Does Anyone feel like Bailing

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by classicman

95% pay when laid off or ill,

When that benefit was negotiated, it was set up so a worker laid off would get a supplement to their unemployment check that would add up to 95% of their take home pay, minus $7.50 (lunch money they didn't need when not working), for a defined length of time. There was a separate fund set up at the same time to cover the cost of this benefit and when that fund was depleted that benefit stopped for everyone.

Since most of the autoworkers got laid off every year, at model changeover, it was an attractive plum offered by the companies in lieu of a bigger pay increase. And since it came from a separate fund, it limited the company's liability. When tens of thousands of workers get laid off, that fund won't mean shit.

Unfortunately, the general public just gets the sound-bite that auto workers get 95% of their pay when they're laid off.