Delphi's demand: Take $9 an hour

[Nordmadr]

If Delphi Corp. has its way, workers for the nation's largest auto parts supplier would be paid as little as $9 per hour under 65% wage cuts, and be hit with a tenfold increase in health-care costs, no dental and vision care and other sharp reductions in benefits, according to a proposal revealed on the Web site of a UAW local.


The document shows for the first time the severity of the cuts the bankrupt company has told the union it needs to survive.


The cuts are even stiffer than the company's final proposal to the union before it filed for Chapter 11 on Oct. 8, further infuriating workers already angered by the threats to their livelihood.


"How in the hell do they expect anybody to live?" asked Andy Loughran, a 54-year-old Delphi worker from Dayton, Ohio. "You think you're going to get a good quality product at $9 an hour?"



http://www.freep.com/money/autonews/delphi26e_20051026.htm


What a sad state of affairs this country is in. Clearly the economy is getting better...clearly.

Olaf

[Coexist]

1. the next questions here should be:

Are the Executives taking the same pay cuts?

Are their Golden Parachutes being cut off?

Are they giving up ALL of their benefits, since they can afford private insurance?

[tatertop]

3. I wager the execs are taking a 35% pay increase.

[Coexist]

5. and big bonuses as incentive to stay.

Mark my words.

[TheFarseer]

6. hey, they deserve it

they did a great job cutting the budget :sarcasm:

[Dr.Phool]

37. Kicked and recommeded! This belongs on the front page!

They aren't getting raises, but the execs are getting HUGE retention bonuses!

http://money.cnn.com/2005/10/10/news/fortune500/delphi_bonuses.reut/

(snip)
Under its proposed key employee compensation program, 486 U.S. executives would receive cash bonuses of 30 percent to 250 percent of their salary, totaling $87.9 million, upon Delphi's exit from bankruptcy or sale of the company.

For example, President Rodney O'Neal would get a total cash bonus of $2.75 million, based on a $1.15 million average salary. Some 464 executives could earn bonuses ranging from $50,000 to $475,000, based on salaries of $120,000 to $450,000.

Delphi proposes allocating a 10 percent stake in the restructured company among Delphi's 595 domestic and foreign executives, though it would not be granted if all or most of Delphi's assets are sold in the process.
(snip)

This is absolutely criminal!!!

And not mentioned, but you can bet that their pensions were put into a trust fund, thats untouchable by bankruptcy courts.

[politicaholic]

10. Here's what you're looking for:

http://money.cnn.com/2005/10/10/news/fortune500/delphi_bonuses.reut/

Delphi sweetens executive pay
As the bankrupt firm seeks concessions from hourly employees, it plans to boost executive bonuses.
October 10, 2005: 3:39 PM EDT


CHICAGO (Reuters) - Bankrupt auto parts supplier Delphi Corp. plans to offer executives cash and up to a 10 percent stake in a reorganized Delphi as an incentive to stay, while seeking massive concessions from hourly workers.

-snip-

[Coexist]

14. SON OF A BITCH... How dare they.

Sorry for cursing and yelling - but that SUCKS.

[ArbustoBuster]

16. Your obscenities are perfectly understandable.

Believe me, I'm currently using much worse language about this.

[tatertop]

18. If I were one of those 'execs' I would be afraid

I would live in fear of my employees from this point on.

[Coexist]

19. and who could blame the employees

this is what happened in the USPS, when highly paid workers were laid off and couldn't find jobs anywhere in thier payscale.

We all know what 'going postal' refers to now.

[Ksec]

20. ditto

[tatertop]

30. When you make people desperate, anticipate violence

Once again a large group of proud, hard working, independent
workers have had their future taken away by a small cabal of
'executives' who are both guilty of the crime and
easily identifiable. Crazy. What in hell's name are these people thinking?

[politicaholic]

21. Yup, I've never understood rewarding incompetance...

In this age of Bush giving his hump-back lab assistant George Tenant a Medal of Freedom I suppose that's a trend that is considered acceptable.

[Nordmadr]

23. $87.9 million in extra bonuses would pay the salary of almost

2200 people at $40,000 a year. Obviously this does not include other benefits, but it makes a very strong point I think.

From above link...

For example, President Rodney O'Neal would get a total cash bonus of $2.75 million, based on a $1.15 million average salary. Some 464 executives could earn bonuses ranging from $50,000 to $475,000, based on salaries of $120,000 to $450,000.


Yet they want everyone to live on $9.00 an hour. I wanna wake up...I wanna wake up...I wanna wake up...

Olaf

[tatertop]

2. What about torture? Can Delphi torture the employees?

I cannot believe this did not erupt into... something.

[TheFarseer]

4. I'd like to see anyone

raise a family on 2 salaries of $9 an hour. I'm sure it can be done, but it can't be pretty. Right out of college, I was making $8.50/hr full-time and couldn't make ends meet without drawing from savings as SINGLE person.

[Deja Q]

9. Or one person live comfortably at $9hr.

Two parents with $9/hr jobs, full time, can just about manage.

[insane_cratic_gal]

25. that's 2880 a month

w/o taxes taken out or insurance..

say 300 for the car payment
50 for insurance
400 for groceries
and 900 for the house

leaving them with 1230 ..

100 for electricity
Natural gas 160
120 for gas traveling
phone 50
cable (luxury item at this point) 35

leaving them with 765.. god forbid their car breaks down.. or their roof needs to be repaired

or they have cc debit.

