If, like me, you thought the only people still being paid for doing nothing were academics and government workers, and that industry, especially in the US, had been pared to the bone....

FLINT, Mich. -- All day, Judy Rowe sits in a room at a large, old Delphi Corp. auto parts plant here, reading, sewing or staring into space.

For this she earns $31.80 an hour.

There are 70 people in this room, all employed by Michigan-based Delphi and protected by the United Auto Workers union. They clock in at 6 a.m. and clock out at 2:30 p.m.

But there is nothing for them to do.

"I think I'm slipping into a depression," said Rowe, who has been languishing for six years in this strange and very unique form of unionized employment limbo known as the jobs bank.

If there was work to do, they would be on the manufacturing lines. But there isn't. And they can't be laid off because their union contracts include this unique provision.

The jobs bank is a bullpen of sorts for surplus workers. It was designed two decades ago as a temporary haven that has become a permanent and expensive catch basin for declining auto industry companies.

There are 4,000 workers in the jobs bank at Delphi, which has filed for bankruptcy, and an additional 6,300 in the jobs banks at struggling Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Corp. There are 2,500 more at Chrysler.

At the Delphi East plant in Flint, they get their full salaries for sitting in a large room. They get a lunch break. At other jobs banks, employees are allowed to do community service.

This system has never been seriously challenged, despite the extraordinary cost of carrying idle workforces that earn not just their pay but accrue benefits, vacation time and seniority credits

Rest of this is here:

www.chicagotribune.com/business/chi-0602120482feb1...y

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I'm thinking about buy a new car, only "thinking" because i've not seen anything makes me want to buy it.

So I need backroomer recommendations for a

Small car(Fiesta sized) with :
Good leg room
Pedals correctly spaced
Clutch rest (or at least room for your foot)
Quiet

Not bothered about performance, but good MPG would be a plus.

Does such a car exist ? Read more

... none of this WRC nonsense:

need4speedx.free.fr/presentation.php

French website.

The flying Quattro on the large video download from the Audi page has to be seen to be believed.

For younger viewers, Group B cars were too fast too race so FIA banned them :-( Read more

Could someone please, please explain what HJ means by 'going completely Puerto Banus' - has he been taking lessons from Carcoat Damphands ?


Go on, get out of the car...
www.mikes-walks.co.uk Read more

I need to take my car this week to Mazda (the car's still under warranty) as it misfires at times, but as it's an intermittent fault they might not detect anything. I was told yesterday by a friend of mine that I might have to PAY if they can't find any fault, I was astounded. Is this true ?

Also, any idea as to what it could be ? (HT leads ? spark-plugs ? the car's just under 3 yrs old and has only covered 25,000 miles) Read more