A The Motley Fool article points out American Axle & Manufacturing's (NYSE: AXL) hypocrisy in pushing huge pay cuts on workers while giving management huge bonuses, not to mention these bonuses may have been partially bankrolled by General Motors (NYSE: GM):
American Axle & Manufacturing ended a strike by persuading workers to accept a contract that includes significant pay cuts. A month later, management announced its decision to give bonuses to executives, including a multimillion-dollar award for the CEO.
The parts supplier whose strike caused its largest customer, General Motors, to idle around 30 plants because of parts shortages, filed a notice with the SEC on Friday that it had granted lavish bonuses to its top executives, including $8.5 million for CEO Richard Dauch.
In contrast, the contract the workers got stuck with includes cuts that slashed most of their wages from $28 an hour to somewhere between $14.35 to $18.50. One of the primary reasons the deal got done was because GM kicked in $18 million on top of the $200 million it was contributing for buyouts and such.