General Motors is playing Scrooge in a big way this holiday season, at least in the eyes of their 25,000 GM/Delphi IUE-CWA retirees, by refusing to provide their "Christmas Bonus." The bonus actually is a lump sum payment provided in December and is used by many IUE-CWA retirees to buy Christmas and holiday gifts for their families.

IUE-CWA has been negotiating with GM since early October for a new contract covering 2,500 workers at the Moraine, Ohio, SUV assembly plant. GM has told IUE-CWA that it will not pay the lump sum payment to retirees until an agreement has been reached.

President Jim Clark of IUE-CWA said GM's decision was shameful, especially coming in the weeks just before Christmas. "I am very disappointed in GM's decision to withhold the Christmas lump sum payment to thousands of retirees. These retired workers, who live on a fixed income, count every dollar, especially in today's economy with gasoline, oil and food prices skyrocketing. To deprive them of the ability to purchase Christmas and holiday gifts for their families is unconscionable and GM must answer for this shameful act."

"Unfortunately, our retirees won't be receiving their regular bonus in time for Christmas this year and we want to be very clear: The union negotiators are not the Grinch Who Stole Christmas," he added.

The Moraine workers currently produce the Chevrolet Trailblazer, Trailblazer SS, Saab 9-7 X, GMC Envoy, Envoy Denali and Isuzu Ascender.

As a result of the competitive improvements negotiated by IUE-CWA Local 798 in 2006, GM provided IUE-CWA with a letter of intent to allocate future product to the Moraine Assembly Plant. As of today, no product has been identified by General Motors. Despite the commitment made by GM in 2006, the company's refusal to so far indicate a new product for the production plant has resulted in speculation that GM is looking to close the plant. This is a major hurdle in current negotiations and must be addressed by GM, IUE-CWA said.

Source: IUE-CWA