Paid to do nothing

Monday, June 27, 2005


General Motors wants to pay Rich Cusumano for doing nothing.

All Cusumano has to do is show up every morning at his old job site, Linden's GM Truck Assembly, punch in, spend eight hours sitting around, then punch out.

But after 29 years working the assembly line and driving a fork-truck - call it pride, call it boredom - Cusumano said no.

"I'd be looking for a rope to hang myself," says Cusumano, 50.

Cusumano is one of 950 workers who lost their jobs April 20 when GM closed the Linden plant. Under its agreement with the United Auto Workers, GM will pay laid-off workers' full salaries until the current labor contract expires in September 2007.

The program is called the Jobs Bank, and it gives employees three options for getting their paycheck: They can work for a non-profit community organization, take classes or show up at the plant - and do nothing. It was designed to help laid-off auto workers transition into other occupations.
Fast facts

General Motors will pay laid-off workers' salaries until September 2007. Employees have three options while they're in the Jobs Bank:

# Work for a non-profit community organization.

# Take classes at the plant or off-site.

# Punch in, sit around - and do nothing.

GM's annual per-worker health-care cost

In the United States: $6,500

In Canada: $800

GM hourly employees in U.S.

1977: 580,000

2004: 150,000

GM retirees and surviving spouses (both hourly and salaried workers):

1977: 183,000

2004: 458,000

United Auto Workers membership

1977: 1.4 million

2004: 650,000

Sources: General Motors, United Auto Workers

But to what?

For Rich Cusumano and thousands of other laid-off auto workers, the future is looking dark.

Continuing pay is important, but it isn't the only thing workers will miss, says Clara Rose, who worked 29 years at Linden. Think of the relationships with co-workers, she says, the feeling of sharing a common goal. Rose says she worries about co-workers who will be "walking a thin line" now that they have nothing to fill their days.

"You might see people divorcing, taking their own lives," she says. "It's happened before when plants close. The bond with co-workers is gone."

The decline of the Linden plant happened slowly at first, and then all at once. In May 2002, 850 workers were laid off as the facility went from two shifts to one. In 2004, another 300 jobs were cut. The last to go, Cusumano and Rose among them, had the most seniority. They remember a time when 5,700 employees worked two shifts at Linden pumping out Cadillacs, Buicks and Oldsmobiles.

In those days, whatever GM built, the world bought.

Now, every month brings more bad news for the automaker and its hourly employees. Three weeks after Linden closed, GM shut its Baltimore facility, putting another 1,000 out of work. On June 8, the company announced it would close more plants in the next three years, cutting its workforce by 25,000.

"They've taken away the American dream," Rose says.

Rose will work for community organizations in her Newark neighborhood, while Cusumano, a Jackson Township resident, plans to take classes at Ocean County College. GM will pay him his $28 an hour and kick in an extra $4,600 a year for tuition.

"GM has been good to us," he says. "The UAW has been better."

But after September 2007, who knows?

When the current contract runs out, the union may not be able to help workers like Cusumano and Rose. And it certainly won't be able to help people their children's age.

"The good-paying jobs won't be out there for the kids who don't want to go to college," Cusumano says. "What are they going to do?"

Downsized dreams

The Jobs Bank is a reflection of the state of manufacturing in America. Skilled workers who want to work, but can't, collect paychecks for sipping coffee - from a company struggling to be competitive.

The number of manufacturing jobs in New Jersey has declined 40 percent in just the last 15 years. That's 218,000 families since 1990 that have downsized their dreams.

"America is at war with its workers," says William R. Adams, author of "Facts & Tactics for Resisting Unions." "We send the jobs away, subsidize foreign countries to do things for less and we expect our employees to love us."

When companies foul up, it's the wage-earners who end up paying with their jobs, Adams says. GM lost $1.3 billion in the first quarter of 2005.

Ask a dozen experts what's causing GM's decline and they're liable to offer a dozen answers: Promoting rebates and low financing rather than the cars and trucks, relying too much on gas-guzzling models, shortchanging research on alternative-energy vehicles and making a product that's inferior to foreign brands.

Always, however, the discussion returns to the cost of worker benefits.

"The U.S. system is based on companies paying for special benefits, so treating workers better puts companies at a competitive disadvantage," says John Budd, professor of industrial relations at the University of Minnesota. "In other countries, like Japan and Canada, those benefits aren't paid by the employer - the state takes care of those things."

