DETROIT — General Motors said Tuesday that it would begin another round of buyout offers that would allow it to begin hiring new workers for significantly less pay.þþG.M., whose buyout offer last year was accepted by about one-third of its hourly workers, will make the offers in several phases and only to workers at certain facilities. The company’s 2006 buyout program was available to all employees represented by the United Automobile Workers union. þþAbout 5,200 workers are eligible for the first phase, which includes 23 small-parts warehouses across the United States and 4 plants that have closed or are to be closed or sold.þþG.M. said it planned eventually to offer buyouts to a much larger portion of its work force, including employees at assembly, engine, metal stamping and engineering plants. The automaker is negotiating with the U.A.W. over those offers.þþG.M. said it would not reveal the dollar amounts or other terms of the buyouts until union locals hold informational meetings for eligible workers early in 2008, but it said the deals were similar to what it offered all 113,000 hourly workers in 2006. þþAt that time, 34,410 workers agreed to quit in exchange for either a $35,000 retirement incentive, a smaller early retirement incentive or a lump-sum payment of as much as $140,000. The largest amount, offered to workers with at least 10 years of seniority, required workers to give up all retirement benefits except their pensions.þþWorkers would have 45 days to consider the offer, and those who accept would begin leaving their jobs in early March, a G.M. spokesman, Dan Flores, said. Mr. Flores would not say how many workers the company expected to take the deal. þþNearly 30 percent of G.M.’s 73,000 workers have been with the automaker for at least 30 years and are eligible for full retirement. Thousands of workers were just shy of 30 years during the last round of buyouts and might be willing to leave now that they qualify for a better deal.þþ“We view this as a small step toward the ultimate attrition program, which we have forecasted to net a total of 11,000 positions in 2008,” Brian A. Johnson, an analyst with Lehman Brothers, wrote in a note to clients.þþG.M. is expected to replace most of the workers who leave its parts warehouses with new hires. Its labor agreement with the U.A.W., which was ratified in October after a two-day nationwide strike, creates a second-tier wage rate of as little as $14 an hour for new workers in jobs classified as noncore. Current workers are paid twice that amount, which, including benefits, costs G.M. about $45 an hour more than those at the lower wage tier.þþG.M. and the U.A.W. began discussing a second round of buyouts during their contract talks in the summer, so the union was not surprised by the buyouts as it was by job cuts announced at Chrysler after that company’s workers ratified their new contract.þþIn addition to workers at the parts warehouses, the first phase includes about 250 workers at a stamping plant in Pittsburgh; about 350 workers at a casting plant in Massena, N.Y.; and 900 workers who were previously laid off from plants in Oklahoma City; Linden, N.J.; and Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. (The laid-off workers have continued to receive most of their pay and benefits under the Jobs Bank program to which G.M. is contractually obligated.)þþG.M. plans to close or sell the Pittsburgh plant and close the Massena plant. The plants in Oklahoma City and Linden have already closed.þþSeparately, G.M. said Tuesday that it was raising sticker prices on most 2008 models by an average of 1.5 percent to compensate for higher steel and other commodity costs. The increases did not affect vehicles already on dealers’ lots and would be $100 to $500 on most vehicles, G.M. said. Prices of some vehicles in competitive segments, like the Saturn Aura and Chevrolet Malibu LS sedans, would not change, while the Cadillac XLR sports car would cost $1,500 more.þþ
Source: NY Times
