I figure Government Motors will be broke again in . . . two years.
I know what you're thinking. I'm probably being way too generous . . .
I've currently got a Chevy Silverado. Looks like I'll be buying Fords and Toyotas in the future.
General Motors Is Said to Offer Bonuses and Reopened Plant
By BILL VLASIC and NICK BUNKLEY
Published: September 17, 2011
DETROIT — The United Auto Workers union won $5,000 signing bonuses for its workers and a promise to reopen an assembly plant in Tennessee as part of its tentative new contract with General Motors, according to people briefed on the negotiations.
In what is being viewed as a landmark deal, the union also preserved health care and pensions and improved profit-sharing for its roughly 48,000 members who work at G.M.
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“I think the U.A.W. went way beyond holding the line here,” said Harley Shaiken, a labor professor at the University of California, Berkeley. “The union made some real gains in the contract in the context of where G.M. becomes a more competitive company.”
Officials at G.M. and the union declined to discuss specific terms of the deal. But people briefed on the negotiations said that workers would receive a signing bonus of $5,000 in lieu of cost-of-living wage increases. Entry-level workers, who are paid about $14 an hour, are expected to receive an increase of $2 to $3 an hour.
The company has also agreed to reopen its idled assembly plant in Spring Hill, Tenn., the people said.
“They are bringing back work from other countries,” Mr. Shaiken said. “In this environment, to be creating jobs is not an insignificant achievement.”
Increasing jobs in the United States was a critical goal for U.A.W. leaders under pressure to show that the government’s bailout of G.M. is producing positive economic benefits.
Mr. King took the unusual step of acknowledging the Obama administration’s support of the industry in his statement: “None of this would have been possible without the efforts of President Obama, who invested federal funds to help turn the company around, protect the auto supplier base and keep good-paying jobs in America.”
The union said that it had successfully fought off G.M.’s proposals to weaken pensions and obtain major concessions on health-care benefits.
Mr. King’s next task is to seek broad support among local union leaders and G.M. workers for the tentative deal. U.A.W. leaders from plants across the country are expected to gather in Detroit on Tuesday to hear the details.
“No one’s going to like the entire contract,” said Jim Graham, president of U.A.W. Local 1112 in Lordstown, Ohio. “I’m not going to like all of it. But if I like 90 percent of it, I’m behind it.”
He added: “I have no doubts it will get ratified.”
Then Mr. King will most likely move to Chrysler, which is smaller and less profitable than G.M., and may not be willing to match the $5,000 bonuses.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/18/business/general-motors-said-to-offer-bonuses-in-new-deal-with-workers.html
Gold is $1,581/oz today. When it hits $2,000, it will be up 26.5%. Let's see how long that takes. - De 3/11/2013 - ANSWER: 7 Years, 5 Months
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