UAW grants concessions, exec warns of depression

[katty]

more: http://apnews.myway.com/article/20081204/D94RI75G0.html

UAW grants concessions, exec warns of depression

Dec 3, 7:21 PM (ET)

By TOM KRISHER and KIMBERLY S. JOHNSON


DETROIT (AP) - Worried about their jobs and warned that the cost of failure could be a depression, hundreds of leaders of the United Auto Workers voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to make concessions to the struggling Detroit Three, including all but ending a much-derided program that let laid-off workers collect up to 95 percent of their salaries.

"Everybody has to give a little bit," said Rich Bennett, an official for Local 122 in Twinsburg, Ohio, representing Chrysler workers. "We've made concessions. We really feel we're doing our part."

Union leaders also agreed to let the cash-starved automakers delay billions of dollars in payments to a union-administered trust set to take over health care for blue-collar retirees starting in 2010.

In addition, they decided to let the Detroit leadership begin renegotiating elements of landmark contracts signed with the automakers last year, a move that could lead to wage concessions.


(AP) Amy Vollmar, 43, from Bowling Green, Ohio, a worker for Chrysler for the past 24 years, listens...
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The vote came on the eve of congressional hearings on as much as $34 billion in loans that General Motors and Chrysler say are critical to their survival. Ford has said it may be able to hang on through 2009 without additional credit.

[sam sarrha]

1. did they tie CEO's pay to it...!!!!!

[madmom]

2. balls in ceo's court