They all have plans. They are all driving hybrids to Washington this time. They have each agreed to being paid $1 a year. The higher ups with the UAW met today to discuss concessions including getting rid of the job bank (where essentially guys get laid off, are in the "job bank" and get 95% of their pay while in the job bank.. some have been in the job bank for over a year). GM's plan is to ditch Saturn and Pontiac (which kills me because they are my two favorites and I'm about to buy a Saturn Vue so I have no idea who will service it, honor the warranty, etc.). Chrysler just offered buy out packages to every white collar worker. They had to decide by last Wednesday whether to take it and many took it. Wednesday was their last day. Monday, almost every employee had a different job. I haven't heard final figures, but I've talked to people whose departments were cut by 75% through this buy out. Congress has all the plans now and the execs will be there later this week.
Details can be found here:
http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/18191115/detail.html
Mulally and Wagoner both said they'd work for $1 per year -- something Chrysler's plan said Nardelli already does -- if their firms took any government loan money, while Ford offered to cancel management bonuses and salaried employees' merit raises next year, and GM said it would slash top executives' pay. Ford and GM both said they would sell their corporate aircraft.
The unions were preparing to make sacrifices as well. United Auto Workers leaders summoned local union leaders from across the country to an emergency meeting Wednesday in Detroit to discuss possible concessions. Up for discussion were the possibility of scrapping a much-maligned jobs bank in which laid-off workers keep receiving most of their pay and postponing the automakers' payments into a multibillion-dollar union-administered health care fund.
GM said it would make huge cuts in its numbers of workers as well as reductions in its vehicle brands and plants by 2012. The auto giant is seeking a $12 billion loan to keep it running, plus a $6 billion line of credit in case market conditions worsen.
GM would focus on four brands -- Chevrolet, GMC, Buick and Cadillac. By 2012, the plan calls for 20,000 to 30,000 fewer workers, a reduction of nine facilities and 1,750 fewer dealers.
The company also outlined efforts to negotiate swapping some of the company's debt for equity stakes in the automaker.
Chrysler said it would cut costs by slashing employee benefits -- including suspending its match portion of the 401(k) retirement plan and reducing its health care contribution for salaried workers -- and terminating its lease car program. It said it would also ask more productivity of each employee.
Chrysler's product plan includes the first full-function electric-drive model in 2010 and expansion to additional models by 2013. The company's market penetration of electric-drive vehicles will further increase with over 500,000 produced by 2013, the blueprint said.
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