GM Salaried Workers to Receive Bonuses, Merit Raises : Labor: The payments are aimed at improving morale in the auto maker’s white-collar work force.
General Motors Corp. moved Thursday to improve the sagging morale of its salaried work force, announcing that the workers will receive $1,600 bonuses and merit raises next year.
GM laid out the plan as the United Auto Workers ratified a new three-year contract. For blue-collar workers, that agreement maintains many lucrative benefits, such as full health care coverage and wage increases.
White-collar workers have complained that they have borne a greater share of GM’s cost cutting than others. This year, they were required to contribute toward their health care coverage. And many have not had a raise since 1991, though the company has set aside funds for raises before year’s end.
“Salaried employees have been asked to make sacrifices,” said GM Chief Executive John F. Smith, who announced the program in a videotaped address to white-collar workers at GM facilities nationwide.
The program, which applies to 65,000 salaried workers, will cost the company $104 million. The workers will be paid $1,600 on March 15 unless they opt to exchange $600 for four additional days off.
They will also be eligible for merit raises to be paid beginning June 1.
Smith emphasized that the company is aware of morale problems and that the program is an effort to correct them. “I know credibility is still an issue, but I view these changes as a long-overdue start in rebuilding the bridges,” he said.
Grumbling among managers increased last month when the company agreed to a costly contract with the UAW. In addition to higher wages and continued universal health coverage, the agreement increased pension benefits and job security funds for laid-off workers. The UAW said Thursday that 71% of the rank-and-filers approved the pact.
Meanwhile, GM and the International Union of Electronic Workers reached a tentative agreement Thursday night on a contract to cover 23,000 workers in four states.
The agreement contained “no concessions,” a union spokesman said. The IUE had threatened to walk off the job today unless an agreement was reached.
