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The Luck of the Short Straw
By Gregg Shotwell
Workers can't afford to save a lot of money when they are trying to raise a family, pay off a house, send children to college, and sponsor weddings. Most workers don't begin to really save for retirement until the children are grown and family obligations are taken care of.
So it isn't until their later years that workers can really afford to set aside much money for retirement. But the auto companies expect us to retire early and sacrifice those final years of maximum earnings without any compensation.
First, they say, “You’re lucky to have a job.” Then, they say, “You’re lucky to retire.”
But retirement at half the income is the luck of the short straw.
GM workers in Belgium don’t settle for less.
“On 1 July 2007, the management reached an agreement with the trade unions on the redundancy settlement for the production workers. Some 1,200 workers over 50 years of age can take early retirement and retain between 82% and 89% of their last net wage. In addition, up to 750 workers will be made redundant. Workers who decide to leave the company voluntarily, having worked at the Antwerp factory for at least 25 years, can claim a maximum gross severance payment of €144,000.” ( 144,00 euros = 213,000 dollars at current exchange rates)
[ http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/eiro/2007/05/
articles/be0705029i.htm ]
Apparently, GM treats European workers with more respect than American workers. Perhaps it’s because Europeans have real unions which conduct real strikes in response to company threats. When GM announced that the Antwerp, Belgium plant would not get a new car, workers fought back. Between April 17, 2007 and July 1, 2007 there were six work stoppages and/or strikes including a wildcat at the Antwerp GM plant, plus a three hour solidarity work stoppage by other European GM workers. It pays to fight back.
On top of the rich retirement packages Europeans have guaranteed health care. GM workers in America have a VEBA with co-pays, premiums, and deductibles that can only go up as new hires realize that they have no need to donate COLA diversions to a fund they will never benefit from.
Financial planners estimate that during retirement, you will need 80 – 100 percent of your current income to maintain the same standard of living. If the average GM worker could retire and retain 85% of their income (like GM workers in Belgium) that would equal approximately $53,000
per year
, assuming a forty hour week. Given the state of the economy, the lack of decent jobs, the jeopardy of pension plans in the United States, and an underfunded health care plan run by the UAW, retirement looks like a pretty shaky proposition.
If you retire early and don’t have the advantage of earning, and therefore saving, during the final years of your career, you will need a substantial severance package. Unless, of course, you are willing to lower your standard of living 50% in the first year of retirement, and deflate from that point as the cost of taxes, insurance, utilities, and doctor appointments inflate.
If we don’t hear the money talk, we have no reason to walk away from a good paying job.
http://www.soldiersofsolidarity.com
http://www.factoryrat.com
http://www.futureoftheunion.com |
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Tue Feb 12, 2008 4:19 pm |
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Demeralda
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It's well documented that Germany has the best paid auto workers in the world.
I will reiterate a thought I have expressed before: I hate that society seems to want to bring everyone (and I mean blue collar workers, because no one will ever say anything about the goddamn rich anymore) DOWN, instead of helping other workers up. They all .. about teachers, auto workers, anyone union, instead of thinking about why they don't fight for those privileges themselves.
I wish labor would WAKE UP in this country. We're sinking into a period just like the Gilded Age, where quasi-"gentlemen" industrialists managed to rape our country and workers, and then their reward is that they are regarded as the moral authority, or at the very least, as morally superior.
I guess it takes some Grapes of Wrath type shite to make people realize how bad it is. |
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Tue Feb 12, 2008 4:47 pm |
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twotap
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| Sounds like ya maybe should not retire early. |
_________________
"If you like your current healthcare you can keep it, Period"!!
Barack Hussein Obama--- multiple times. |
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Tue Feb 12, 2008 5:23 pm |
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last time here
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hey TAP!!!! somewhere on this site i saw a pic of you, 2 kids and
some 16 year old lady at the beach!! 
i commend you dude..you done good!!!!  |
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Tue Feb 12, 2008 6:57 pm |
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twotap
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Ya I removed it cause I thought it was too far off topic. and hadnt been cleared thru snopes and double oo would not believe its my wife. Wanna guess whats shes doing.
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"If you like your current healthcare you can keep it, Period"!!
Barack Hussein Obama--- multiple times. |
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Tue Feb 12, 2008 9:46 pm |
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last time here
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| looking for her prom ring??? |
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Tue Feb 12, 2008 11:12 pm |
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Dave Starr
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The scenery looks like Florida - looking for Shark's teeth maybe?
