Filed under: Plants/Manufacturing, GM, Earnings/Financials
GM having employees take more vacations to cut costs
There are worse things than being forced to take vacation days -- like your employer going belly-up -- so General Motors is asking the tens of thousands of workers at its Vehicle Engineering Center and the Milford and Mesa Proving Grounds to stay home on December 22nd and 23rd. Factories won't plan any additional idle days in December, but the Engineering Center alone employs more than 16,000 people, so significant savings can be realized from those two additional days of quiet time. Just shutting out the lights and turning the heat back to 55 degrees, even in such large facilities, isn't going to turn GM around in a singular motion, but it's a low-impact way to conserve scarce money. It's also probably a lot easier to get the engineers to take time off than it is to fight with the unions at each assembly plant. One thing that would stick in our craw: if you've already used up all your vaca, you'll have to borrow from next year's time. No free days for you, even as we slide toward the abyss!
[Source: Automotive News - sub req]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
MikeofLA 6:11PM (11/10/2008)
why not the 24th too so they can just take off the whole Christmas vacation???
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Chris 6:35PM (11/10/2008)
What office have you ever worked in that was open the 24th?
Alias 6:45PM (11/10/2008)
The 24-26th are Holidays and so they'll be off anyway. This won't affect too many people since most had scheduled to be on vacation those 2 days. It just kinda screws those who had already used all their vacation days...and even then, if your manager is cool, there are ways around the system. ;-)
Jeremy B 6:13PM (11/10/2008)
Little by little, day by day, GM is kissing us bye bye. We'll be lucky if chevy and caddy is left.
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zamafir 6:21PM (11/10/2008)
GM will be fine when the volt is released, it'll make prius sales seem like a drop in the bucket.
Mobius_1 6:18PM (11/10/2008)
Come on GM, I'd hate to see you go, bringing down some really nice cars with you. Sort it out!
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phewop 6:51PM (11/10/2008)
As much as I am against government involvement in business, some form of government bailout is necessary to keep GM alive. Hopefully, that comes in the form of super-low-interest loans that don't contain stipulations. The only real reason that the government has to bail GM out (other than the current credit crisis) is because government regulations are so ridiculous that GM has been losing money trying to meet them. I say the government should kill CAFE, the EPA, etc. and let the consumers' dollars denote what kind of fuel economy is necessary. Had there been no new absurd CAFE requirements or ridiculous EPA standards, GM would have tons more money than they have now
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TRAVIS D 10:28PM (11/10/2008)
aside from GMAC isn't that the other part of the reason for their failure? they depended so much on truck and SUV sales that when gas went up so much consumers decided their big trucks were no longer worth it and stopped buying them. I'm not sure what exact CAFE and EPA standards your referring to but i tend to believe their crappy cars and business model had more to do with their demise than anything else.
Joe 7:55PM (11/10/2008)
So sad...
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http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5g00Ye7rquyIkF7GeyF99-0TcGbIw
General Motors shares plunged more than 30 percent Monday after an analyst forecast their price would fall to zero, saying that even if there is a government bailout of the auto giant, shareholders would not benefit.
"We are lowering our target on GM equity to zero dollars," the Deutsche Bank report said.
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Bye bye GM.
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jds 9:52PM (11/10/2008)
test
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jurand 11:39PM (11/10/2008)
at least GM allows their employees to use vacation from 2009 if no 2008 days are left. my company (large, southfield, mi based auto supplier) just announced 2 weeks of mandatory shutdowns, and if no 08 vacation days are available, the employees are SOL. i'm basically out 2 full weeks of pay!
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James 2:14PM (11/11/2008)
I work for the same company friend. It stinks.
Don 12:27AM (11/11/2008)
I sure hope the Volt will be the savior product it is hailed to be...
It seems that other car makers, including Toyota, will bring to market electric cars with similar or better performance than the Volt.
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