come.Who can blame them?
I'll give you one little example of how some things usually run at My Work Place. Just a bit of an insiders point of view of a Auto Union workers working day. 6am on the dot. Cars are filled in the parking lot with large majority of Union workes... Any work actually getting done?? maybe some .. after breakfast.. The regular work days happens...several breaks in between blah, blah, blah .. but wait!.. its 2:15pm Oh shit! I have to run to the punch out clock and wait in line until 3:pm to clock out and make sure that I get payed for my FULL 8 hours of hard work!... this just makes me sick! Isn't that stealing? mean while there is so much to do but wait it will have to wait till tomorrow.
Don't get me wrong. I have nothing against Hard working people.. I just think that I you love your Job then don't complain about it. If you love what you do then It shows.. There are many hard working people that do love there jobs, but sadly that is counter sunk by the many that don't.
And by the way I LOVE MY JOB and I KNOW i'll get far.!!!
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Rusty 12:32AM (2/28/2007)
I belong to a union as well but not in the auto industry. I recall being a new hire and one of my first "duties" was to watch for the floor supervisors while the "workers" with senority goofed off. I would estimate that these guys are totally unproductive for 4-6 hours of their shift...day in and day out. If the employee does get caught screwing off, invariably the union files a grievance on their behalf and gets away with a slap on the wrist and no record of the offense. I just bite my tongue because I would rather not have my car keyed in the parking lot...or worse. It's a damned shame because we make a fantastic wage for our skill level.
If the auto unions are anything like my place of employment I can see why the Big 3 are in trouble.
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Duh! I know EVERYTHING! 1:39AM (2/28/2007)
I like how everyone thinks that these people are gonna go out and just sit on their money for years on end or waste it on a car. And what does $100k have to do with getting another job? I know a few Ford employees who took their buyouts and were able to find jobs within a couple weeks. Good jobs, too. None of these minimum wage jobs. Also, if these people dont want to put their $100k towards health insurance, they only have a small amount of time to find a job with benefits.
Also, Big..."Did you know that one of the main reasons that percieved quailty until of recent turnarounds, has been "dumbafied" or i should say "simplified"? It is so that simpleminded money grubbing knuckle dragging Union Auto Workers can actually fit the square peg into the square whole. Sounds simple doesn't it??"...what the hell is that supposed to mean? It doesnt even make sense.
Perceived quality comes from people like you who have a "insider point of view" and make most of those hardworking people look bad because you know a few morons who are incompetent. And then make the companies look bad so people think their products are trash.
I drive by the Rouge Plant here in Dearborn ALL the time in the morning. I never see one single worker sitting in their car. And I know people who work in that plant and everyone shows up on time and does their job. They clock out when they are supposed to. They dont just sit around. If things are so bad in these factories, then how do the cars get built?? They just dont bolt themselves together...
The UAW isnt the only problem. Product is a factor. And so is marketing. And so on...
Dont blame the small guy because the big bad boss is a douchebag and wrote up a crappy contract. Hopefully GM and Ford tell the UAW to straighten up or go somewhere else.
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