Retiring - I went out in 05, before the incentives were offered, and don't regret it a bit. We get by on the pension, and our 2 Social Security checks, pay everything and have a couple hundred left over each month. For a lot of reasons, we had no savings or 401K, but we're doing ok. Of course, if the dems get in, our taxes will go way up, but we'll get by. |
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I used to care, but I take a pill for that now.
Pushing buttons sure can be fun.
When a lion wants to go somewhere, he doesn’t worry about how many hyenas are in the way.
Paddle faster, I hear banjos. |
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Wed Feb 13, 2008 8:23 am |
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twotap
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Well good guesses but shes actually trying to catch crabs. Not the kind your thinking but blue craps. Take a fish head or piece of chicken put a shower curtain hook thru it attach it to a line and toss it in the water. when the crabs grab hold ya slowly draw the bait towards ya and when close enough scoop em into the net.
Last edited by twotap on Wed Feb 13, 2008 3:30 pm; edited 2 times in total |
_________________
"If you like your current healthcare you can keep it, Period"!!
Barack Hussein Obama--- multiple times. |
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Wed Feb 13, 2008 8:40 am |
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twotap
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BACK TO THE TOPIC
.  • GM posts record US auto loss for 2007, offers buyouts 2/12/2008, 4:10 p.m. EST
MORE AUTO NEWS »ADVERTISEMENT
GM buyout offer generating buzz among workers
by Ron Fonger | The Flint Journal
Tuesday February 12, 2008, 7:26 PM
FLINT -- It didn't take long before those sweetened General Motors buyouts announced Tuesday were the talk of United Auto Workers locals.
They were especially interesting among long-term workers who got a better-than-expected offer --Â $45,000 for production workers and $62,500 for skilled workers to retire with full pension and benefits.
"I would think (the upgrade) is going to make a big difference," said Mark Hawkins, UAW Local 598 shop chairman. "There's a lot of buzz going on.
"We'll see how it shakes out during the next few days --Â then we'll have a real good feel for it --Â but there's a lot of discussion."
Local 598 represents employees at the Flint Truck Assembly Plant.
Hawkins estimated half of skilled trades workers and about one-third of production workers there would qualify for the improved retirement incentives.
More than 70 workers from the local who retired since October also will receive the better buyout, union leaders said.
GM won't say how many people it hopes will take the offers, but UAW President Ron Gettelfinger estimated that 20,000 people will.
During GM's last round of U.S. hourly buyouts, in 2006, 34,410 left the company. GM now has 46,000 workers nationwide who qualify for the retirement or near-retirement options, including 21,500 workers with 30 years of service.
Under its new contract with the UAW, GM can replace up to 16,000 workers who leave with new workers who make half of the old wage of $28 an hour. GM says it also wants to reduce its overall headcount.
International UAW Vice President Cal Rapson said it will take more time to tell how the buyout goes over with workers.
"It's going to take a lot of time just to roll it out so we can explain what it actually means," Rapson said. "We just don't know (but) it wasn't that long ago since the last one."
The sweetened retirement incentives were a hot topic on shop floors on Tuesday.
"Everybody is kind of reviewing it right now," said Dave Aiken, 51, of Watertown Township in Tuscola County, a member of UAW Local 599. "Others are looking to see where it's (going to go from here)."
Although he has enough time, Aiken said he's not in a position to retire because of his family situation.
"I have a 14-year-old son," he said. "I'm not even paying the car insurance for my son to start driving, and I know I've got a lot of bills to pay right now."
Rose Marie Pasco of Davison said she doesn't believe as many active workers as expected will join her as a retiree, but she knows people must be thinking about it.
The former AC Spark Plug complex worker said everyone could use the buyout money now, but more will be better off in the future by continuing to work.
"A lot of them have the feeling they are being pushed out," said Pasco, 71. "My opinion is they're not going to go." |
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"If you like your current healthcare you can keep it, Period"!!
Barack Hussein Obama--- multiple times. |
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Wed Feb 13, 2008 8:47 am |
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last time here
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what part of them little things do you eat??????  |
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Wed Feb 13, 2008 10:46 pm |
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twotap
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I assume you are refering to whats in the cooler  ever hear of crablegs? |
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"If you like your current healthcare you can keep it, Period"!!
Barack Hussein Obama--- multiple times. |
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Thu Feb 14, 2008 8:53 am |
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last time here
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| yup. i was in new orleans and saw them eating the whole thing.... |
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Thu Feb 14, 2008 9:54 am |
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