AFSCME 3357-HOF'S BLOG

Chrysler & Ford to Expand Employee Discounts to Friends of Employees

The Detroit News reports that both Chrysler and Ford have announced plans to allow employees to allow a limited number of friends to purchase vehicles at employee prices. As you know fellow 3357ers, this was the discount that we received at the latest contract, and now everybody else (almost) is in line for the same thing. Oh, well.

It's not clear from the story whether either automaker's policy is a national or regional plan. The Ford plan allows employees to purchase at Dealer invoice price. The Chrysler plan allows for employee purchases at 4-5% below dealer cost.

The real losers in this appear to be the salespeople at the dealers. Except in dealers that do a large volume of employee business, the rank and file salespeople either make no commission or a very limited amount on the employee sales. The employee sales are routed either to a person dedicated to employee sales or through the "fleet" department. By the way, internet sales are similar, they either go through an internet manager or through the fleet manager.

For the salespeople, the rise in nontraditional sales at car dealerships has made an already difficult job even more difficult. It's just another example of how the world is changing. None of us have the right to have the same job that our mother or father had.





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