Competition is fierce and Japanese automakers are winning, even when they build cars in the United States. They run non-union shops in the South and Midwest, where newer factories and a younger workforce mean pensions and health plans cost the companies a lot less.

Meanwhile, GM pays $1,525 in health-care costs for every vehicle that comes off its assembly lines - more than it pays for the steel. The annual total for health coverage |is $5 billion. GM retirees, who receive pensions and health insurance but produce nothing, outnumber current employees 2½ to 1.

'Still here'

At the UAW's Local 595 hall, a split-level brick building on Routes 1 and 9 in Linden, a sign out front announces: "Still proud, still strong, still here."

In his upstairs office, a wood-paneled room overlooking the highway, Guy Messina takes a call from a union member who was laid off from the Linden plant. The man is in trouble for driving drunk. "He's depressed," Messina explains.

Messina, the wiry, bearded president of the local, began his GM career in 1968, fresh off a stint as a staff sergeant in Vietnam. On April 20, Messina followed the last Chevy Blazer as it rolled down the Linden line, shaking hands along the way.

"It was a very emotional time for everyone," he says.

Down the hall, Jerry Harper, 54, sits on a folding chair in the union's auditorium. Behind him, weak sunlight seeps in through windows high on the walls. Harper says he started at Linden on Dec. 13, 1967, making $2.95 an hour on the assembly line.

"We thought we were doing pretty good back then," he |says. After 36 years, Harper was making $28 an hour as an electrical repairman.

Harper signed on to do community service through the Jobs Bank and found work - at the union hall. He helps with mailings and keeps the building tidy, inside and out.

"I'm still young," he says, with a shrug. "I can't just sit around. I have to do some kind of work."

Harper's friend paces the room. He won't give his name.

"You been working at a place like this all your life, how do you go out there and work, for what? Eight or nine dollars an hour?" he says. "You got professional people, educated people out there who can't find work."

Mostly idle days

Neither GM nor the UAW will say how many workers are in the Jobs Bank, but participants say about 300 punch in at Linden on any given day.

If GM managers want them to do odd jobs, such as filing documents or photocopying, they ask for volunteers. The former autoworkers spend most of the day chatting, reading or watching CNN on the cafeteria TV. A gym is available, and some walk laps around a track. Some have signed up for computer classes taught at the Linden plant.

In the union hall basement is a bar, and at midday eight men are gathered around, drinking Budweiser and an occasional shot of whiskey. Among them, they have 250 years' experience with GM. None wants his name in a newspaper.

"We love to work," says one man, who put in 29 years. "We had the pride of making something. Now it's gone."

"It was the saddest day of my life" when the plant closed, says another.

"What is this country going to do without manufacturing?" asks yet another. "We want to work, be the heads of households, be men."

One of the long-timers buys the house a round of drinks. While his former co-workers toast, a tool-and-die man speaks softly.

"I had 30 years at that plant," he says. "The best years of my life."

None of the above.....Fit and finish are far above average for the industry....and they still far outsell the largest foriegn competitors...

Design is good basicly if uninspired in some...the prblem was greedy people at the top failing to fund the people who ear their paychecks while they waste corporate funds on lavish benifits and astronomical bonuses for those at the top.

__________________
Proud owner of ....
1971 280SE W108
1979 300SD W116
1983 300D W123
1975 Ironhead Sportster chopper
1987 GMC 3/4 ton 4X4 Diesel
1989 Honda Civic (Heavily modified)
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Section 609 MVAC Certified
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"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche

I'm starting to (really) think this you are a computer driven stupid-bot. There is NO other way to explain you. If they built such great cars people would be buying them!!! Regardless of the "greedy" people.

To put it in a way a person like you would understand. If a man was selling a goose that laid golden eggs out of the truck of his Bently, and you saw the goose make the egg, would you care that the guy was rich? No. You'd buy the goose and walk away. Furthermore, what? You don't think the people that run car companies that can't meet production aren't greedy.

I don't usually make personal attacks so directly (I like the gentler kinds, hehe), but you are one stupid bot.

Instead of being a DNC controlled stupid bot try looking at JD Powers.....

GM has some of the top spots.....OVER Mercedes.....

