"Although the UAW has said it is ready to negotiate, UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said Monday it is unclear what kind of reductions it will have to agree to. The Treasury Department has said GM must have a plan by March to become “viable” and have “positive net value.”
“We are still trying to figure out what that means,” Mr. Gettelfinger said in an interview. He added the union has heard little from the Treasury on what is expected. “We have no documents, no contact with the federal government,” he said. " (emphasis mine)
It's funny that Mr. Gettelfinger 'doesn't know what that means.' He seems to know the ins and outs of a 2,215 page UAW contract that weighs 22 pounds (see what it looks like here on video).
So without writing 2,215 pages to explain what that means, here it is in a nutshell:
Definition of viable (from the www):
- Able to live on its own; Able to be done, possible
- capable of being done in a practical and useful way
- the property of being viable; the ability to live or to succeed
- capable of growing or developing
I think you can see the commonality in all of these - that the entity (GM) will live and prosper (and not go bankrupt and shutter its operations).
Practically, what that means is employees that are not working do not get 95% of their pay (some for as long as three years!). It means compensation (wages+benefits) get brought in-line with the competition (Toyota). It means legacy costs must be reduced (currently adding about $3,000 to each vehicle off the line). Thus, golden parachute health benefits and pensions will have to be reduced.
None of these are painless, especially for retirees that had nothing to do with this (well, except that they kept voting for bigger and bigger contracts that has brought GM to this point). And this coming from the son of two UAW workers (who has seen both parents get paid vacations for several months at a time), one retired and one a couple of years away.
