GM suspends payments into 401K plans

[kernelfarmer]

Source: Reuters


http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081023/bs_nm/us_gm_1

DETROIT (Reuters) – General Motors Corp (GM.N) is suspending matching payments to employee 401K plans as of November 1 and continues to assess its staffing needs as part of efforts to conserve cash amid a deep downturn in sales, the automaker said on Thursday.

GM spokesman Tom Wilkinson said the company could reinstate matching payments into the 401K program if business conditions improve.

The No. 1 U.S. automaker, which has lost $51 billion over the past three years, said in July that it would raise $15 billion in liquidity through 2009 through a series of steps, including a 15 percent reduction of salaried workers in North America.

Full story at link



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20081023/bs_nm/us_gm_1

[liberal N proud]

1. Is this the beginning of the end for company matched savings plans?

[pattmarty]

7. I hope so. reinstate defined payment pension plans again.

This is serious shit at GM, may be the beginning of the end for them. AND, will be worse news for their employees.

[liberal N proud]

10. I doubt they do that

We will never see those again

[pattmarty]

12. Well, we can always hope. I'm retired modestly on one.......

.........from the Teamsters now, going on 7 yrs.

[Freddie Stubbs]

18. If they can't afford to pay 401k's, they certainly can't afford to pay pensions

[pattmarty]

22. That wasn't my point.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

28. They are more expensive for the employer than matching plans.

There isn't any chance that will happen.

David

[LiberalFighter]

29. Matching payments to 401k plans?

They haven't matched payments or anything in the last 20 years or so when I worked there.

[RobinA]

17. I Thought

the beginning of the end started years ago. My ex-Company stopped matching in 1991. Since then, I have never gotten a match anywhere I worked. I'd forgotten there still is such a thing.

We're on our own. We should make decisions accordingly.

[tbredbeck]

2. So goes America?

What's that quote GM used to use? "As goes GM, so goes America" or something like that?

I hope that's not true today...

[Supersedeas]

6. we'll see if American has outgrown them

[Romulox]

26. Ummm, could you name an industry which America HASN'T outgrown?

Target Cashier?

:shrug:

[okieinpain]

3. wow, that is really scary. I trip out everytime I drive by the plant

they closed in oklahoma city.

[Kolesar]

5. My 1989 Celebrity was built there

The wagon lasted 14 years and never stranded me.

[geomon666]

4. Fucking bastards.

You made your employees bend over repeatedly to keep your fucking company afloat, just so they could have some hope, a fucking glimpse of a nice retirement at the end of the rainbow and instead you personally took a shit on each one of them. You don't deserve to survive as a company.

[ancient_nomad]

8. Welcome to DU!

Nice to have you here.

Everyday the average citizen gets screwed more! :mad:

[afertal]

9. Time to also suspend executive bonuses....

[Sherman A1]

13. Bingo!

We have a WINNER! That is exactly what needs to happen!


Welcome to DU! :hi:

[Neshanic]

11. And so it begins.

[PJPhreak]

14. Hey GM...

Ya'Know if you built cars that actually lasted a while,didn't rust away in just a few years,got reasonable mileage,are some what reliable...in other words if ya'll did your homework you might have made a bit more money by selling me a car. As it is (Unless you speak of an Air-Cooled VW) the 26 year old Toyota Corolla that I drive has out lasted not only all the Products that my family and friends have bought from GM,But anything that Ford or Chrysler has sold them as well!!!!!

At the time I bought my car I was the only person in the family that dared drive an Import....Now there in NOT ONE Domestic Automobile in my family!!! This means GM,That you failed in your marketing (Please stop trying to sell me a Cadillac using Led Zeppiln),Production (Sloppy fit and Finish) and Engineering (Poor)

I live in "Pick-up" country (Kansas) and the "State Sound" is a 600 Hp Small Block receding in the distance under Full Throttle!!!
This should tell Ya'll at GM something,If Ya'll can't sell this "Grew up in the Seventies" Hot-rod lovin ole Hippie a car (new OR used) then you really do have a problem!!

[customerserviceguy]

16. GM lost me permanently as a new car customer

when my 1982 Pontiac Phoenix went to hell starting a year and a half from when I bought it. It wasn't worth a dime more than I owed on it when I traded it in on a very used 1977 Toyota Corolla in late 1984.

