Delphic signal

CHICKENS COME HOME TO ROOST 

nyt october 10 


"When Delphi, the nation's largest auto supplier, 
filed for bankruptcy on Saturday, 
it was the latest blow 
to the American auto worker's gilded age" 

"Ninety-one years ago
 Henry Ford shocked corporate America 
by abruptly announcing 
that he would roughly double
 his workers' average wages
 to $5 a day
 For the first time
 many Ford line workers 
could afford the Model T's
 they were assembling "

 " Robert S. Miller, Delphi's chief
 wants to cut wages and benefits "

 
"In recent decades
 once-powerful labor unions 
like the Teamsters 
and United Steelworkers 
and, most recently
 airline workers
 have been in retreat"

" At the same time
 the United Automobile Workers
 Delphi's largest labor union
 has maintained 
some of the highest wages
 and most generous benefits 
in industry
 even as its membership 
has been cut in half since the 1970's"

 



 "These were the aristocrats of labor
 and now they're in the position 
that their jobs are going to become 
lower-wage manufacturing jobs
 as if they were producing hairdryers "



"Delphi
 a division of G.M. until 1999
 is seeking to cut pay
 for its 34,000 unionized workers
 by as much as two-thirds
 to as little as $10 an hour"




 

What is clear is that 


"the enviable wages and benefits
 Delphi workers have enjoyed 
are going to be harshly recalibrated 
to account for global competition,"

" and  more of the company's work 
will be shipped abroad"

" cuts that have swept through
 domestic auto suppliers 
- several others are already bankrupt - 
are seen as a likely prelude
 to changes that will eventually reach 
G.M., Ford and Chrysler"



 

"our customers won't pay 
for these premium wages and benefits."

 


 
 


"What will not likely be sustained
 are the benefits"

" Every American G.M. worker 
supports nearly three retirees" 

"It's hard to have
 a deflationary environment 
for car prices 
and health care inflation of 10 percent,"  

 "Delphi's filing could push G.M.
 closer to a revamping
 Delphi said in its bankruptcy filing 
that it would seek to stop paying
 health care
 and life insurance benefits 
for its 12,000 American retirees
 G.M. had agreed to pay those benefits
 in the event of bankruptcy
 And while Delphi's pensions 
could potentially be
 the latest multibillion-dollar plan
 thrust on the government
 G.M. also agreed to pay pension benefits
 above the portion the government insures" 

"In all
 G.M. said this weekend 
that the filing could increase 
the long-term liabilities 
on its books by as much as $11 billion
 Having lost more than $2 billion 
in the first half of 2005
 G.M. can ill afford new financial burdens" 



"Currently, Delphi's American workers
 make about $65 to $70 an hour 
including benefits
 more than 10 times
 the compensation of workers
 doing similar jobs in Mexico "

" Delphi wants trims 
that would take that below $20 an hour
 in part by cutting wages 
to $10 to $12 an hour
 from $26 to $30 " 

"Workers were particularly embittered 
when Delphi made an 11th-hour move
 a day ahead of its filing
 to sweeten substantially 
the severance packages available
 to 21 top managers " 

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