Gettelfinger: Jobs bank 'almost gone'

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Bryce G. Hoffman / The Detroit News


Reports that the United Auto Workers union is in talks to dismantle the controversial jobs bank program are premature, according to people familiar with the situation.
The possibility of more concessions from the union has emerged as Detroit's Big Three automakers are seeking $25 billion in emergency loans from the federal government as they burn through cash amid plunging car and truck sales.

Congress this week rebuffed proposals to give the automakers aid through the $700 billion Wall Street rescue package or by easing restrictions on $25 billion in loans through the Energy Department, a program that was funded in September, to allow the companies to use the money for immediate needs rather than solely to retool plants to make more fuel-efficient vehicles.

The companies could still get the aid, but they have to present Congress with a plan by Dec. 2 showing how they can become financially viable and how they would spend the loan money.
That could include negotiating additional concessions from the UAW, and sources at both Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Corp. say they have been talking to the union throughout the hearing process as part of their ongoing negotiations.
The automakers and the union have not specifically discussed eliminating the jobs bank, a source familiar with the situation said.

GM anticipates that the future of the jobs bank will be part of its ongoing talks with the union as the company seeks additional ways to cut costs.

As The Detroit News reported Thursday, UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said that the jobs bank wasn't a major factor anymore because the number of workers in it had whittled down significantly under provisions of the labor agreement reached with the auto companies last year.
Gettelfinger said the jobs bank has been reorganized (which pays workers 95 percent of their wage while on layoff), adding that Ford has taken 40,000 workers out since 2005 and GM has removed about 47,000. Currently, Chrysler has 711 workers in the jobs bank, GM has 1,404 and Ford has 1,476.
"It's not gone yet but it's almost gone," Gettelfinger said. "We're on the verge of eliminating that provision." And new language in the 2007 contract stripped it to a "mere shadow of what it used to be."
While the specific provisions vary from company to company, idled union members now have a limited number of times they can reject offers of work at other facilities before losing their jobs. Company sources said these provisions would have allowed them to eliminate all or most of the workers still in their jobs banks by now, were it not for a dramatic drop in car and truck sales that has forced each of the automakers to cut production and idle more workers.

Gettelfinger testified on Capitol Hill this week alongside the chief executive officers of Detroit's Big Three. He said that the union continues to talk to the automakers and has worked with them in recent years to reduce costs by agreeing to a range of concessions on health care, wages, factory work rules and other issues in recent years, including as part of last year's labor talks on new national contracts.

Eliminating the program entirely would be a tough sell for Gettelfinger, who is unlikely to support any change that would put these workers out on the street. Additional buyouts remain an option, but the idea of nearly bankrupt automakers paying idled workers to leave is also likely to draw sharp criticism from some in Congress.