Detroit-manufacture-based auto workers should have been seeing the handwriting on the wall for at least the last few decades. They went in with the same idea that upper management had been banking on, that the American car buying public was stupid, and would put up with this crap forever. They should have known that by the time people wised up that the executives would be holding the lines on golden parachutes while employees would be left holding the bag.

Just recently, the pilot's union raised a very public stink about US Airways trying to cut down on the amount of fuel used as a safety margin on flights. Maybe the pilots saw their own butts on the line, whereas auto workers did not.

[WriteDown]

19. So you base your decisions on ....

something that happened 26 years ago? You've got to be kidding.

[customerserviceguy]

20. Yes

I was refused any attempt at satisfaction when the heater core started leaking antifreeze into the passenger compartment after a year and a half, after the driver's side window shattered from merely being closed with normal force, and by the time the transaxle crapped out two and a half years after I bought the car, I knew no more letters to GM would have done a damn bit of good. I buy one of their cars during a recession, and this is how they treat me.

How much more abuse was I supposed to take?

My new 1994 Toyota Camry (Japanese built, I checked before purchasing it) didn't have even a minor problem until we had owned it for six and a half years. An electrical part went out, and the repair including labor was less than a hundred bucks. The only thing that went wrong with it after that was that my ex-wife got it in the divorce.

Asian manufacturers, engineers, and workers seem to be the only people who really care about the quality of their vehicles and seem grateful to the people who buy them. But your mileage may vary.

[WriteDown]

21. I am the same way.....

After the Democrat Harry S. Truman used the atomic bomb..... :eyes: 1994? You are still citing evidence over a decade old. Toyota leads the world in recalls and not just minor things.

[customerserviceguy]

31. Well, the car was built in 1994

so I guess I don't have any recall experience with Toyota since then. My Mazda pickup truck worked quite faithfully from 1993 to 2005, and my Hyundai has taken me rather nicely from 2005 to today.

Detroit has killed the goose that's been laying its golden eggs, why should I believe their dying desperate cries now? They had a chance to keep me as a faithful customer, and they blew it. Enough Americans finally agree.

[Romulox]

27. I feel the same way about American IT workers. Thank god for Indian tech support!

:D

[customerserviceguy]

32. Indian IT workers

care, they just can't communicate with ordinary Americans. By the way, I no longer fix laptops, most people regard them as disposable as toasters. I'm working customer service right now for a company that's closing down a local operation so they can move the jobs to Texas. But they import high quality devices from Japan, Germany, and the UK as well as selling domestically-made items. At least I didn't take a job with a company that was out to screw the American public.

[melody]

15. Wouldn't it be nice if we could "suspend" our bills if "business conditions improve"?

Try sending that one out and see what happens.

[bronxiteforever]

23. k & sadly r for the great american poverty rush continues

eom

[ohio2007]

24. Congress Contemplate Abolishing 401(k) Tax Breaks

snip

the director of the Congressional Budget Office, Peter Orszag, testified that some $2 trillion in retirement savings has been lost over the past 15 months.

Under Ghilarducci’s plan, all workers would receive a $600 annual inflation-adjusted subsidy from the U.S. government but would be required to invest 5 percent of their pay into a guaranteed retirement account administered by the Social Security Administration. The money in turn would be invested in special government bonds that would pay 3 percent a year, adjusted for inflation.

The current system of providing tax breaks on 401(k) contributions and earnings would be eliminated.

“I want to stop the federal subsidy of 401(k)s,” Ghilarducci said in an interview. “401(k)s can continue to exist, but they won’t have the benefit of the subsidy of the tax break.”

Under the current 401(k) system, investors are charged relatively high retail fees, Ghilarducci said.

“I want to spend our nation’s dollar for retirement security better. Everybody would now be covered” if the plan were adopted, Ghilarducci said.

snip
http://www.workforce.com/section/00/article/25/83/58.php

[blue_onyx]

25. As long as they don't merge with Chrysler, I don't care what they do

I think the merger of GM/Chrysler would be horrible. If they have to cut things like this, fine.

[tomp]

30. are these things not negotiated contractually?

is this legal?