Word: uaw
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...list of new cuts included the elimination of the dividend on common stock, all executive bonuses and, with the apparent approval of the United Auto Workers (UAW) union, health-care coverage for salaried retirees over the age of 65. In addition, GM plans to launch a new wave of buyouts among its 32,000 salaried employees while freezing their salaries for the remainder of 2008 and 2009. The benefit cuts and early retirements are expected to reduce GM's salary costs by 20%, saving the company $1.5 billion by the end of 2009, GM executives said...
Analysts were mostly positive. David Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research, said critics have underestimated GM's resilience. "They have a lot of resources, and if they need to, they can always go back to the UAW for help," Cole said. Rod Lache, an analyst for Deutsche Bank, agreed, saying, "It looks like [GM's] cost structure is pretty competitive." But, he said, "where they're at a disadvantage versus other mass-market automakers is in pricing." Buyers won't pay as much for a GM vehicle as they will for a Toyota or Honda. GM stock dipped...
...table. Savvy, funny, easygoing and biting toward adversaries, Douglas Fraser, president of the United Auto Workers from 1977 to 1983, took on issues ranging from rising health costs to encroaching competition from Japanese carmakers and managed to win the respect of workers and Big Three executives alike. The UAW's deep concessions during the economically challenging years of his tenure angered many. But the Scottish-born labor leader, who got his start as a local leader in the '40s, won more than he lost, including landmark comprehensive health care and uncapped cost-of-living allowances. In 1979 his impassioned lobbying...
...next task is for the UAW leadership to overcome skepticism about the VEBA among its rank and file, both active and retired. Union skeptics have been waging an underground campaign against the VEBA on the Internet for the past several weeks and it is having an impact. "I think it's a conflict of interest for the union to represent us and take care of our health care," said Tom Avery, a UAW retiree from Pontiac, Michigan who was helping out on the union's picket lines...
...UAW president Ron Gettelfinger said he was confident the VEBA trust will have sufficient resources to pay for the health care of present and future retirees for the next 80 years. "I think our retirees will be exceptionally pleased with this contract," he told reporters during an early morning press conference convened to announce the end to the union's first nationwide walkout against GM since 1970. "We feel very good about this agreement," he said. Other unions, including the Teamsters and building trades unions, have helped administer union members' health care benefits for decades...