And what will all these people do for healthcare? A hundred grand won’t go very far if they get sick:
All UAW-represented Chrysler LLC workers at Metro Detroit plants are expected to be offered buyouts and early retirement as the automaker works to eliminate the announced 8,500 to 10,000 hourly jobs.
Workers at eight area factories, including Sterling Heights Assembly, received offers today, said Chrysler spokeswoman Michelle Tinson.
Employees at Chrysler’s Jefferson North plant in Detroit already have received paperwork and are deciding whether or not to accept the packages. Offers have not yet been extended to employees at Warren Truck because the plant is on temporary shutdown this week.
Chrysler employs about 12,000 United Autoworkers members at its 10 Metro Detroit manufacturing sites. Any worker with more than one year of experience — and very few Chrysler factory workers are of that short tenure — is eligible to accept a $100,000 buyout.
Some 4,600 of those workers are eligible for early retirement, which would include retiree health care and benefits as opposed to the buyout packages, which do not.
Well, duh, can’t they just put the $100K in the stock market and live happily ever after? You know, buy Microsoft and wait for it to split?
Or maybe some of those new REIT’s..!! Real Estate Investment Trusts, the wave of the future. Houses never go down in price or lose their value…
Those buyouts seem to be incentives to go work elsewhere - to give up your vesting in Chrysler’s retirement system.
I doubt it’s intended for people to live off without finding other employment and benefits–nor could it support such a plan.
Besides the $100k incentive, I’d guess many of these folks have been saving a tidy sum in their pension/401k’s etc, which they will also roll over into retirement savings or the plans of wherever they go to work.
While it’d certainly be a nicer system if people didn’t have to worry about their health care no matter where or if they worked, the bottom line here is that a lot of the folks not eligible for the early retirement (with benefits) probably aren’t ready for retirement in general. They’re going to go get (or at least look for) jobs elsewhere.
Yeah, you’re right. I feel better now.