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Christmas Party
December 8, 2011
Deerfield Golf and Tennis Club
Newark, Delaware
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Hello Retirees:
What a great party today(12/8/11) at Deerfield. Our annual Christmas
party was once again a fantastic success.
The filet and turkey was extremely well prepared. Now, I am not a big
fan of bread pudding (our dessert today) but it was something I would
definately order again at Deerfield. Everyone had positive comments
about our meal.
The nice thing about our get-together is the opportunity to see familiar
faces from our GM experience. The whole thing is not at all about GM but
about the good times we remember. We had four first time members join
us. They were Chris Riofski, Jeff Watt, Mark Watkins, and John Bugaher.
Santa was very kind to us, I suppose that's because we have been so
good. Sandy Heyse(Smith) won a round of golf for four at Deerfield. Ten
gift cards were awarded. Bob Dolan (Harry's Savoy), Joe Pilli (Harry's
Savoy), Joan Youngblood ( Firebirds), Jeff Watt (Firebirds), Ed Lawrence
(Bertucci's) Bib Troilo (The Cheesecake Factory), Tom Brennan (JB
Dawson), Wes Soliwoda (Regal Theaters), Bill Marsey (Olive Garden),
George Rudloff (Boscovs) were the happy winners. More prizes went to
Tony Alberta(Godiva Chocolates), Rick Anderson (Wine Basket), John
Hufford (Fruit Basket).. Howard Vaneiken, Ed Suetter, Ken Dvorak, John
Bugaher, and Peggy Kane won gifts personally selected by Tom Richardson.
These gifts were all wrapped so I am unaware of their contents. Thank
you to Tom and John Panico for their work in purchasing the gifts. Steve
Quindlen and Jim Kane bought the gift cards. So, as this list indicates,
we were very, very good. Joe Pilli was especially good...not only did he
win a gift card to Harry's Savoy but he also won the $129.00 50/50. Joe
left early so he wasn't there to receive his prizes. Bob Schelich
claimed them for Joe. No doubt Joe should take Bob and his wife to
dinner.
If you were unable attend, we hope to see you next time. Our next
meeting is March 8th. Mark your calendar.
You may also mail in your dues to PO Box 5767 Newark, De 19714. I do not
like to remind you about dues but it is what keeps us going and we want
to keep going.
To you and your families we wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy
New Year.
Stay Well
Jim |
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G.M. Retirees Weigh
Buying Its Stock Again
New York Times - November 15, 2010DETROIT
— John Christie, who worked for 36 years building Chevrolet and Cadillac
cars, once thought owning General Motors stock was a safe bet.
 Mr.
Christie of suburban Detroit now says he cannot afford to make the same
mistake twice.
He is among the thousands of G.M. retirees who are wrestling this week
with one of the toughest, and unexpectedly emotional, questions of their
retirement: after seeing their G.M. stock wiped out in bankruptcy last
year, do they dare put the reorganized company’s stock back in their
nest eggs?
“I’m still on the fence,” said Mr.
Christie, who retired in 2005 as a manufacturing engineer and is
president of the nationwide G.M. Retirees
Association. . |
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Tim Shaffer for The New York Times
Jim Kane, a retiree at the Delaware meeting, praised
G.M.’s pay, but said the way it cut medical plans “didn’t sit well.”
Mr. Christie of suburban Detroit now says he cannot afford to make the
same mistake twice.
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“I did lose money on the old
G.M stock, enough that I may not have to pay
capital gains tax for about 73 years.”
It is a decision being talked about at retiree
clubs, union halls, and G.M. plants and offices across the country as
the nation’s biggest automaker prepares to become a public company
again.
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More than 500,000 retirees and
surviving spouses, as well as about 90,000 active workers in the United States and Canada
and 3,000 dealers, have been given a chance to buy shares in G.M.’s
initial public stock offering.
G.M. has set aside 5 percent of the 365 million shares in the offering,
which is expected as early as Wednesday, for current and former
personnel. An average investor would not be able to buy in at the stock
offering price.
Even if some retirees balk at buying shares, overall demand for the
offering is expected to be strong among big institutional investors in
the United States and overseas. G.M. has been courting sovereign wealth
funds, or state-owned investment funds, from Asia and the Middle East to
invest in the stock, and is negotiating to sell a 1 percent stake in the
company to its Chinese partner, the SAIC Motor Corporation. The Treasury
Department has said it is not opposed to the stock’s being sold
internationally, but it wants it to be sold “with a focus on North
American investors.”
