GM offers new round of buyouts

Production workers can receive $45,000 to retire.

STAFF/WIRE REPORTS

DETROIT — General Motors Corp., eager to lower wages and staunch the kinds of losses it saw in 2007, said Tuesday it is offering a new round of buyouts to all 74,000 of its U.S. hourly workers represented by the United Auto Workers.

Workers will be given the details of the buyouts over the next several weeks. Most of those who accept are expected to leave by July 1, the company said.

UAW Local 1112 in Lordstown issued a flier Tuesday that listed the options and said that meetings will be coming soon. Details on when workers will have to make their decisions will be released then, the union said.

In 2006, 1,600 workers at the Lordstown assembly and fabricating plants took similar offers, so GM eliminated the midnight shift at the complex. About 3,400 hourly workers were left.

GM won’t say how many workers it hopes to shed or how much it expects the buyouts to cost, but under its new contract with the UAW, it will be able to replace up to 16,000 workers doing nonassembly jobs with new employees who will be paid half the old wage of $28 per hour.

Union officials at Lordstown couldn’t be reached to comment.

GM has about 10,000 UAW-represented workers in Ohio. Besides Lordstown, they work at fabricating plants in Parma and Mansfield, a foundry in Defiance in northwest Ohio, a transmission plant in Toledo, and storage and distribution sites near Columbus and Cincinnati.

UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said he expects fewer than 20,000 workers to take the buyout. Gettelfinger said the union understood that more buyouts would be coming when it agreed to the new labor contract.

Retirement-eligible employees will be offered $45,000 for production workers and $62,500 for skilled workers to retire with their full pension and health benefits. Those workers can take the money in a lump-sum payment or take it as monthly payments. They also can roll the money directly into a retirement account or 401(k).

GM is giving less than Ford and Chrysler, which are offering up to $70,000 in lump-sum payments, but GM said its offer is comparable because workers who roll the money into a retirement account won’t have to pay as much in taxes.

Workers who are within four years of their 30th anniversary with the company can opt to retire early and get reduced pay until their full retirement kicks in. Workers who are at least 50 with a decade of service can retire with reduced pension and health benefits.

Workers also can opt to take lump-sum payments to leave the company with no ties, including pension or health benefits. Workers with 10 or more years of service would receive $140,000 under this option, while workers with under 10 years would receive $70,000.

GM said it has 46,000 workers who qualify for the retirement or near-retirement options, including 21,500 workers who have 30 years of service. It’s unclear how many of those will leave.

GM conducted a round of buyouts in 2006, when 34,410 workers left the company. The buyout programs are voluntary, and GM can’t force any hourly workers to retire.