Should I stay or should I go?
With less than a week to apply for retirement or stay with General Motors Corp., Matt Jolly has been torn over a difficult choice.
Does he retire, amid a recession, after 30 years with the automaker? Or does he stay and ride out the dramatic changes in the auto industry?
Jolly, 49, has stayed after his shift at the Wentzville van plant to ask fellow workers about their plans. At night, he has examined expenses and mulled over options with his wife.
About 60,000 GM workers — including Jolly and about 1,900 others at the van plant — have until Tuesday to decide to retire, take a buyout or stay with the company. More than 1,400 local Chrysler LLC workers must decide by Friday.
The timing has only complicated matters because workers may have to decide before knowing the outcome of the automakers’ negotiations with the United Auto Workers union and bondholders. Both companies are seeking major concessions before the March 31 deadline to submit restructuring plans to the federal government. It’s unlikely those talks will be resolved by Friday, observers say.
"I was hoping that GM would have had some agreement by now to let me know where the company is going," said Jolly, a St. Peters resident who assembles doors for full-size vans. "I don’t know what to do."
At GM since 1979, Jolly qualifies for a retirement offer that would give him pension and benefits, plus $25,000 for a new GM vehicle and $20,000 in cash. The money would be enough to survive, he figures.
But he has plenty of incentive to stay. He likes the work and doesn’t want to retire before his house is fully paid. And he’d like to know the level of the government’s support for GM and the future of the UAW-controlled retiree health care fund, which is a Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Association or VEBA, before deciding on his own future.
For GM and Chrysler, those pieces, along with their perceived futures, seem to be changing constantly.
The Jobs Bank, which protected workers from permanent layoff, was recently eliminated as part of the government loan conditions. Speculation swirls that one or both will be forced into bankruptcy, which could alter union contracts.
Plus, the buyout and retirement incentives offered now are less generous in some cases than past packages. GM has said it’s unlikely another round will be offered. Chrysler declined to comment.
FEW TAKERS SO FAR
Some of those factors were enough to persuade John Glore, 73, a skilled trades worker with GM, to retire.
"They’re cutting people down so tight, and everything is changing from what it used to be," the Bridgeton resident said.
Glore submitted his retirement offer Friday morning and said he’s leaving 50 years to the day — April 1 — that he started with GM.
As of Friday afternoon, 87 GM workers signed up for a retirement or buyout, said Tom Brune of UAW Local 2250, which represents most of the hourly workers at the Wentzville plant. Nearly 300 local workers took the previous round of offers last year, but Brune said the number this time is likely to be lower.
Chrysler faces a similar scenario.
About 1,800 workers in the minivan and pickup plants in Fenton took buyouts and retirements in November, union officials said at the time no fax cash advance. Of nearly 430 workers still active in the minivan union, less than 10 signed up by Friday for the new round, said Joe Shields, president of UAW Local 110, which represented about 1,600 workers when the minivan plant was idled in October.
No figure was available for the number of Chrysler’s pickup workers who opted for the packages. The lower acceptance numbers aren’t surprising, said David Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich. "The incentives are less (than previous offers), and the older employees are pretty much gone already," he said.
Workers who haven’t transferred to another plant or accepted a package remain in limbo, collecting a mix of state unemployment and supplemental benefits. But that money will end in several months, depending on a worker’s layoff date.
In the past, laid-off workers would go into Jobs Bank when the unemployment money ran out. There they would get paid until the company found work for them. With the recent end of the Jobs Bank program, these workers will only have recall rights if a plant or job opens.
Joshua Constantine Sr., 32, is among those waiting since he was laid off from the Chrysler’s pickup plant in late August. Despite the industry’s uncertainty, Constantine said he’s not interested in taking the package he qualifies for — a buyout of $115,000 in cash and a $25,000 vehicle voucher.
"That money goes quick," said Constantine of Dupo, who has worked on a Chrysler assembly line for 13 years.
DIFFICULT TIMES AHEAD
In recent years, the Detroit Three offered buyout and retirement programs to control expenses and conserve cash. They’re arguably more critical at a time when U.S. sales fell 18 percent to 13.2 million last year and are expected to be around 10 million this year.
Earlier this month, Ford Motor Co. confirmed that it also will offer buyouts and retirements to most of its 42,000 U.S. hourly workers.
Given the auto slump, even Toyota Motor Corp.’s U.S. division began offering voluntary buyouts to 18,000 employees last month.
GM, Chrysler and the others declined to say how many workers they hope to shed. If the numbers are too low, the companies could be forced to lay off more workers, Cole said.
"We’re in the middle right now of what has to be viewed as a battle for survival," he added.
Meanwhile, the future of the automakers weighs heavily on workers. Their jobs paid for their children’s college education and provided for their families for decades, but they also feel jarred by the uncertainty of what’s next.
They hope for sales to return and production to stabilize.
For now, all they can do is make their decision, then hope it’s the right one for them.
Jolly, the GM worker considering retirement, said: "I know money-wise, we could do it, but it’s just a matter of: Do I want to walk away?"
By Friday, Jolly hadn’t turned in any paperwork.
atablac@post-dispatch.com | 314-340-8140
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