No health care concessions for Chrysler group, UAW

Autonews ^ | 9/7/06 | Mikey_1962

[Mikey_1962]

DETROIT -- The UAW won't agree to concessions on health care costs with the Chrysler group as it did with General Motors and Ford Motor Co. this year, UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said today.

Gettelfinger said the union's financial advisers had looked at the Chrysler group's financial situation, and he didn't see a way the UAW would go forward with concessions on health care.

Gettelfinger said there was "no mechanism for an agreement."

Chrysler's financial situation is different from that of GM and Ford, Gettelfinger said.

Under programs previously approved at Ford and GM, active UAW workers forgo some future pay increases and face higher co-payments for prescription drugs. UAW retirees with pension incomes of more than $8,000 a year will start paying monthly premiums, deductibles and co-payments for health care.

There won't be a union vote on the issue, Gettelfinger said today in a press conference after a speech here to the Detroit Economic Club.

Gettelfinger said the union is still discussing health care costs with the Chrysler group.

[Mikey_1962]

Going down???

[2banana]

Hello more factories in the south, Mexico and China...

[GungaLaGunga]

Morons. Knuckle-dragging, mouth-breathing morons.

[GungaLaGunga]

Morons. Knuckle-dragging, mouth-breathing morons.

[sgtbono2002]

What he is really saying is that Unions are breaking Ford and GM but so far Chrysler is doing fine and he wont be happy till they are bankrupt too.

[tx_eggman]

Gettelfinger said the union's financial advisers had looked at the Chrysler group's financial situation, and he didn't see a way the UAW would go forward with concessions on health care ... there's still more blood to be sucked out before the corpse goes cold.

[bill1952]

Well, Chrysler isn't an American company any more so they may believe that the owners are more used to European style union demands. - They may be right.

[Spktyr]

Yeah, but Daimler has ways of sticking it to the Euro unions, too, and they've been at it longer than the UAW has.

[Aggie Mama]

Is there any group of employees anywhere that doesn't pay a portion of their health insurance costs? Maybe the military? I know teachers pay premiums. I just find it hard to fathom that they don't pay any costs related to their heath care!

[vrwc1]

Let me get this straight...

The UAW normally targets one automaker and wrangles concessions out of it, then expects the other manufacturers to make the same concessions.

Now, when one manufacturer expects to get the same concessions from the union as has been granted to the other manufacturers, the union says 'no way'?