Cost-cutting carnage continues at the artist formerly known as the world’s largest automaker. The Detroit News reports that GM spinmeister Tom Wilkinson has announced that his employer is “temporarily suspending company matching of its 401(k) program as of Nov. 1.” Also gone by the end of ’09: tuition reimbursement and adoption assistance programs. (Tommy is a good boy who loves working at GM. Won’t you open your heart and help find him a home?) Meanwhile, the DetN is doing what it can to help, claiming the moves arrive as GM “navigates the downturn in the auto industry.” (As a group of non-romantic viewers chanted during the first half of the movie Titanic, “Ice berg. Ice berg.”) Oh, and Tommy said the automaker’s buyout program for salaried employees has been “well-received,” though he refused to reveal the number of workers who accepted the offer. So how about an update on the jobs bank, then? No? Never mind.
22 Comments on “GM Suspends [Some] Employee Benefits...”
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Suspending 401k contributions… wow. No wonder the buyouts are well received.
I was using the tuition reimbursement. What a bitch. The dumbshit executives make stupid decisions and the worker bees have to pay for their ineptitude.
Did free coffee in the management areas go away, only to be replaced by overpriced vending machines?
That’s a sure sign that the company’s going down.
As in, dying.
I wonder what the picture of dominatrix has to do with tuition reimbursement? Does she loosing some perks from management as well?
Dominatrix symbolic for the inflicting of pain?
It STILL seems like a better deal than what the telecom and IT people got when their industry contracted a few years back.
Does this include GMAC employees also?
menno:
When the restrooms become BYOTP, that’s when you should get the clue. Ask anyone that was in a now closed Delphi plant or office. Keep a roll locked up in your desk.
1996MEdition commented:
When the restrooms become BYOTP, that’s when you should get the clue. Ask anyone that was in a now closed Delphi plant or office. Keep a roll locked up in your desk.
A friend told me you can judge how well a company is doing by the number of plys in the toilet paper. Delphi used translucent single ply that could double as sandpaper. The company I now work for has wonderfully soft two ply. Major differences in culture when you leave the auto industry.
Employee retention plan removed.
Executive retention plan in-place.
“I wonder what the picture of dominatrix has to do with tuition reimbursement?”
“Dominatrix symbolic for the inflicting of pain?”
Who cares.
Oh, hurt me?
Guys, guys, guys! Read the caption.
“The new data also shows that the top 300,000 Americans collectively enjoyed almost as much income as the bottom 150 million Americans. Per person, the top group received 440 times as much as the average person in the bottom half earned, nearly doubling the gap from 1980.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/29/business/29tax.html
Now tell me again why GM’s top brass deserves so much pay, bulletproof pension plans and free company provided … everything? If I understand correctly, this is because that is what it costs to attract the few people with the brains and skills required to direct and manage such a large enterprise. Well, I would be glad to take one for the team and do Lutz’ product planning job for the bargain price of $100k per year, stat.
Now tell me again why GM’s top brass deserves so much pay, bulletproof pension plans and free company provided … everything? If I understand correctly, this is because that is what it costs to attract the few people with the brains and skills required to direct and manage such a large enterprise.
It’s true that you do need to pay top dollar for talent, but it’s also true that Rick Wagoner makes more than the top nine executives at Toyota combined, or several times more than what Katsuaki Watanabe or Takeo Fukui do.
Kind of hard to reconcile that, isn’t it?
If I were a majority stakeholder in GM, I would be asking some very hard questions about value for my dollar. of course, GM’s board includes luminaries like George Fisher, who more or less presided over Kodak’s implosion.
Robert, I apparently impaired your judgment when I brought you down South.
That here’s what we call ‘wrasslin’ and y’all oughta get a picture of the beautiful Christy Hemme in action.
Ya know, she’s Chyna without the drag.
Salary cutting people and benefits?
Ha ha ha ha! Maybe at the low levels a few oldtimers were encouraged to go.At the higher levels?Hell no they won’t go.
In Oshawa we have cut production in half and reduced hourly by 45 maybe 50%.Us oldtimers were told “retire or work on the line”Thousands of younger people layed off.
How many higher management cut you ask?It ain’t too hard to calculate.The answer would be fucken zero.
If anybody thinks I harbor some bitterness to my soon to be former employer.You would be absolutely
correct.
Mikey: It is always fascinating to hear from an insider. Makes me wonder why anyone would want to buy a vehicle in the future from a company that has such bitterness amoung its workforce? Not that i blame you, just how does this not affect the quality of the product?
@menno:
My experience is that it’s always been vending machines with the profits used to subsidize the exec dining facility – although back when there were plants in Cleveland (circa 1968) the mafia controlled all the vending companies in town so they got a cut too.
The picture caption says Christy Hemme won’t be appearing on TNA for a while. What’s TNA — an acronym for Tits ‘n’ Ass?
Mikey, when GM cuts management pay to Toyota levels, we’ll know the Board is truly concerned about and has decided to take responsibility for the company’s fate. And truthbetold37, I realize that the loss of tuition reimbursement is a significant issue for those below the executive level. But frankly, that should have been done a couple of years ago. GM is suffering two-severed-arteries hemorrhaging of cash. Book value (assets minus liabilities) has been ZERO for some time. It’s long past the time for drastic measures.
If I were a majority stakeholder in GM, I would be asking some very hard questions about value for my dollar. of course, GM’s board includes luminaries like George Fisher, who more or less presided over Kodak’s implosion.
But the majority of gamblers investors in GM are overpaid stock analysts working for commission sapping pension funds managers etc. They’re all well overpaid for what they do (which when it comes down to it is nothing useful), and have just been given an open government ATM card while simultaneously trashing our 401k’s. It’s us worker ants paying 40% of our wages to Uncle Sam and another 10% to Fidelity and co. who always inevitably get trodden on.
“The beatings will continue until morale improves.”
She would make a better employee benefits program, at least the pain will feel good!