Finally Putting My College Degree to Use

I may not ever use it for employment purposes but my B.S. in Sociology still comes in handy as I try to figure people out as an unpaid hobby. The current group of people I am intrigued by are retirees of the auto industry. Let me state for the record that I've never been in a union and I question the need for them nowadays. Now that I have made that disclaimer, back to the story.

This very recent interest came about when my cousin's ex-girlfriend, who took an early retirement buyout from Ford a few years ago, had a Facebook status lamenting the new UAW-Ford contract that eliminates the Christmas bonus for retirees and trying to "rally the troups" to get other retirees to e-mail their displeasure to the UAW president. A few of her fellow retirees left comments supporting her status and one said how they were "swindled" into taking the buyout, etc. After reading this and having a momentary "WTF?!?" moment, I too left a comment saying "You're retired. What do you need a Christmas bonus for?". It's not like they are no longer offering you health benefits. IT'S A CHRISTMAS BONUS! An innocent enough question, I thought. It captured my non-union confusion without being argumentative (although Big A said it was rather passive-aggressive but really, I am just curious as to why these people think they way they do). The answers that came back were:

1. We earned it.
2. They promised it.
3. Alan Mulally gets a $19 million bonus (I should do a blog entry about what I thought of Herman Cain's comment last weekend about people choosing to be rich or not).

Someone addressed me directly in the comments and said that they earned that Christmas bonus. If they worked most of this year, I could see that. If they retired 5 years ago, you're going to have to make better justifications for me to understand why you need that 2011 Christmas bonus for being retired. When I retire, I'm not going to get any more bonuses. Heck, I don't even get a Christmas bonus now, just a Christmas luncheon. In my response directly back to this person, I told her that I've never been in a union and to enlighten me as to why the retirees should get a Christmas bonus. Obviously I understand why a current employee would but someone retired?!? I wonder if she will ever respond.

I'm not aware of the intricacies of the UAW-Ford talks or what had happened in the past that made these people choose the buyout but I've been wanting to point out to them just that - they chose it. If they didn't, I'm not sure what the alternative would have been. Maybe laid off. Maybe a decrease in their wages but either way, it was their choice.

Then I got to thinking in more general terms...how could any business afford to support their retirees in the same way that they support their current employees such as the Christmas bonus. It's impossible. Also, what perks do the the current employees get for being a current employee if the retirees get the very same thing while being able to sleep in and ride motorcycles to Florida and back whenever they want?

Maybe in the end I will never understand this mindset but until then, I'm going to keep trying until I get un-Facebook friended, dang it!