DETROIT, June 9 - Two days after the chairman and chief of General Motors, Rick Wagoner, said he was pressing the United Automobile Workers union for substantial cuts in their health care benefits, a top union leader said the union was still prepared to agree to only modest cuts before G.M.'s labor contract expires in 2007. þþThe message came Thursday at a special meeting of local union leaders who represent G.M. workers from across the country. Though the local union representatives had been in Detroit in April for a meeting with G.M. executives and plant supervisors, they were summoned by union leaders last week to return to Detroit for an update on G.M.'s financial difficulties and discussions with the company. þþHanging over the meeting was Mr. Wagoner's announcement on Tuesday at the company's annual shareholders' meeting in Delaware that he planned to cut more than 22 percent of G.M.'s hourly work force in the United States, or 25,000 jobs, by 2008.þþÿI don't think a lot of people were expecting to hear something like that,ÿ said Al Coven, president of a local in Saginaw, Mich.þþAt the meeting on Thursday, Richard Shoemaker, the union's vice president in charge of relations with G.M., told local representatives that the union was willing to make some concessions, but would not reopen its labor contract to make major cuts in health care benefits. þþÿHe said that's what he's told management, that it won't be reopened,ÿ said Linda Blaine-Motter, a representative from a plant in the Detroit suburb of Warren, Mich., as she left the meeting. ÿNot that we won't consider some negotiating.ÿþþThat will probably not be good enough for Mr. Wagoner. In recent weeks, he and union leaders have had ÿintense discussions,ÿ in his words, about reducing G.M.'s nearly $6 billion annual health care bill.þþG.M. is the largest private provider of health care benefits, covering about 1.1 million Americans. Those costs are a reason that G.M. lost $1.1 billion in the first quarter. þþG.M. has said it would like substantial changes soon, including scaling back union health benefits so that workers have plans like their supervisors, who pay deductibles and monthly premiums. þþG.M. has hinted that it will get the concessions with or without the union's acceptance, suggesting increasing tension in what has been a cooperative relationship in recent years. þþUnion leaders have said such broad concessions will not happen, though more modest steps could occur under the current contract. The union recently agreed that Chrysler could impose deductibles, the first to be paid by Big Three workers. The deductibles range from $100 to $1,000 a year for workers or retirees who use preferred provider organizations. þþMr. Coven said he had mixed emotions.þþÿI think everybody wants G.M. to survive,ÿ he said. ÿThey're not at that point where they're not going to survive, but we have some tough issues that we've got to face.ÿ þþHe added: ÿWe can either decide to help them or not to help them. Well, we're not stupid, we're going to help them.ÿþþ
Source: NY Times
