I just wonder if it is there way of redoing the Company Benefit Package.

My older brother works for a civilian electronics company that is on an Air force Base. Their work is almost all government needs but some civilian jobs. End of this year they are dropping a defined pension plan and going to an employee IRA Stock plan. Just a thought.





Recently, GM announced that profits were up 25 percent for the third quarter and that net income was an impressive $2.5 billion. And yet, despite its strong position, Automotive News reports that GM plans to offer about 18,000 employees a voluntary buyout. The offer will only be extended to salaried employees who have worked at the company for at least 12 years, and eligible employees have until November 19 to decide whether to accept or not.

But why would GM reduce its workforce when it's doing so well? With sales in the U.S. and China slowing down, hybrid and electric vehicles growing increasingly popular, and automated driving technology finding its way to more vehicles, GM sees a lot of change on the horizon. It's also worried about the potential for another recession, and it wants to act ahead of the next economic downturn.

"We are doing this while our company and economy are strong," GM told Automotive News in an email. "The voluntary severance program for eligible salaried employees is one example of our efforts to improve cost efficiency."

What happens if too few employees accept the buyout? The company hasn't said how large a staff reduction it's looking to make, but it's possible some employees may find themselves laid off involuntarily. "We will evaluate the need to implement after we see the results of the voluntary program and other cost reduction efforts," GM told Automotive News.

They will go after the hourly guys next.

They aren't going after the old timers, they are out soon anyway. The new guys work cheaper and don't get the benefits so they want to keep them. Those in the middle, they want them out, they have a long time to go and they get the old benefits and money packages.

GM is top heavy with management. They're just culling the herd.

My father is a retired manager from GM. They bought out his pension a few years ago. He's now off the company books entirely. Seemed pretty smart to me.

How much did GM get from the US government during the last recession? We should have done that as a loan, not as a gift. We should have taken shares in the company, so when they did well again, we could have gradually sold that investment and used it again elsewhere.

I thought GM still owe the US tax payers over 10 billion dollars?
I am still waiting for them to pay the US tax payers back. If they have all of this extra money should they not pay back the US tax payers first?
Nobody bailed out the company I worked for before I got laid off when the economy collapsed back in 2008/2009.

Watch the amount of engineers that leave in proportion to the increase in recalls and the drop in customer satisfaction of future product. Seen it before with GM, the song remains the same.

Any attrition through voluntary buyouts will not come from executive departures. Too many perks that they would have to pay for themselves for that to happen.

IMHO, most management can be replaced with inflatable dolls.

quote:

Originally posted by Fredward:
IMHO, most management can be replaced with inflatable dolls.

Not too far from the truth! I saw this way back when at IBM. With few exceptions mid level management was top heavy with those politically correct incompetents. I was managing 5 departments, with 40+ employees, in 5 different disciplines. Other managers had as many as 5 employees and didn't work an hour of OT. I was working 70-80 hours a week, and being "exempt" I got no over time pay. I figure about half the managers there were unnecessary and should have been removed.

As companies modernize and become more efficient they need fewer employees to do the job.
Big pensions and inflated benefits worked in the old days when people didn't live so long. They didn't change with the times and union contracts limited how much they could change. That's one of the reasons they ended up in bankruptcy.
The employees get a financial incentive to leave and can go on with their lives. In smaller companies they might just be shown the door.