| Tuesday, November 22, 2005 |
| Happy holidays, bitches |
 I haven't blogged in a day or so (had a couple of web projects to finish), and this is what I come back to? GM and Ford have got to be the two worst examples of American corporate governance going. Between the recalls (I've had a nasty personal experience with that one, but that's a long, miserable entry for another day) and the layoffs, we're speeding toward the day when America is an almost exclusive consumer of goods, producer of none -- or rather, a waystation for the production and distribution of foreign goods to the spendthrift American consumer.
Talk about a holiday fruitcake under the tree:
Automaker to cut jobs, plants
By Associated Press
Tuesday, November 22, 2005
General Motors Corp., pounded by declining sales and rising health-care costs, said yesterday it will cut more than a quarter of its North American manufacturing jobs and close 12 facilities by 2008. The United Auto Workers called the plan “devastating” and warned it will make negotiations more difficult, but some Wall Street analysts said GM’s actions may not go far enough.
To get production in line with demand, GM will cut 30,000 jobs, which represent 17 percent of GM’s North American hourly and salaried work force of 173,000, and will close nine assembly, stamping and powertrain plants and three parts facilities. GM’s U.S. market share fell to 26.2 percent in the first 10 months of this year compared with 33 percent a decade ago, the result of increasing competition from Asian rivals. GM lost almost $4 billion in the first nine months of this year.
GM said the plant closings are part of a plan to shave $7 billion off its $42 billion annual bill for operations. Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't GM just announce 25,000 job cuts in June? How can a company that once dominated the global automobile market be losing $4 billion? By building cars few people want, that's how (key line above "to get production in line with demand...) Or in the case of Ford, by building crap that catches on fire.
Meanwhile it's not just GM and Ford who are showing their workers the door. GM's former major parts supplier Delphi also announced Nov. 20 that it's laying off 24,000 workers, cutting workers' average hourly pay from $27 an hour to $9 and hour, and ... get this ... paying out bonuses to managers worth $90 million:
Delphi CEO Steve Miller, who received a signing-on hello bonus of $3.7 million last summer, said that he hasn't received union counteroffers to his proposal, which includes reducing wage levels from an average $27 per hour to as low as $9 and slashing up to 24,000 jobs over a three-year period. Motor union UAW President Ron Gettelfinger called Delphi's offer an "insult."
"We are going to try and save as many jobs as we can, but at the current wage rates, we would have to close down all of our US plants," Miller said. Delphi will pay an average US wage of $26.97 an hour in 2005. ...
...Delphi plans to pay almost $90 million in bonuses for 486 top managers as a fair reward if the company emerges from bankruptcy. It also said a recently improved severance program is necessary to keep 21 key officers from leaving. Well, they can't just let them leave...
Charles Kramer was right in what he said on "Scarborough Country" last night (yes, I watched Scarborough Country...) We've returned to the 19th Century -- becoming a Dickensian nightmare of greedy, cloistered corporate barons and struggling workers -- both of whom vote Republican...
Tags: Economy, News, Business, Jobs, GM, General Motors, Ford, Volvo, middle class squeeze |
posted by JReid @ 10:17 AM   |
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