You can do it but it's rough.. none of this stuff covers what the kids need. College or retirement

[Greyhound]

7. We need the old style, hard hitting, unions to come back.

Sure they were totally corrupt, but they did take care of their own, and the "new" unions are just as corrupt, but the benefits of their corruption never gets back to the members.

[tatertop]

15. I must agree.

[Silverhair]

17. Back in those days there was no competition.

America was the only industrial power on the planet in the days after WWII. It took an entire generation to rebuild Europe and Japan. So consumers had to buy American, or not buy at all.

Now, a consumer can get an item of the same quality, or better quality, for a cheaper price from an overseas manufacturer.

In today's world, your hard hitting unions would simply put the company that hired them out of business.

[Jose Diablo]

24. No, in those days they knew that they would not get away with it

It is the talk of 'helplessness' that weakens the workers. In the old days, if a company did not play ball, the workers banded together and shut the whole industry down.

Do you believe that if GM in the 60's had tried to pull this crap that the Ford and Chrysler would have been able to operate also. No, the entire industry would have shut-down.

Thats what it will take today. The workers are only as 'helpless' as long as they believe the Republican talking points, like they are "helpless".

Even Life Insurance agents, mostly conservative Republicans unless they are selling a policy or getting a residual from a policy sold to a Democrat, won't profit if the workers are driven to subsistence living.

[tatertop]

27. Those US Steel companies that modernized still thrive

There is a happy medium here.
It BEGINS with execs taking HUGE cuts in pay and benefits.
We have to stop buying into the idea that we must accept
what they offer or die. If unions worked together,
as in Germany or France, the government would be forced to listen.
The government MUST be involved (I mean a real, elected government,
not bush's third reich).

[Silverhair]

29. Germany currently has a very high unemployment rate. 10.6%

I don't think that the Germany economy is really a model that we want to copy. Before the election we were howling and complaining here on DU, about Bush's unemployment rate and now a DUer wants to improve our economy by going to a DOUBLE-DIGIT unemployment???????

[tatertop]

31. But they have health care and a place to live and food and security

And the government is addressing the problems instead
of purposely trying to make them worse. Germany will come around.
Will we?

[Jose Diablo]

32. We already have Germany's 10.6% unemployment

Who believes the labor statistics coming out now?

[Greyhound]

39. Sorry but I think you're missing the big point. Our companies can't

compete because of appalling management waste and rampant incompetence. We somehow bought into this insane corporate culture that just sucks 20% - 50% of all the income while making nothing, and expects the producers to make up the difference. The amerikan auto industry must undergo dramatic change or go under. The same can be said of the airlines and many others.

[okieinpain]

8. sure they will, all of those people that have been working temp

for 7.50/hr, and no benefits will fall all over themselves to get at 9 bucks, and any type of health care. I have to say one thing about clinton his nafta bill got all of this shit started.

[Jose Diablo]

11. Delphi is inviting a strike

to close all union operations in the USA. General Motors hopes to off-shore everything, except sales of their products to US dealerships.

Edit: I'd say it's time to take them up on the offer, except instead of just the automotive union, toss in transportation unions to stop deliveries to the dealerships. Close the entire vertically integrated system that sells GM products here in the USA.

No work, then no sales. Sell your shit to Japan and China.

[Coexist]

12. and who will have money to buy their products then?

Rich people don't buy GM.

[Loge23]

13. Delphi's exec's pay more to their housecleaners

$9/hr is a direct slap in the face to all working Americans.
Don't think for a minute that every money-sucking coporate asshole "chief" will not miss a beat on this one.
And you know the best part for them? If this saves their miserable business, they will be rewarded with even more outrageous salaries!
These evil bastards pay more to their dog-walkers, house cleaners, hairdressers, etc.
This is the result of this country handing over the reins to a lying, corrupt, and corporate-loving administration.

[Ksec]

22. This is what happens when corporations run government

I expect it to continue along thee lines until this country revolts .

Thats the only way it changes. No amount of writing letters and signing petitions will touch this awesome power cabal of money and governing .

We have numbers. Thats our strength. Time to get off our asses and take it back.

[lpbk2713]

26. Seems like it would cost a lot more for Delphi to outsource.

They would have to build a new plant overseas and they would have to ship large and heavy auto parts back to the States. At best it would take many years for them to break even.

[sufrommich]

28. This is just unbearably sad.

God,those poor people.Americans have to start demanding that these companies who insist on farming out jobs to the most desperate among us pay dearly.Tax the shit out of them and make it a sliding scale sort of thing where the more americans they employ at a living wage the less they pay in taxes.We also need universal health care to compete with other countries and we need to elect people who will fight for the working poor and middle class.

[tatertop]

34. We better get working on the right to vote

Last I looked, it is still fixed.
We cannot make progress with a fixed vote.

[Hubert Flottz]

33. Just a few Nazis breaking trade unions!

Nazis do that!

[EstimatedProphet]

35. I know one of the people affected

She's taking a cut from $26 to $9 an hour, and her husband just lost his job and is working at Wal-Mart now. New house and 3 year old girl too. They're stymied as to what they will do.

[sufrommich]

36. Please tell her she is in our hearts.(edited for spelling)

It's already making me sick just knowing the stories we are going to start hearing.Once fairly secure people losing everything.It will be just as bad here in Detroit and even worse if it works for Delphi.GM and Ford will,no doubt,want in on the game.

[newportdadde]

38. 17k a year gross? Are you kidding me?

That is an embarrassment. It makes my wifes teaching salary look GOOD and you know its bad if it makes a teacher look well paid. Hell I would scoff at twice that. If this is excepted then that union is dead.