How would you like to earn up to $31.00 per hour sitting in a chair watching TV or doing a crossword Puzzle? Sound unlikely? Not if you’re a member of the United Auto Workers:

Ken Pool is making good money. On weekdays, he shows up at 7 a.m. at Ford Motor Co.’s Michigan Truck Plant in Wayne, signs in, and then starts working — on a crossword puzzle. Pool hates the monotony, but the pay is good: more than $31 an hour, plus benefits.

“We just go in and play crossword puzzles, watch videos that someone brings in or read the newspaper,” he says. “Otherwise, I’ve just sat.”

Pool is one of more than 12,000 American autoworkers who, instead of installing windshields or bending sheet metal, spend their days counting the hours in a jobs bank set up by Detroit automakers and Delphi Corp. as part of an extraordinary job security agreement with the United Auto Workers union.

The jobs bank programs were the price the industry paid in the 1980s to win UAW support for controversial efforts to boost productivity through increased automation and more flexible manufacturing.

Yes, you read that right — automakers pay workers who have been replaced by automation up to $31.00 per hour to sit and do nothing. Is it any wonder why American car manufacturers can’t compete with Japan, Korea, or Germany?

General Motors Corp. has roughly 5,000 workers in its jobs bank. Delphi has about 4,000 in its version of the same program. Some 2,100 workers are in DaimlerChrysler AG’s Chrysler Group’s job security program. Ford had 1,275 in its jobs bank as of Sept. 25. The pending closure of Ford’s assembly plant in Loraine, Ohio, could add significantly to that total. Those numbers could swell in coming years as GM and Ford prepare to close more plants.

Detroit automakers declined to discuss the programs in detail or say exactly how much they are spending, but the four-year labor contracts they signed with the UAW in 2003 established contribution caps that give a good idea of the size of the expense.

According to those documents, GM agreed to contribute up to $2.1 billion over four years. DaimlerChrysler set aside $451 million for its program, along with another $50 million for salaried employees covered under the contract. Ford, which also maintained responsibility for Visteon Corp.’s UAW employees, agreed to contribute $944 million.

Delphi pledged to contribute $630 million. In August, however, Delphi Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Robert S. “Steve” Miller said the company spent more than $100 million on its jobs bank program in the second quarter alone.

“Can we keep losing $400 million a year paying for workers in the jobs bank and $400 million a year on operations? No, we cannot deal with that indefinitely,” Miller said in a recent interview with The Detroit News. “We can’t wait until 2007.”

These guys are talking about billions of dollars paid to people who contribute nothing to the company. How stupid were the automakers’ negotiators when they drew up this contract with the UAW? I mean, this goes against all logic and good sense. Is it any wonder that cars which used to sell for $8,000.00 or $9,000.00 now sell for $20,000.00?

Under this contract, the problem will only get worse when US Automakers start closing plants around the country in the next year or two. In fact, I wonder why they bother to close the plants at all, given that they will have to continue to pay the workers at the same hourly rate with the same benefits. At least with the plants open, they’re getting some value for their money.

It’s quite apparent to me, at least, that in order to get their financial houses in order, the US Automakers are going to have to bring this job bank scam to a close, and the sooner the better. If it were me, I’d file bankruptcy and use the Court to get rid of this program and any others which are nothing but money pits. It won’t be easy, as anything which threatens the amount of dues the Unions receive is fought tooth and nail. Also, not all workers are upset about sitting around getting paid for doing nothing:

As for Costilla and his colleagues, they are getting ready to go back to work at GM’s new Delta Township plant. Costilla acknowledges that many of the union members are not looking forward to going back to work at the factory.

“The majority of us would rather stay here doing what we’re doing,” he said.

“You’re not on the line, chasing a car.”

Maybe if this guy had to go out there and find a job to support his family, he’d have a different attitude about all of this.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, February 9th, 2006 at 2:24 pm by Nick, and is filed under Labor. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.