G.M. Board Wants Cut in Benefits - NY Times - June 15

[Coastie for Truth]

G.M. Board Wants Cut in Benefits
By DANNY HAKIM

DETROIT, June 14 - The board of General Motors has given the United Automobile Workers union until the end of the month to agree to cuts in its members' health care benefits, union officials said Tuesday.

Many local union leaders have said they were willing to make concessions, but not to the extent that G.M. was seeking. If the union and the company cannot agree by the end of the month, G.M. is threatening to make the cuts on its own. Such a step could lead to a breakdown in G.M.'s relations with the union and possible strikes.

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The move appears to be a more assertive step by a board that has been invisible during G.M.'s financial crisis of the last three months, while Rick Wagoner, the board's chairman and G.M.'s chief executive, has been revising his strategy.

The directive appears to have come out a board meeting last Tuesday that followed a contentious annual meeting where shareholders questioned Mr. Wagoner's game plan and the qualifications of G.M.'s board.

GM CEO Rick Wagoner is quoted as saying:

"Our strongly preferred approach is to do this in cooperation with the U.A.W., but either way, it's crystal clear that we need to achieve a significant reduction in our health care cost disadvantage and to do so promptly. We're committed to do that."

To put this in context -- G.M. spends nearly $6 billion a year on health care, and Wall Street analysts (a bunch of MBA's who have never made or sold a product) see cutting back on benefits as an important step in restoring the company to financial health. GM's various health plans cover 1.1 million Americans, (including workers, retirees and family members). GM is the nation's largest private provider of medical benefits.

Note also that GM's hourly workers and retirees pay modest co-payments for prescription drugs, but they do not pay monthly premiums or deductibles. By way of comparison, salaried employees pay both monthly premiums and deductibles. G.M. has said it would like hourly workers to have the "same benefits as managers" (GMese talk for wanting hourly employees to pay premiums and deductibles).

GM's job loss - while to some extent to Mexico and to Europe and Asia, has mainly been to Ontario's "Auto Belt" along "401." And they have "single payer" health care in Ontario - founded out of taxes.

Maybe it's time to face this isue!

[Wright Patman]

1. Eventually when no one

has health insurance and Medicare is eliminated, the doctors will realize they shouldn't have robotically voted Republican all those years.

[WePurrsevere]

2. Let the BOD cut their own

benefits and salary's first. Only then should the union even consider doing the same.

My husband and I feel that GM's in trouble mostly because they are simply not competitive enough for today's marketplace and there is not the same buyers loyalty that they could have banked on years ago. It seems like there's an ego thing there that seems to believe that they're so good they don't need to keep costs of the cars and emmisions down; we don't need cars that get decent gas milage and we don't need to offer a good warrenty.

[kodi]

3. put these MBAs on the assembly line for year then discuss health care

i am so fucking pissed off at these college educated MBA bastards who never did an honest day's worth of hard physical labor telling factory workers that their health benefits will be cut.

couple such health benefit cuts with the recent proposals to extend retirement age to 69 and we are moved back 100 years in the labor struggle.

and you know what? the democratic party fat cats, whose well heeled college educated "leaders" do not give a shit. they have more in common with the republican party leaders than the average working man and woman.

the democratic party is run by a bunch of fucking millionaire who never did an honest days work in their lives.

go right ahead, call howard dean, ted kennedy, or john kerry and ask them for some financial help with your medical bills or your kids education, and see how far you get.

these people DO NOT give a shit about you and me. they use their positions in the democratic party hierarchy for personal gain and the sooner the average working man and woman realize it the better off we will be. neither major political party gives a shit about the working people in this country. all we get is lip service and crumbs from the banquet table of the rich.