The Detroit 3 are closing in

[dcsmart]

Gregg Shotwell, a retired GM/Delphi worker and founder of the Soldiers of Solidarity network, shows how the Detroit 3 are scheming to ditch retiree health care and pensions. And, he argues, the UAW's ruling Administration Caucus--nicknamed the Concessions, or Con Caucus by rank-and-file militants--is letting them get away with it.

THE DETROIT Three cite legacy costs as their biggest competitive disadvantage. Their solution? Add to the legacy costs by retiring more workers faster with buy-out packages subtracted from the pension.

When the market crashed, the government loaned the Detroit 3 money on condition that they close factories, cut jobs and slash wages. Then, the government passed a stimulus bill to create jobs.

General Motors estimated its retiree health care costs at $50 billion and committed half that amount--$24.1 billion (and promises)--to a union trust fund . Now the government demands that 50 percent of the already 50 percent underfunded trust be replaced with stock worth less than six rolls of toilet paper.

It's illegal for a company to invest more than 10 percent of pension assets in their own stock. Why should a VEBA be different? Over and above the question of legality, the government's proposal compromises the union's ethical capacity to represent workers. The union will have a vested interest in the company's stock. But you haven't heard the punch line.

GM is planning a government-run bankruptcy. The union won't be left with an investment for retiree health care. The union will be left holding a bag of chicken necks. And the slapstick at Chrysler makes the situation at GM look like romantic comedy.

Government mandates neglect the fact that the Con Caucus already ratified contracts that will ratchet working conditions down to nonunion levels by 2011. Well, actually, the company-government didn't neglect the Con's con--they just want to pop the clutch and hit the wall at maximum rpm.

The government is strong-arming workers into accepting terms that will achieve the benefits of bankruptcy without litigation. The wage scale will become nonunion; the VEBA won't last a decade; on demand will replace the eight-hour day; the pension is underfunded; the Detroit 3 will close dozens of plants and import half the cars they sell in the U.S.; all without the hassle and haggle of bankruptcy. What the hell is there to vote for? More plant closings?
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FULL ARTICLE
http://socialistworker.org/2009/02/23/the-detroit-3-are-closing

[Deja Q]

1. So when all the job center people say older folks will retire and huge gaps in companies will form..

B.S.?

With all the jobs going offshore, let's be grateful our youth need not study or do jack shit. They probably do see what's going on and we're dumb for wanting education and a living wage to pay it back and therefore keep the banks from collapsing (not the "VP salary" some loaded financial magazines claim; a VP salary is easily 6, 7, or higher digit salaries. Nobody I know of is asking for that.)