UAW Agrees To Allow Big Three Automakers To Delay Contributions to VEBA, Make Other Concessions
United Auto Workers on Wednesday after a meeting with union representatives from the Big Three automakers agreed to allow the companies to delay contributions to a fund that will provide health benefits to union retirees and make other concessions to help the companies obtain $34 billion in financial assistance from the federal government, the Kansas City Star reports (Heaster, Kansas City Star, 12/3). Under contracts negotiated last year, the automakers agreed to contribute about $56.5 billion to the voluntary employees' beneficiary association, which UAW will manage. The VEBA, which will take effect in 2010 and remain operational for 80 years, will reduce retiree health benefit liabilities for the automakers by about $100 billion.General Motors and Chrysler both proposed to delay their scheduled contributions to the VEBA as part of requests for financial assistance that they presented to Congress on Tuesday (Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, 12/3). GM has agreed to contribute $7 billion to the VEBA in early 2010 (Silke Carty, USA Today, 12/4).
UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said that the union would consider additional changes to contracts with the automakers, such as reductions in health or other benefits. Such changes would require approval from UAW members, he said (Vlasic/Bunkley, New York Times, 12/3).
CEOs from GM, Chrysler and Ford plan to appear before House and Senate committees on Thursday and Friday to discuss their requests for financial assistance (AP/Winston-Salem Journal, 12/4). Jim Manley, a spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), said that Reid "remains committed to figuring out a way to help the auto companies avoid bankruptcy and prevent millions of Americans from losing their jobs." However, he added that "without the support of Senate Republicans and President Bush," legislation to help the automakers will not pass (Schatz, CQ Today, 12/3). White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said, "Let us have a chance to look" at the requests from the automakers, and "let's see what support it can get on Capitol Hill" (Sanchez, CongressDaily, 12/3).
Opinion Piece
"The real solution to the high health care costs that burden American employers -- not just automakers -- is establishing a universal, national health care system," Gettelfinger writes in a Boston Globe opinion piece. "Thankfully, we finally have a Congress and a President-elect who are committed to real health care reform," adding, "In our negotiations with the domestic automakers in 2007, however, our members realized that we could not wait for the government to act," according to Gettelfinger.
UAW "took action ourselves, by establishing" a VEBA, "which will assume responsibility for retiree health care, removing this cost from the company's books once and for all," Gettelfinger writes. He adds, "Like many American families, we've sacrificed wage increases to pay for our health care" (Gettelfinger, Boston Globe, 12/4).
Broadcast Coverage
- CBS' "Early Show" on Wednesday reported on the concessions made by UAW. The segment includes comments from Gettelfinger (Roberts, "Early Show," CBS, 12/3).
- CNN's "The Situation Room" on Wednesday reported on the concessions made by UAW. The segment includes comments from Gettelfinger and a UAW local representative (Baldwin, "The Situation Room," CNN, 12/3). A transcript is available online.
- NBC's "Nightly News" on Wednesday reported on the concessions made by UAW (Cohn, "Nightly News," NBC, 12/3).
- NPR's "All Things Considered" on Wednesday reported on the concessions made by UAW. The segment includes comments from Gettelfinger (Dwyer, "All Things Considered," NPR, 12/3).
