New Info from Honda

I found this online. Scott had a B-I-G meeting today before his shift was to begin. I suppose this is the answer and they waited until the 6:00 news to share it with the rest of us.

Honda Offers Buyouts, Slashes Salaries
By Denise YostManaging Editor, nbc4i.comPublished: March 31, 2009

MARYSVILLE, Ohio—Honda is slashing salaries for top executives, offering buyouts and imposing non-production days at its plants across North America in a new round of production cuts.

The company says plants in Marysville, East Liberty and elsewhere will begin the production shutdowns in May.

According to Ron Lietzke, with Honda in Marysville, the company has made great efforts to reduce cost, but they still have excess inventory and the need remains to lower production even more.From May through July 2009, there will be 13 additional non-production days that will reduce North American Honda production by 62,000 units. That’s 18,000 from Marysville and 10,000 from the East Liberty plant. In May, Honda will not be producing vehicles on any Friday. They also will not produce cars on Monday May 18.

In June, there will be no production on July 5 and 19. In July, there will be no production on July 6 through 10.

The company also has a traditional shut-down week June 29 to July 3 for holiday, which adds a second week of non-production. In the past, employees have been able to use vacation, no pay, or other duties on non-production days. For some of those days, there is no option to come in and complete other duties. Employees will be required to use vacation for some of those days, but officials said the bottom line is that everyone shares the burden. Honda is trying to reduce impact on employees by spacing out the days. There will be a maximum of two non-work days a month through July. Overall compensation will be reduced for all North American employees. However hourly and most other associates’ pay will remain unchanged. Non-hourly associates will have a reduction in pay. Bonuses will be greatly reduced or in some cases eliminated for North American associates. As has been offered previously in the company, retirement and separation opportunities will be provided on a voluntary basis only.