UAW okays suspension of jobs bank

United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger announced the union will agree to suspend the Jobs Bank program and will allow Chrysler, Ford and General Motors to delay their payments to the Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Association (VEBA) that is due to assumer responsibility for retiree health care in 2010. The announcement came following an emergency meeting between Gettelfinger and the presidents and chairmen from the locals representing the Detroit automakers.

Both actions were taken to help the Detroit automakers through their cash crisis.

Commenting on the meetings, Jeff Everett, president of UAW Local 1166 at Chrysler’s Kokomo, Indiana, said, “Times are tough, and we are going to do what we have to do.”

Under the so-called jobs bank programs which actually have different names at each car company, laid-off factory workers can receive as much as 95 percent of their regular pay by remaining available for other jobs and community service programs. Originally adopted in the 1980s to help workers through short-term layoffs for model changeovers and production changes, the programs have come under fire as being unaffordable luxuries in the modern business environment.