UAW seeking record $10,000 signing bonuses for each member
There was a time when union contract negotiations centered around increased hourly wages and top benefits. Bloomberg reports that the United Auto Workers may be willing to forgo raises in favor of lump-sum payments tied to hitting profitability and productivity targets.

To help sell such a deal to the UAW rank and file, Bloomberg reports that the union could seek signing bonuses of $8,000 to $10,000 per member. On the high end, that's over three times the $3,000 Ford, General Motors and Chrysler union employees received in 2007 when they ratified their current contracts.

Signing bonuses of $10,000 per union worker would cost GM $470 million, Ford $410 million and Chrysler $250 million. Bloomberg reports that, on the automakers side of the negotiating table, "there may be resistance to such a large payout." A UAW spokesperson went on the record to say that talk of the union asking for the larger signing bonuses is "inaccurate and it creates false expectations."

The current UAW contract with the Detroit automakers expires September 14.

...at Ford, President and Chief Executive Officer Alan Mulally, took a pay cut in dealing with his company’s financial short comings, but he still earned a base salary of over $1 million last year for his services. For 2009, Mulally’s net compensation was estimated to be nearly $18 million including $1.4 million in salary, $10.9 million in stock awards and $5 million in stock options. While Ford does have a bonus structure in place for executives, Mulally did not receive a bonus in 2009.

In addition, Mulally was allotted use of two vehicles and Ford provided him with housing. Ford allows their top executives use of the company jet for both personal and private matters as a matter of security. All together, Ford estimated these benefits were worth $491,869 in 2009.

Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe is struggling to keep his money-losing organization afloat as more and more people are ditching mail in favor of the Internet, causing the lucrative first-class mail flow to plummet.

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Donahoe and his predecessor, John Potter, have warned for years of the problems and stressed that the post office will be unable to make a mandated $5.5 billion payment due Sept. 30 to a fund for future medical benefits for retirees.

A 90-day delay on the payment has been suggested, but postal officials and others in the industry say a long-term solution is needed.

Donahoe has one. It includes laying off staff beyond the 110,000 cut in the past four years, closing as many as 3,700 offices, eliminating Saturday delivery and switching from the federal retirement plan to one of its own.

Cliff Guffey, president of the American Postal Workers Union, called the proposal “outrageous, illegal and despicable.”

A contract signed in March protects many workers from layoffs. Guffey said the attempt to change that now “is in utter disregard for the legal requirement to bargain with the APWU in good faith.” Other unions, including the National Association of Letter Carriers, are negotiating their contracts with the post office.

• Unionized firms have profits that are 10% to 20% less than non-unionized firms
• Capital investment of an average unionized firm is 6% lower than that of a comparable nonunion firm
• The average unionized firm made 15% lower annual expenditure on Research & Development
• In studying 510 manufacturing firms, median growth of non-unionized firms was 27%, while the growth rate of unionized firms was zero.

President Obama visited Holland Michigan on Thursday to participate in the groundbreaking ceremony of the new LG Chem battery plant. This plant was funded in part by a DOE stimulus grant of $151 million with a matching $151 million provided by LG Chem. Once fully operational in 2012, the plant will be capable of producing enough cells for 200,000 hybrids and electric cars, and will specifically be making the cells both for the Chevrolet Volt and the upcoming Ford Focus Electric, expected to go on sale in 2011.

“This is about more than just building a new factory,” said Obama. “It’s about building a better future for this city, for this state, and for this country.”

The Obama administration has pledged a goal of putting 1 million electric cars on US roads by 2015. So far the Recovery Act has contributed $2.5 billion towards United States electric car battery and component plants, 26 of which are already in some stage of construction. Nine of these are battery plants, including ones from A123 Systems and Johnson Controls. These facilities can collectively expect to produce 500,000 electric cars annually, and are expected to help transform Michigan into the electric car battery capital of the country.

The 650,000 square foot LG Chem plant is expected to produce 300 jobs.

The United Auto Workers union won $5,000 signing bonuses and the possibility of sweeter profit-sharing checks as part of a new four-year contract with General Motors Co., two people briefed on the talks said Saturday.

Most city workers spend decades in public service to build up modest pensions. But for former labor leader Dennis Gannon, the keys to securing a public pension were one day on the city payroll and some help from the Daley administration.

And his city pension is more than modest. It's the highest of any retired union leader: $158,000. That's roughly five times greater than what the typical retired city worker receives.

In fact, his pension is so high that it exceeds federal limits and required the city pension fund to file special paperwork with the Internal Revenue Service to give it to him.