It is hardly an easy call for many retirees who had banked on the
benefits they earned while working at a company once called “Generous
Motors,” only to see their medical plans, life insurance and retirement
contributions slashed in recent years.
Then, when the government forced G.M. into bankruptcy in exchange for
federal aid, many retirees saw the value of their stock basically
evaporate. “I have a lot of friends that were planning to live on G.M.
dividends,” said Neil Millar, who retired in 1998 as a salaried employee
at the company’s assembly plant in Wilmington, Del., which has been
closed. “They’re very disappointed.”
At a meeting of about 500 retired assembly plant workers last month in
Lordstown, Ohio, the crowd was divided and very vocal about it, said
Bill Bowers, head of the retiree group at United Auto Workers Local
1112.
“There were a lot of sour notes in the audience,” Mr. Bowers said. “A
lot of them had put a lot of money into the old stock and ended up with
nothing.”
Those who want to participate in the stock offering had to formally
express interest last month, but will not really have to decide until
G.M. executives conclude their roadshow to institutional investors and
set a final price for the offering. The preliminary range is $26 to $29
a share, but that could change depending on the broader interest in the
stock.
A G.M. spokesman, Peter Ternes, declined to comment on how many retirees
and workers had shown interest, or how many shares each of them could be
eligible to buy. The initial paperwork indicated the minimum investment
would be $1,000.
Many of the retirees interviewed fell into two camps: those who see the
stock as a chance to make up for losses in benefits, and those who want
no part of the stock in a company that failed to deliver on its promises
in the past.
“I can’t thank G.M. enough for the wages they provided me and my
family,” said Jim Kane, a retiree who was a labor relations
representative at the Wilmington plant before retiring in 2005. “But the
way they dumped on us with the health care didn’t sit well with a lot of
people.”
Another Wilmington retiree, Palmie Maccari, said that the company was in
much better shape than before and that he hoped to buy 300 shares. “If
it’s doing well, I’ll keep it,” he said. “If it’s not, I’ll sell it.” |
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It was the retirees association, which acts as
a watchdog on G.M.’s pension investments and benefits policies, that
suggested last summer to the company that it allow retirees and workers
to participate in the stock sale.
 In
a letter to Edward E. Whitacre Jr., then G.M.’s chief executive, Mr.
Christie, the association president, said the gesture could help
“rebuild relationships” with retirees who had lost benefits.
“So many retirees have been hurt by the
bankruptcy,” he said. “This was a chance for G.M. to show they weren’t
totally throwing them under the bus.” |
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Orlin Wagner/Associated Press
In the summer, the retirees’ group urged Edward E.
Whitacre Jr., then G.M.’s chief, to let retirees take part in the stock
sale. |
Mr. Christie has cautioned fellow retirees
to set aside their emotions about G.M. — pro and con — in their
deliberations about investing. “There are some people who say G.M. will
take care of us again,” he said. “Well, those days of G.M. are gone.” |
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Ed Lynch, a financial adviser with the Edward
Jones investment firm in the Detroit area, said his clients were
understandably wary about the stock, particularly if they owned it
before.
“They can’t afford to be wrong twice,” he said. “They’re rooting for
them, but they’re not ready to put their money there just yet.”
Some retirees remain unconvinced that G.M. is a better-run company under
the ownership of the federal government, which has a 61 percent stake.
G.M.’s current chief executive, Daniel F. Akerson, is a former partner
in the Carlyle Group private equity firm who was recruited to the board
by the Treasury. On Jan. 1, Mr. Akerson will take over from Mr. Whitacre
as chairman of the board as well.
“If it was a car guy running the business, I’d feel much better,” said
Steve Quindlen, who retired in 2003 after 41 years at the Wilmington
plant.
G.M.’s most famous car guy in recent years, Robert A. Lutz, is one
retiree who is unabashedly bullish on the stock.
“I’m going to buy every share I can get my hands on,” said Mr. Lutz, who
retired May 1 as G.M.’s vice chairman. “We are making more competitive
products now than we ever did.”
Even though the new G.M. has a better shot at success than the old one,
the retirees know well that its improvements came at a cost.
“I’m planning to buy some stock because the earnings are looking very
good,” said David Daniels of Overland Park, Kan., who retired in 1998
after 39 years with G.M. “But I had to see an awful lot of people get
put out of work to get it to this point.”
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