the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
Feb 21, 2011
A “little bird” told reporters that Chrysler and GM executives at the very top will get bonuses of 50% of their base pay!
Managers below that super-special level will “average” $10,000 in bonuses! In other words, the next-to-the-top rung of management will get enormous bonuses and ordinary salaried workers will get crumbs.
Ford has not yet announced how big executive bonuses are, but all news accounts expect as high or higher as at Chrysler and GM.
And yet, they expect union workers to be grateful for bonuses.
So what are workers getting?
For Ford’s 40,600 hourly workers, bonuses will average $5,000–before taxes.
Some of GM’s 45,000 hourly workers will get bonuses of around $4,000, based on hours worked. Workers who were on layoff all last year–like at Orion Assembly–will get nothing.
At Chrysler–which pretends not to be profitable at all–21,000 workers got a tiny $500 max after taxes.
Do they think we forgot how much was stolen from us in that fraudulent 2007 contract vote and in that fake 2009 bankruptcy scam? We know full well we have not had a raise in five years. We have not seen a cost-of-living adjustment. Our overtime pay was stolen. We know we lost scheduled bonuses and a holiday.
Not to mention, two tier and all that retirees are losing.
And what does this add up to? Even UAW President Bob King is forced to admit that workers have lost as much as $30,000 and we can expect he is underestimating.
Guess what?! Workers want it all back!
Only because it’s a union contract year are workers getting a tiny bit more bonus in an attempt to trick us into inaction.
The companies are looking over their shoulder at the strength of that national NO! vote that happened at Ford in 2009. They are looking at the NO! vote of GM parts workers in Indianapolis in 2010. It’s clear auto workers are disgusted with concessions.
By all means, workers at other auto workers should rightfully thank their friends who work at Ford and their brothers and sisters at Local 23 in Indiana for these bonuses.