Posted on 11/13/2008 7:25:40 AM PST by Monsieur Poirot
In his 34 years working for General Motors, one of Jerry Mellon's toughest assignments came this January.
He spent a week in the "rubber room."
The room is a windowless old storage shed in Flint, Mich. It is filled with long tables, Mr. Mellon says, and has space for about 400 employees. They must arrive at 6 a.m. each day and stay until 2:30 p.m., with 45 minutes off for lunch. A supervisor roams the aisles, signing people out when they want to use the bathroom.
Their job: to do nothing.
This is the Jobs Bank, a two-decade-old program in which nearly 15,000 auto workers continue to get paid after their companies stop needing them. To earn wages and benefits that often top $100,000 a year, the workers must perform some company-approved activity. Many volunteer or go back to school. The rest clock time in the rubber room or something like it.
It is called the rubber room, Mr. Mellon says, because "a few days in there makes you go crazy."
The Jobs Bank at GM and other U.S. auto companies including Ford Motor is likely to cost around $1.4 billion to $2 billion this year. The programs, which are up for renewal next year when union contracts expire, have become a symbol of why Detroit struggles even as Japanese auto makers with big U.S. operations prosper.
I’ve heard of union workers getting “laid off” for weeks at a time, at 95% pay!
Is there a Wifi connection for my iPod Touch? Can I bring some books and magazines?
I heard they even watch TV and play video games too. This has to be stopped. I can hear it now, “what did you do at work today, Dad?” “Well, I became Bowling Champ on the Wii we have at work.” B-P
Actually, this has been out for a long time. Jim Quinn (of the Quinn & Rose show) has been talking about it for several years now.
True and outrageous.
Labor unions are barnacles on the ship of commerce.
The cost of the program was 1.4 - 2 BILLION DOLLARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! in 2006. I fantasize on a daily basis of what this country could be w/out liberalism, unions, welfare spending, etc. Oh the riches I would have.
Only a Union and sick management could come up with this.
NO BAILOUT!!!
I’m not going to pay for this crap.
Why have I never heard of this? I hope this goes mainstream. As union-dominated industry goes further down the tubes, stories like this will get more attention.
There was an article posted on FR about this topic a couple of years ago. Nothing these people do surprises me anymore.
They should at least give them all pacifiers like maggie simpsons.
That’s nuts! They should at least provide them cots to lie down on.
The unions were aided in taking over the auto companies so now they same thuggery which is at the heart of the unions has destroyed the U.S. auto industry. Union members are too stupid to realize how their mobster ledership have destroyed the golden goose so the members will be herded into marching for more rights, more ‘benefits’, more demands to be met ... the extortion continues because unions are criminal enterprises. Small wonder they’re so closely aligned with the other massive criminal enterprise, the Democrat Party.
Why bother?
How demeaning to the human spirit. The auto industry is bankrupt on many levels.
Just watch as we the taxpayers will pay for this crap with yet-another-bailout. If they give you the option to go back to school and be paid that kind of money, why not do it? At least you can learn something and improve your marketability for the future. These bums have no self-motivation, and we’re going to be paying for it.
and a hot tub.
I heard that teh big 3 lose $1000 on each car they sell because of legacy costs. Let them go bankrupt and reorganize!
Just Damn!!!! But then they probably accomplish a whole lot more than those federal people rounding up illegals.
Why bother?
To become ACLU lawyers.
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