Uaw Hourly Wage

Ford plans 150 layoffs in NY state

Ford Motor Co., weeks before entering contract talks with the United Auto Workers, said it plans to lay off 150 workers in New York state who make body panels for the soon-to-be-discontinued Lincoln Town Car.

The workers at Ford's stamping plant in Buffalo will lose their jobs in September, according to a filing Thursday with the New York Department of Labor. The layoffs represent 23 percent of the 61-year-old factory's 651 hourly workers, according to Ford's website.

The Buffalo layoffs result from Ford's decision to halt production of the Town Car, the Ford Crown Victoria and the Mercury Grand Marquis, all made at an assembly plant in St. Thomas, Ontario. The St. Thomas plant will close in September, said Marcey Evans, a spokeswoman.

"Buffalo Stamping plant is the primary provider of automotive sheet metal stampings for the vehicles assembled at the St. Thomas plant," according to the filing. "The reduced volume will result in these layoffs."

No other layoffs are expected at Ford's U.S. plants as a result of the St. Thomas closing, Evans said. The second-largest U.S. automaker will work with the UAW to find new jobs for the workers, Evans said.

"It's hard to say today what the opportunities could be," Evans said in an interview Friday. "It's possible they could be placed back at Buffalo if new work is brought in to that facility or it's possible they could be offered an opportunity to transfer to another location."

UAW Local 897 President Charlie Gangarossa, who represents workers at the Buffalo plant, didn't immediately respond to a phone call seeking comment.

UAW President Bob King, 64, will negotiate new contracts this year with Ford, General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group LLC to replace agreements expiring Sept. 14. King has said workers must be rewarded for the $7,000 to $30,000 in concessions they each gave since 2005 to help the automakers survive.

The workers surrendered raises, bonuses and cost-of-living adjustments and agreed to a two-tier wage system, in which new hires earn about $14 an hour, half the amount paid to senior production workers.

Ford has said it must further reduce its labor costs, which at $58 an hour for wages and benefits, are still higher than the average of $50 an hour Asian and German automakers pay workers at their U.S. factories.

The UAW is willing to expand the use of the $14 hourly wage if the automakers commit to more jobs in the U.S., UAW Vice President Joe Ashton has said.

GM UAW hourly workers could see $4000 in bonuses

Last week, TorqueNews.com brought you the news that General Motors plans to pay profit sharing bonuses to their hourly union autoworkers (UAW) that could exceed the highest profit-sharing bonuses in the company history and if a new report proves to be true, those bonuses could actually be even higher – with an average of $4,000 paid to these hourly workers.

The original rumors suggested that GM would pay their UAW hourly workers would receive a bonus of roughly $3,000 with that actual amount being less or more depending on time spent with the company, hourly pay rate, etc. but Bloomberg is now reporting that the average bonus could go as high as $4,000. This payout is more than double the previous best profit-sharing payout in the company’s history but GM’s generosity does comes with a bit of a catch.

Like Ford and Chrysler, General Motors is currently involved in contract talks with the UAW leaders and as part of their revisions GM hopes to eliminate “lockstep” raises (annual raises added regardless of the company’s success in a given year), instead giving employees bonuses based on performance rather than raises based on nothing but a new fiscal year. GM’s hope is that in the wake of this massive, record-setting profit bonus, the UAW negotiators will be more likely to accept GM’s replacement of annual raises with profit-based bonuses.

The exact amount to be paid to the 45,000 hourly union autoworkers will be announced in General Motors’ earnings release – expected to be released later this month. Regardless of the final dollar value average of the profit-sharing bonus paid to hourly workers, there is no guarantee that the UAW will approve GM’s plan of eliminating lockstep raises but with the news that some salaried employees (executives) from GM could see bonuses easily eclipsing the $10,000 mark, the General may have a hard time convincing the UAW to back down from any of their demands.

TorqueNews.com will continue following this story, bringing you more information as it becomes available!

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