GM, Union Tangle Over Health Care, Labor Costs

Strike highlights rift; negotiations resume
By Nick McMaster,  Newser Staff
Posted Sep 24, 2007 3:27 PM CDT
GM, Union Tangle Over Health Care, Labor Costs
General Motors employees hold their strike signs as they picket by one of the entrances to the assembly plant in Arlington, Texas, Monday, Sept. 24, 2007. Thousands of United Auto Workers walked off the job at GM plants around the country Monday in the first nationwide strike during auto contract negotiations...   (Associated Press)

At the root of the UAW's strike against GM's US factories is a fundamental conflict between management's need to cut costs and the union's resistance to offering more givebacks, Bloomberg reports. Negotiations resumed this afternoon between GM, which lost $12.4 billion last year, and the UAW, which represents 73,000 employees at the nation's largest automaker.

The 10-day negotiations had reportedly achieved the principle goal of establishment of a retirement fund to be managed by UAW after a one-time pension payout from GM. Despite general agreement on the plan, the talks hit a snag on specific figures for the new fund and other pay and job security-related issues. (More General Motors stories.)

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