"While GM often blames "legacy costs" such as retiree health care and pensions for its troubles, its Jobs Bank SHOWS THAT THE COMPANY HAS INFLICTED SOME WOUNDS ON ITSELF. Documents show that GM itself helped originate the Jobs Bank idea in 1984 and agreed to expand it in 1990, seeing it as a stopgap until times got better and workers could go back to the factories. The idea was to help train or find jobs for senior UAW employees who would "otherwise be permanently laid off" because of better technology or higher productivity. Ford later matched the plan for its UAW employees."
(emphasis mine)
I couldn't have linked to a better article to help make my point -- the management is so incompetent that they would rather have senior employees sitting idle than simply giving them retirement or severance packages. That kind of goofy, short-sighted thinking wasn't imposed upon GM management by the UAW.
