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On June 22, 2007
a tentative agreement was reached between the UAW and GM concerning the
situation at Delphi. This settlement addressed Delphi’s plan for
emerging from bankruptcy, which included a new announcement that the Alabama
Site was no longer planned to be sold but rather to be wound down. This
decision was not part of the negotiations, but rather addressed the corporation’s
decision to close the site. Language in the final contract addressed the
issue by offering transfer provisions to GM’s Spring Hill Assembly
for Local 2195 members who once worked for GM. Those hired after the spin
off on the first tier will be eligible to flow back to GM locations with
openings. Those hired on the second tier will be offered a severance package
of $1500 per month worked up to $40,000. While this is far from a desired
result, it appears to be the best that could have been done under the
circumstances.
This is a very sobering announcement for our members, their families and
the community. The entire Delphi debacle is a textbook example of corporate
greed run amuck under the current climate in this country. To begin with,
Delphi should have never been allowed to file bankruptcy. The federal
bankruptcy court system should have declined their request for bankruptcy,
but unfortunately Delphi found a judge who would cater to their every
whim. This entire bankruptcy is a farce where the rich get richer and
the poorer get poorer. The Delphi Board went out and found Steve Miller,
perhaps the most sinister predator in the corporate crook game. He came
to the job with one thing in mind and that was filing bankruptcy, running
off from their commitments and lining the pockets of the boys at the top.
At the moment Delphi has spent $500,000,000 in executive bonuses since
the filing and another $300,000,000 spent in legal fees.
Recently the Detroit News reported that Delphi’s legal fees have
been some of the largest ever paid. These fees have been paid to lawyers
and accountants who are friends of Steve Miller and have worked bankruptcy
cases with him at the six other corporations he has taken into bankruptcy.
Not since Andrew Carnegie and J.P. Morgan has a corporate raider prided
himself on his ruthless nature as has Steve Miller. Miller didn’t
pioneer these ruthless tactics, he has simply worked the same playbook
that Carnegie and Morgan worked 150 years before to rape workers and walk
away with millions.
The Detroit News has reported the Delphi bankruptcy to be the tenth largest
in history and the largest and most expensive in automotive history. The
same article reported that one firm has billed $10,000 in travel expense
for two lawyers with no itemized expenses while another took a $185 cab
ride from the airport to his home. These lavish expenses and expensive
dinners have been provided while Delphi’s workers have been forced
out of their jobs and into either early retirement they weren’t
ready for, moved to another state to follow GM or placed out of a job.
While Delphi’s stock holders saw hard earned investments eliminated,
debtors left holding the bag on unpaid bills and their employees robbed
of their livelihood, the corporate fat cats and their robber baron friends
have lived high on the hog.
Current plans call for the Alabama Site to be wound down in the spring
of 2009 while the remaining steering operation in Saginaw, Michigan will
be sold. The operation in Alabama will be consolidated, sold off and wound
down over the next 18 months. What little information that has been released
has stated that scaling the operation down will begin immediately.
The first production on this site was ran in December of 1975. Since that
time, our members have worked to meet each obstacle this corporation placed
in front of them. We have been used as a dumping ground for cost from
Michigan, robbed of our ideas and ingenuity and now are being sacrificed
in a last ditch effort to save “the mother ship in Michigan.”
Our members have giving all to make this site work, only to be whisked
away now in the end.
Our members did everything asked of them as the incompetent chose ones
at the top made decisions that doomed our livelihood and communities.
In the months ahead local management may try to offer false hope about
keep the site open, but the current overtime and higher schedules are
nothing but the company building float to prepare for the end of operations.
What we must do during these final days is stick together and not let
this company separate us. Our solidarity is needed now more than ever
to see us through. Questions remain on what will happen to our union hall
and local. Local 2195 will be maintaining a retiree local but the dues
a retiree pays are much lower and it is uncertain as to whether this will
be enough to maintain our current facility.
For now, we must all come together and support each other. At the end
of the day, it is our families, our union brothers and sisters, our communities
and our God who will be there for us and give us the strength to continue.
We do not need rumors, accusations and idle gossip to add to the anxiety,
fears and worries that each person faces. Each member of this local should
commit to their brothers and sisters to support each other during these
times.
When this debacle began, this local union adopted a passage from the Bible
as a source of inspiration with that being Psalm 37:25 “I have been
young and now am old; yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor
his seed begging bread.” These words still ring true as the road
continues. As more information becomes available, it will be passed along
to the membership.
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