GM, Chrysler offer new retirement, buyout packages
DETROIT -- General Motors and Chrysler are offering blue-collar employees another round of buyout and early retirement offers as the automakers try to cut their work forces and reduce expenses, union officials said.
Chrysler made its offers Friday to all hourly workers represented by the United Auto Workers except those at the company's Kenosha, Wis., engine plant, according to a memo detailing the offers that was obtained by The Associated Press.
Chrysler spokeswoman Shawn Morgan confirmed in a written statement that the company is making the offers. She said they would have been presented to employees in December, but they had to be delayed because production was suspended at Chrysler's factories for much of December and January.
Both GM and Chrysler have seen sales decline with the overall U.S. auto market and have been forced to take government loans in order to survive.
According to the memo from UAW Vice President General Holiefield to local presidents and other officials, the union negotiated for another round of offers at Chrysler because of conditions the federal government imposed on the company in exchange for granting the loans.
The conditions require Chrysler and GM to make changes to their UAW contracts, including elimination of the jobs bank, in which workers get most of their pay even when they are laid off. Chrysler, GM and the union said last month that the jobs banks had been eliminated.
"Many of you raised concerns that more of our members may have accepted special packages or explored other options if they had knowledge of the changes in the CBA (collective bargaining agreement) that may impact their current situation, i.e., elimination of the jobs bank, etc.," Holiefield wrote.
The new round of offers may be more appealing to workers who are on indefinite layoff due to the U.S. auto sales slump. The companies can leave the jobs vacant for now, then later fill the jobs as needed with new workers who can be paid about half what current employees make.
