Local GM workers not rushing to buyouts-WEB ONLY

Few Indianapolis-area General Motors Corp. workers are accepting a $20,000 cash buyout offer to leave the company, but participation nationwide could be high enough to help the ailing automaker.

GM spokesman Fred Cox said today just 44 people at the metal-stamping plant on White River Parkway signed up by Tuesday’s deadline. They have until next Tuesday to change their minds.
One union official previously estimated that 250, or 37 percent, of the local hourly work force of 680 in United Auto Workers Local 23 would qualify for early retirement this year.
GM has 4,500 hourly workers in Indiana, and 33 percent of them are retirement-eligible.
Nationally, about 7,500 GM workers have signed up to take buyouts, the automaker said this morning.

Also, Chrysler LLC said today it would extend its offers to entice blue-collar workers to leave the company. The old deadline was tomorrow.

At GM, about 12 percent of the company’s U.S. hourly work force of 62,400 decided to leave, most through early-retirement offers.

GM offered $20,000 in cash and a $25,000 voucher to buy a car to all of its hourly U.S. employees in an effort to further trim its blue-collar work force to match reduced sales.

Many of the workers waited until the last minute to turn in their paperwork. The workers have seven days from the date they turn in the paperwork to rescind their decision.

For those that will leave, the effective date of their departure is April 1.

Both GM and Chrysler are living on a total of $17.4 billion in government loans and are seeking another $21.6 billion. The Obama administration’s auto task force has indicated it may offer more aid, but further concessions are possible from both the companies’ stakeholders.

Both companies have to submit finalized restructuring plans to the federal government by March 31.
The latest round of buyouts and early retirements at GM was the third for the company since 2006. From all three offers, more than 60,000 workers have decided to leave the company.