Day: May 29, 2008

GI Suicides At Record High

This is a result of the Iraq War that few want to talk about in the media.

The number of Army suicides increased again last year, amid the most violent year yet in both the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. An Army official said Thursday that 115 troops committed suicide in 2007, a nearly 13 percent increase over the previous year’s 102.

The 115 confirmed deaths among active duty soldiers and National Guard and Reserve troops that had been activated was a lower number than previously feared. Preliminary figures released in January showed as many as 121 troops might have killed themselves, but a number of the deaths were still being investigated then and have since been attributed to other causes, the officials said.

More U.S. troops also died overall in hostilities in 2007 than in any of the previous years in Iraq and Afghanistan. Overall violence increased in Afghanistan with a Taliban resurgence and overall deaths increased in Iraq, even as violence there declined in the second half of the year.

Increasing the strain on the force last year was the extension of deployments to 15 months from 12 months, a practice ending this year.

The increases in suicides come despite a host of efforts to improve the mental health of a force stressed by the long and repeated tours of duty.

GM And The Workers

More than a quarter of General Motors Corp.’s hourly workers are expected to leave by the summer as a result of a recent buyout and retirement offer, the company announced today amid reports that Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner will announce additional restructuring measures at its annual meeting next week.

GM said 19,000 of its 73,000 hourly workers have signed up for buyouts and retirement offers, GM announced this afternoon. Workers will be expected to leave by July.

While the number leaving is far higher than that of a similar program at Ford Motor Co. earlier this year, it is a bit below the number GM targeted under its special attrition program offers, also called the SAP.

“We had hoped that 20-25,000 would take the SAP at GM – setting up at least 12,000 hires this fall,” said Sean McAlinden, chief economist at the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor. “I think GM assumed this also. So GM is much closer to its target than Ford.”

GM still has the capacity to build 1.7 million of its largest vehicles, from Escalades to Silverados, in North America, McAlinden said. “They probably only need 1 million units at most due to the structural change in the market. … So, we worry. Pontiac East, Flint Truck & Bus, they are all at risk.”

GM already announced this week that it is speeding up the elimination of a shift each at those pickup plants, even though they had been down for weeks because of the UAW’s strike against American Axle & Manufacturing Inc., which supplies those factories. The latest announcements leave them each with just one shift. It is considered inefficient and costly to operate plants with just one shift.

The workers are paying the price for the ratification of the lame contracts that the auto industry gave them.  The Workers need to be more protected and their unions are failing them in the category.