Wagoner Joins GM Jobs Bank
Shock! Scandal! Horror! Ousted General Motors Chairman/CEO Rick Wagoner will remain on GM’s payroll for the remainder of 2009 and will be paid his full salary for doing no work, reports the DetN. Out of your tax dollars, no less! So how much will Wagoner earn while not working for GM this year? Oh, right, one American dollar. And because not all of Wagoner’s pension is bankruptcy-proof, keeping him on the salary until December 31, 2009 actually improves the chances he’ll take another big hit to his compensation. Wagoner will receive $68,900 in annual pension payments whether GM goes bankrupt or not, but five additional annual pension payments of $4,523,400 could be wiped out if Chapter 11 occurs before Wagoner takes his first payment at the end of this year. In short, the arc of justice may be long, but it bends towards surrealism. In the form of GM’s $1 per year executive jobs bank. And just to make the whole situation even more bizarre, the DetN notes that Wagoner “cannot work for another automaker without GM’s written permission.” Because I’m sure he’s got the headhunters beating down his door.
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I know TTAC is supposed to be all about trashing GM whether they do good or bad but even for TTAC this is kind of a mean-spirited post. Someone needed to call this one out i'm afraid...
I'm sure Rabid Rick has a little stuffed away in Swiss banks or the Cayman Islands. We don't need a charity benefit just yet.
@ mikey I said CAW not GM Oshawa. There are people laid off from Ford in Windsor that will soon have their 3 years of collecting unemployment benefits end. There is nothing in my post that is innacurate. If there is please point it out.
The thing that troubles me is why contracts are treated differently. Yes, GM signed a contract with RiR for his pension package. But GM also signed a contract with secured bond holders and promised to repay that debt in full. Now that GM is insolvent and in effect unable to honor either contract. Shouldn't RiR's package be treated as a GM debt and thus reduced to the same percentage as other debts, and/or swap for equity?