To: MrLucky who wrote (161499 ) 3/22/2006 1:55:24 PM From: KLP Respond to of 793983 Speaking of unions, and causes of "no jobs"...GM reaches early retirement deal Wed Mar 22, 2006 12:39 PM ETtoday.reuters.com CHICAGO (Reuters) - General Motors Corp. and bankrupt former subsidiary Delphi Corp. will offer buyouts to more than 125,000 factory workers, the companies said on Wednesday, after reaching a cost-cutting deal with the United Auto Workers union. The agreement, which capped a week of intensive negotiations in Detroit, moves the world's largest automaker toward its goal of cutting 30,000 jobs by 2008 and helps avert the threat of a strike at Delphi that could have crippled GM and cost the automaker $5 billion per month. Analysts said the deal, while positive, did not entirely remove the threat of a labor disruption at Delphi, which remains in talks aimed at slashing its own payroll costs. Another unknown is how much the early retirement incentives will cost GM, which plans to shut 12 plants to adjust to continuing loss of market share in the crucial U.S. market. "The deal still leaves a lot of questions, and is less than what people were looking for," Morningstar analyst John Novak said. "We would have liked to have seen a comprehensive deal at Delphi. The fact is, there is still the overhang of a potential strike out there." Shares of GM were up less than 1 percent on the New York Stock Exchange, off early an earlier high. The buyout offers range from $35,000 to $140,000, with the higher payments offered to workers at GM plants scheduled to be closed, one UAW local official said. GM TO TAKE CHARGES GM said it would recognize charges for the buyouts in 2006. The company, which posted a $10.6 billion loss in 2005, last week raised its estimated exposure to Delphi to a range of $5.5 billion to $12 billion. GM, which remains the world's No. 1 automaker by unit sales, has been hurt by the waning popularity of profitable sport utility vehicles, high commodity costs and the burden of its pension and health-care obligations. Delphi said about 13,000 of its 24,000 UAW-represented workers would be eligible for the early retirement incentives, including a one-time payment of $35,000. The Troy, Michigan-based company also said that about 5,000 of its workers would have the opportunity to return to factory jobs with GM, which spun off Delphi in 1999. GM will fund the lump-sum payments and provide retirement benefits for any Delphi workers that return to its payroll, said GM spokeswoman Katie McBride. Early retirement incentives will also be offered to all of GM's 113,000 factory workers, she said. Of that total, 36,000 are currently eligible to retire under the UAW contract, while another 27,000 are close to 30 years of experience and will be offered special incentives, McBride said. If too many workers in a particular plant opt to take the buyouts, the existing contract between GM and the union provides a seniority-based system to determine who would be eligible. DELPHI STILL NEGOTIATING Delphi, which filed the biggest bankruptcy in U.S. automotive history in October, has said it must slash wages, benefits and jobs to reorganize its struggling U.S. operations. The company is still negotiating with its unions over which of its factories will remain in operation and how its overall wage and benefit levels will be reduced after it emerges from bankruptcy. Delphi's participation in the GM-led buyout deal is subject to approval by federal bankruptcy court. The auto parts supplier said on Wednesday that it still planned to file a motion to have its existing labor contracts voided by a bankruptcy judge on March 31 if it did not get a comprehensive deal with its unions. Shares of GM were up 20 cents to $22.20. Shares of Delphi were down 6 cents to 82 cents. (With reporting by Jui Chakravorty and Poornima Gupta in Detroit)