The United Auto Workers union is objecting to proposals from General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC to modify a retiree health-care fund required as part of a plan by the automakers can keep $17.4 billion in U.S. aid, Bloomberg reported.
"The GM and Chrysler proposals on the (Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Association) contradict the explicit terms of the Treasury loan agreements, and would severely hurt retirees," UAW legislative affairs director Alan Reuther said in an e-mail tonight. "These proposals are a non-starter as far as the UAW is concerned."
The terms of the Dec. 19 loan agreements from the U.S. Treasury require GM and Chrysler to convince the UAW to accept half of scheduled payments into a union-run retiree health-care fund next year in equity instead of cash. In GM's case, that requires the union to sign off on a cash contribution of $10.2 billion instead of $20.4 billion, GM said Jan. 15.
"We are committed to meeting the terms of the bridge loan and submitting a restructuring plan on Feb. 17," GM spokesman Tony Sapienza said, without commenting on specific bargaining proposals. "We will continue to engage our union partners in discussion around labor issues that will be a part of that plan."
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