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Week of 6.23.06
Perspectives: GM Employees Speak OutThis Week:
The Final Offer |
Timeline: GM's Journey |
Perspectives: GM Employees Speak Out |
What Went Wrong at GM |
Q&A: Is a Benefits Crisis Looming? |
The Ins and Outs of Buyouts
General Motors (GM) employees speak out about how they've been handling the news of the company's buyout offer. So far, some 30,000 GM employees have decided to take the financial incentive and leave GM.Cynthia Merz Cynthia Merz has been working for GM since she was 18, nearly 29 years. She is currently the civil rights chairman for United Auto Workers local 594 in Pontiac, Michigan. When she spoke to NOW she was not yet sure whether she would take the buyout offer. "I wish the public would see the value in physical labor but we don't do that anymore. We say 'you don't have a college degree, why should you make so much money," Merz said in a NOW web exclusive interview. John Weizman 
Weizman describes himself as a 'GM gypsy' - someone who travels from state to state to keep one step ahead of plant closings. He has moved five times in ten years, most recently to Michigan to work as a service parts operator for a wage of $28 per hour. "You have to weigh your options. If you don't take the buyout and your contract renews, especially with GM going slowly down the way it is, you're going to lose your guaranteed income probably in 2007," Wiezman said.He was offered $140,000, along with 10 years of his vested pension, to leave General Motors. He has chosen to take GM's offer. "You know I've just ran out of towns, ran out of plants to go to ... I have lost my family along the way. That's what's happened and that's what happened to a lot of families," Weizman said. He plans to start a business converting cars to run on bio-diesel fuel. Brenda Davis 
Brenda Davis has worked as a janitor at GM for almost 30 years. She is paid over $25 per hour. Davis has chosen to take a payout of $35,000, and will be able to hold on to her health care and pension. "I'm going to go ahead and take the money and try to make a better life for myself ... we're not going to be getting paid the kind of money that we used to," she says.Davis believes GM is looking to eliminate older workers. "They're trying to push the people that have a lot of years out of there by this program. To get a younger generation in there. Pay them less money," Davis said. She added that she never expected to end her career at GM in this way and says that morale has slipped at the company as a result of the downsizing. "People are not sticking together. People are scared ... everybody used to be happy. And, you know, we thought we were on top of the world," Davis says. Keith Garman 
Keith Garman has worked for GM for over 30 years and has been offered a $35,000 incentive to walk away from his job. He works on the production line giving relief to the workers that need a break. When NOW spoke to Garman he had not yet decided whether or not to take the company's offer. "I'm a young man. I'm 54 years old. Hopefully I have another 25, 30 years to live. But I'm going to be on a fixed income for that period of time," he said.Garman said he's concerned about his future because prices are going up, but his income will stay the same. His wife works and Garman hopes she will continue to do so for a few more years "so that income will be there." He said he's been thinking about the issue of retirement over the past year but is not sure when he would like to stop working. "And now here it is staring me in the face, and you're saying good-bye to that part of your life and you're saying hello to a part that you're unsure of because I have no definite plans," he said. |
Who's Helping Our Wounded Vets?
Elizabeth Warren on the Economy
Nurses Needed
Electric Car Dreams
PBS Special Report: Health Care Reform
Video: 