Quote:
Originally Posted by Yoda
First of all, these bonuses were retention bonuses. Many were working for $1. Put yourself in there place. Forget who the company or the amount of money for a moment. You work for a company that is in trouble. You naturally want to find another job. You are a valued employee and your leaving at this time would make it harder to recover but you have to think of your family. The company comes to you and asks, "Please work for 1 more year. We cannot pay you per week but if you stay for the year, we will pay you X." Would you expect to be paid if you agreed to stay and did stay the required time?
I have been in that position. I worked for a company that was acquiring other companies. In my opinion, I was a blue collar worker. I was a software developer, not management, not a wheel. My job was not guaranteed but they offered me a retention contract to get me to stay through the transition period. It was no way near the amount in question but it was in line with my wage. Should I have expected to get paid? To get paid regardless of any other agreements that the company entered it to after? The only way out of the contract would have been bankruptcy.
If AIG went into bankruptcy they may have gotten out of the contract but, they did not.
Do you want your contracts honored or not?
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Our professions are very similar...my understanding of these bonuses were not retention bonuses but the regular bonus and represented a 100% of the 2007 bonus when the company was flying high. Did the UAW have a contract with GM, Ford and Chrysler? Have these companies gone into bankruptcy? Those would be a No. So if the AIG contract had to be honored then the UAW contract would also have to be honored.
As for me I had an agreement we my company if I took a position they wanted me to take, I didn't, then I would get a manager's bonus at the end of the year for the term of my employment. Last year they came to me and said to bad so sad but you have to give that up. This year the big guys got their bonuses and us little guys got nothing. Why because they expect a bad year for 2009 so no raises, the second time in 5 years, even though our raises were tied to the 2008 performance which met the gates. What did the managers get? 100% of their bonuses....
I believe we have finally uncovered the true elitists.... as the saying goes the rich get richer and the poor get poorer....