Bankrupt US Auto Parts Giant Seeks 216 Million For Executive Bonuses

Having slashed wages and benefits and eliminated the vast majority of its former workforce, Delphi is seeking to secure a funding deal with private investors that will allow it to emerge from bankruptcy. As part of a plan recently presented to the bankruptcy court, Delphi wants to reward the very corporate officials responsible for this disaster. According to a report in the November 7 edition of the Detroit News, the plan includes $78 million in one-time bonuses; $11.5 million in one-time supplemental grants paid in stock; $46 million in a short-term cash incentive bonus and $80 million in a long-term cash incentive program. Under terms of the plan, top executives could receive cash bonuses of $7.5 million per year. They could also get up to 1 million shares of stock and 500,000 shares of restricted stock next year. Another round of stock awards could take place in 18 months. The total value of the stock could be more than $250 million. On top of all this, outgoing executive chairman Robert Miller, who received a $3 million signing bonus when he took over the post in 2005, will get a “discretionary performance payment” after Delphi emerges from bankruptcy. The amount of this payout, which is in addition to the announced $216 million, has not been revealed but will undoubtedly be at least in the seven figures. Before coming to Delphi, Miller made tens of millions as a “turnaround expert” in the steel and airlines industries, where he followed the same slash and burn model of cutting jobs, wages and pensions, while handing of vast sums to corporate executives and wealthy shareholders. Upon taking over Delphi, he infamously announced that globalization and the availability of cheap labor around the world spelled an end to the days of relatively high pay, steady employment and lifetime retiree and health benefits for US auto workers. The company’s bankruptcy was not simply the product of bad management, although there was much of that. Instead, Delphi and its former parent company GM used the bankruptcy filing and the court-sanctioned concessions to spearhead an assault on jobs, wages and benefits, not only of Delphi workers, but workers at Detroit’s Big Three automakers—GM, Ford and Chrysler. http://www.wsws.org/articles/2007/nov2007/delp-n13.shtml

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