DELPHI
Delphi's bankruptcy declaration this week will affect many people throughout the state. Families are all worried about their well-being, and that is understandable. However, I think it is time for some of the facts to be straightened out, because all around me, at school, on the television, online, and even at the grocery store, I hear false information being discussed. Here are the facts that need to be recognized by the public.
The Union worker will not lose their jobs. NO ONE is getting fired. The union contracts must be renegotiated, and that is all.
The hourly employees will lose money. This is unavoidable. However, they will still be equally paid compared to any other auto industry employee in the U.S. ALL auto manufacturers across the United States pay their employees anything between 8 and 16 dollars an hour. Delphi pays their employees 65 dollars an hour. Delphi cannot survive in the competitive auto industry while overpaying workers whose only job is to put parts together on the assembly line. Other businesses laugh as Delphi loses billions of dollars a year overpaying their manual laborers. The contracts must be renegotiated in order for Delphi to remain a top auto manufacturer.
Concerning the rumor of executive bonuses received right before Delphi declared bankruptcy:
There were ABSOLUTELY NO BONUSES issued at all. What will happen is this: 21 of the top executives will get a bonus IF THEY ARE FIRED during Delphi’s reconstruction. They will receive NOTHING if they are not fired. The top 400 executive management personnel will receive a bonus ONLY AFTER Delphi successfully pulls out of bankruptcy. After Delphi declared bankruptcy, many of the management started leaving, so Delphi decided to promise this bonus as an incentive for their salaried workers to stick around while they sort things out.
Speaking of salaried workers, Delphi’s salaried workers have been grossly underpaid benchmarked against any other auto manufacturer in the U.S. Their benefits have been cut and they have not received a pay raise in 10 years. This can be compared to the union workers, whose amazing benefits have remained the same for the past 10 years.
Delphi is not slave labor. If the workers do not like what is being done at Delphi, they may leave and find different employment. The thing is that everyone knows that if they go anywhere else they would be making 1/3 of what Delphi has been paying them.
This bring up another point. The workers at Delphi have been wonderfully taken care of by the company. It is unnecessary for ANOYONE to badmouth an industry that has provided for its employees $100,000+ per year. There is no reason for workers to complain to each other, the meida, or their family members after all they have received from the company. Bashing the reputation of a corporation that has provided everything - and I literally mean EVERYTHING (100% healthcare coverage, paid vacations/holidays/sick days, and numerous of other benefits) - is uncalled for. Furthermore, for those workers’s unappreciative attitudes to influence their children and relatives’ attitudes is destructive and out of line. If the hourly employees really cared about the business that has provided the means for their excellent way of living, they would not allow this type of false information to circulate.
The bottom line is this: There is no sort of manual labor anymore that will enable the kind of lifestyle that Delphi enabled its hourly employees to have. If anyone wants to be prosperous and have a decent quality of life, they need skills and an education. The time has past where a high school degree will get someone $100,000 a year plus benefits.
To all the people affected by Delphi’s dilemma, I hope things will be quickly settled so that the business and its employees may continue with their lives and have no fear of the future. In the mean time, everyone should consider all the facts before making hasty judgments about the motives or actions of the Delphi Corporation. They are not looking to put thousands of people out of jobs or to better their position in life by taking money from others; they are just trying to keep a prosperous business from falling apart because of extreme contracts.
The Union worker will not lose their jobs. NO ONE is getting fired. The union contracts must be renegotiated, and that is all.
The hourly employees will lose money. This is unavoidable. However, they will still be equally paid compared to any other auto industry employee in the U.S. ALL auto manufacturers across the United States pay their employees anything between 8 and 16 dollars an hour. Delphi pays their employees 65 dollars an hour. Delphi cannot survive in the competitive auto industry while overpaying workers whose only job is to put parts together on the assembly line. Other businesses laugh as Delphi loses billions of dollars a year overpaying their manual laborers. The contracts must be renegotiated in order for Delphi to remain a top auto manufacturer.
Concerning the rumor of executive bonuses received right before Delphi declared bankruptcy:
There were ABSOLUTELY NO BONUSES issued at all. What will happen is this: 21 of the top executives will get a bonus IF THEY ARE FIRED during Delphi’s reconstruction. They will receive NOTHING if they are not fired. The top 400 executive management personnel will receive a bonus ONLY AFTER Delphi successfully pulls out of bankruptcy. After Delphi declared bankruptcy, many of the management started leaving, so Delphi decided to promise this bonus as an incentive for their salaried workers to stick around while they sort things out.
Speaking of salaried workers, Delphi’s salaried workers have been grossly underpaid benchmarked against any other auto manufacturer in the U.S. Their benefits have been cut and they have not received a pay raise in 10 years. This can be compared to the union workers, whose amazing benefits have remained the same for the past 10 years.
Delphi is not slave labor. If the workers do not like what is being done at Delphi, they may leave and find different employment. The thing is that everyone knows that if they go anywhere else they would be making 1/3 of what Delphi has been paying them.
This bring up another point. The workers at Delphi have been wonderfully taken care of by the company. It is unnecessary for ANOYONE to badmouth an industry that has provided for its employees $100,000+ per year. There is no reason for workers to complain to each other, the meida, or their family members after all they have received from the company. Bashing the reputation of a corporation that has provided everything - and I literally mean EVERYTHING (100% healthcare coverage, paid vacations/holidays/sick days, and numerous of other benefits) - is uncalled for. Furthermore, for those workers’s unappreciative attitudes to influence their children and relatives’ attitudes is destructive and out of line. If the hourly employees really cared about the business that has provided the means for their excellent way of living, they would not allow this type of false information to circulate.
The bottom line is this: There is no sort of manual labor anymore that will enable the kind of lifestyle that Delphi enabled its hourly employees to have. If anyone wants to be prosperous and have a decent quality of life, they need skills and an education. The time has past where a high school degree will get someone $100,000 a year plus benefits.
To all the people affected by Delphi’s dilemma, I hope things will be quickly settled so that the business and its employees may continue with their lives and have no fear of the future. In the mean time, everyone should consider all the facts before making hasty judgments about the motives or actions of the Delphi Corporation. They are not looking to put thousands of people out of jobs or to better their position in life by taking money from others; they are just trying to keep a prosperous business from falling apart because of extreme contracts.