Auto Workers Paid Not to Work

More interesting news about your precious General Motors, which you said was
in excellent health:

Jobs bank programs -- 12,000 paid not to work
Big 3 and suppliers pay billions to keep downsized UAW members on payroll in
decades-long deal.

By Bryce G. Hoffman / The Detroit News
Morris Richardson II / The Detroit News

WAYNE -- Ken Pool is making good money. On weekdays, he shows up at 7 a.m.
at Ford Motor Co.'s Michigan Truck Plant in Wayne, signs in, and then starts
working -- on a crossword puzzle. Pool hates the monotony, but the pay is
good: more than $31 an hour, plus benefits.

"We just go in and play crossword puzzles, watch videos that someone brings
in or read the newspaper," he says. "Otherwise, I've just sat."

Pool is one of more than 12,000 American autoworkers who, instead of
installing windshields or bending sheet metal, spend their days counting the
hours in a jobs bank set up by Detroit automakers and Delphi Corp. as part
of an extraordinary job security agreement with the United Auto Workers
union.

Rest of the story:
[url]http://www.detnews.com/2005/autosinsider/0510/17/A01-351179.htm[/url]