GM may be hiring at some plants - the Chevy Volt line shown here - but it is about to begin a new round of buyouts elsewhere.
General Motors is offering buyouts to approximately 2,000 skilled tradesmen from 14 plants that have closed during the company’s restructuring.
The automaker will pay eligible workers $60,000 to retire with full benefits. Younger workers will have the option to take the $60,000 in exchange for giving up retiree health care and other benefits.
However, many of the skilled tradesman have taken work in auto plants after enduring the ups and downs in the boom and bust of the construction industry. They have already passed up several earlier buyouts and the number of employees interested in accepting the package is uncertain. But GM is apparently counting on the pressure of impending contract changes that could reduce eligibility for supplemental unemployment benefits.
The UAW agreed to eliminate the so-called Jobs Bank last year when the company went through bankruptcy. That program essentially provided a check for those idled by a plant closure or other cutbacks until appropriate new work could be found.
If more workers do accept the offer, however, the buyout could add to GM’s unfunded pension liabilities, which GM CEO Dan Akerson recently pegged at $10 billion dollars.
GM spokesman Chris Lee said the company estimates it has 2,000 more skilled trades workers than it needs right now. Skilled trades workers do jobs that need special training, such as electrical work and welding.
Eligible workers will be notified by Dec. 23 and will have to leave the company by March 1.
Nine of the eligible plants have closed or are scheduled to close, which would put those workers on a temporary layoff from GM, which gives the employees the right to transfer into other openings in the company. The closed plants include Wilmington, Delaware; Shreveport, Louisiana.; Doraville, Georgia., and Pontiac, Michigan; metal stamping plants in Grand Rapids and Mansfield, Ohio, and engine and transmission plants in Flint, Livonia and Ypsilanti Township, Michigan.
The other eligible plants include Spring Hill (Tennessee) Manufacturing and Janesville (Wisconsin) Assembly, which have been closed but could reopen if GM needs them. Offers are also being handed out at three open Michigan plants: Grand Blanc Weld Tool Center, Orion Assembly and Pontiac Stamping.
GM last offered in summer 2009, right after emerging from bankruptcy protection.
The maker has also been hiring, in recent months, as it ramps up its electric vehicle efforts and increases production at plants that are building high-demand products, such as the Chevrolet Equinox crossover.