__________________
Proud owner of ....
1971 280SE W108
1979 300SD W116
1983 300D W123
1975 Ironhead Sportster chopper
1987 GMC 3/4 ton 4X4 Diesel
1989 Honda Civic (Heavily modified)
---------------------
Section 609 MVAC Certified
---------------------
"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche

Mercedes new cars are ****e. So are GM's. You've got one Honda, so half of your bot brain functions properly. Yee-haw!

Saturn has a higher satifact rating then Benz...

So do GMC truck owners....

__________________
Proud owner of ....
1971 280SE W108
1979 300SD W116
1983 300D W123
1975 Ironhead Sportster chopper
1987 GMC 3/4 ton 4X4 Diesel
1989 Honda Civic (Heavily modified)
---------------------
Section 609 MVAC Certified
---------------------
"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche

Except you aren't comparing same markets. (duh). Look at CSI with respect to the same class. ie, Honda v. Saturn, etc. Or GMC Truck v. DC.

Dosen't matter....Far higher percentage of Benz owners have problems than Saturn.....with Benz prices trouble is not what they should be expecting.

The ML series has a FAR higher percentage of issues compaired to ANY GMC product...again when you are paying 2-3 times the GMC price you expect higher quality...not lower.

__________________
Proud owner of ....
1971 280SE W108
1979 300SD W116
1983 300D W123
1975 Ironhead Sportster chopper
1987 GMC 3/4 ton 4X4 Diesel
1989 Honda Civic (Heavily modified)
---------------------
Section 609 MVAC Certified
---------------------
"He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche

10 Toyota models and 5 GM models grabbed top spots on the J.D. Power initial Quality Survey. GM’s biggest winner was the Chevy Malibu/Malibu Maxx, which beat last year’s winner, the Hyundai Sonata, in the midsize car segment. Toyota kept the winning streak going with top spots with the Lexus SUVs and saw big improvements in Scion’s score. Overall the industry stayed flat on average problems, falling to 118 problems per vehicle from 119 problems a year ago. Click through for the full list of winners and runners-up. And remember, this is a customer satisfaction survey more than a hardware quality gauge.

JD Power means nothing unless you're comparing cars in the same categories. I'm rarely dissapointed at MacFood, but almost always let down at Wildfire and other "high end" places where entrees cost $25-30.

GM doesn't even make a car in the same class as MB. Price range maybe, not class.

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You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows - Robert A. Zimmerman

Then who owns Cadillac?

What if GM employees (and they are numerous) who drive GM cars make it a point to answer those customer satisfacton surveys in a positive light. After all its their jobs on the line LOL

All I do is walk down the block and talk to my neighbours who have GM cars and who have no vested interest in the company and its a resounding negative thumbs down on their cars. Some also give thumbs down to Mercedes (this took awhile but I here it more often).

By the way what happens after that "initial" stage of ownership. You know, after the first few months of goo goo ga ga, when you really start to see the flaws, how are they doing on those surveys? I hate this JD power initial satisfaction surveys, I want a 3 years 30,000 mile survey! Tell me about your Cobalt and C-class then.

Some of the people in that article are a joke. Come on, 28, 29, and 30 years on the job? Take that damn retirement, and go do whatever "gotta keep busy" pissant job out there for a bit of play money. Give me a freaking break. Sorry, but I don't see why these employees are so "worried" about their futures.

If I were in their shoes, I'd happily screw off untill September '07, taking classes in whatever courses caught my interest, and then take off, laughing all the way to the bank.

wow. bhd, you haven't had your daily dose of Limbaugh? that's downright KV talk...

actually i agree.. they pissed me off back in 90ish when they cut off thousands of jobs and gave bonuses to the brass that were worth more then the savings from the job cuts... oh yeah, their vehicles are crap too...



since your poll is totally skewed against the workers/engineers only i can't cast my vote.


the JDP doesn't really matter.. what matters is what kind of vehicles do you see from years past still running.. well, there are more fords around then anything... of course one would really have to do proration but i bet fords would still out number all other makes. (this is of course in the heartland - midwest).. back E seems that peeps drive nicer/newer vehicles and tks are hardly in existence in the metro areas...

my benz at 33 y/o is reliable hunk of steel, nissans and mustang have been super reliable through the years... i'll probably stick with nissans.

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72 W114/M130

RedMeat cartoon

hell yeah!!

i am not sure if those workers were really that worried about their futures per say, i think they are just bored and it is one happy family in the plants... 30y, well that's way longer then many marriages..

__________________
72 W114/M130

RedMeat cartoon