Адрес статьи: Bloomberg
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General Motors Corp. offered a one- time buyout of up to $140,000 to a third of its union members and reached an agreement with its biggest supplier to entice thousands more workers to retire, helping avoid a strike that would cripple the automaker.
The buyouts and retirement incentives for about 141,000 employees at GM, the world's largest automaker, and Delphi, the largest U.S. auto-parts maker, mark the biggest steps yet as the companies try to cut costs. GM lost $10.6 billion last year and Delphi went bankrupt as buyers flocked to models from Toyota Motor Corp., which has lower costs and non-union U.S. labor.
``This marks the end of Twentieth Century industrial America and maybe, finally, the beginning of Twenty-First Century Industrial America,'' said Sean McAlinden, a labor analyst at the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor Michigan. ``Turning over an entire labor force has never happened on this scale.''
The deal brings the companies and the United Auto Workers closer to avoiding a threatened strike that analysts have said could bankrupt GM. Delphi Chief Executive Officer Steve Miller still seeks to reduce wages to $12.50 an hour from $27. Delphi reiterated today that it plans to ask a U.S. bankruptcy court judge for permission to cancel contracts on March 31 if the company and its unions don't agree on wage cuts by then.
`Collision Course' Softened
``What this indicates is that GM's participation can soften the collision course that Delphi and the UAW were on,'' said Harley Shaiken, a labor professor at the University of California at Berkeley.
Shaiken said the toughest bargaining among the three parties lies ahead as they confront Miller's demands to cut wages and close most of the company's North American plants.
The $140,000 buyout applies to workers with at least 10 years experience, the UAW said in a statement today. Those with less experience can choose a $70,000 buyout. The Delphi accord would let 13,000 Delphi workers qualify for special retirement that pays up to $35,000 to some eligible employees, Delphi said. As many as 5,000 workers will be able to return to GM.
Employees who accept GM's buyout offer would keep GM pension benefits already earned and give up GM health care and other post-retirement benefits.
McAlinden estimates 42,000 to 43,000 workers might be eligible for the $140,000 buyouts. The figure amounts to about 1.5 years of compensation for a UAW worker, said Morningstar Inc. analyst John Novak in Chicago.
Far-Reaching Potential
``It's an interesting and potentially far-reaching deal, but we don't know what the ultimate economic consequences will be yet,'' Novak said in an interview. ``If they can convince a significant number of people to take these offers, it would be money well spent.''
Getting workers to retire helps both GM and Delphi, a former subsidiary, reach goals faster of cutting costs and ending losses. GM announced plans in November to eliminate 30,000 factory jobs in North America by 2008. Delphi, which declared bankruptcy Oct. 8, is trying to cut about 20,000 jobs.
GM shares rose 16 cents, or 0.7 percent, to $22.16 at 11:35 a.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. They rose 5.5 percent yesterday on news of an imminent deal.
Incentives For All
GM said March 16 that a labor agreement at Troy, Michigan- based Delphi would probably cost the automaker $5.5 billion to $12 billion on a pretax basis. The expense will probably be at the lower end of that range, GM said last week. The automaker already has set aside $3.6 billion for the costs, and has twice raised its estimate of the expense since October.
Getting workers to retire early would create job openings in GM plants for idled workers from Delphi, said McAlinden.
The openings might result in thousands of people leaving a ``jobs bank'' program that pays union members when there's no work for them. GM agreed when it spun off Delphi in 1999 to take back some workers if the partsmaker became unable to give them jobs. GM also agreed to cover pension costs for former GM workers if Delphi couldn't.
GM has about 105,000 active U.S. hourly workers. The workers in the jobs bank aren't included in that total.
``At one point in time we did try to create as many jobs here as possible, and in doing so we probably did make the company less competitive and less effective. After we finally realized that, the goal become trying to take care of as many people as we could take care of,'' said Joe Buckley, president of UAW Local 696 at a Delphi brake plant in Dayton, Ohio.
``The people who have dedicated their lives to this union are asking ourselves on a daily basis, `Is there something we could have done different that would have maintained greater employment?''
Bonds
Delphi's 6.55 percent note due in June rose 1.5 cents to 67.5 cents on the dollar. The note has no yield because it's in default. GM's 8.375 percent bond due in 2033 was unchanged at 75.5 cents on the dollar and yielding 11.3 percent. The two were the most actively traded securities among institutional investors with a total of 97 transactions of more than $1 million
The annual cost to insure $10 million of GM debt for five years using credit-default swaps fell to $1.7 million upfront plus $500,000 a year, from $1.78 million yesterday, according to Deutsche Bank AG prices. The price has dropped from as much as $2.4 million upfront in December.
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