United Auto Workers

The president of the United Automobile Workers union, Ron Gettelfinger, cut right to the chase when he announced last week that autoworkers were prepared to sacrifice job security, funding for retiree healthcare and other contract provisions to help salvage their fast-sinking industry. "Concessions -- I cringe at that word," he said. "But now, why hide it? That's what we did."

The congressional push to help U.S. automakers was generally cast in terms of protecting the reeling national economy from another body blow -- the collapse of one or more of Detroit's Big Three. But in killing the stopgap rescue plan worked out by President Bush and congressional Democrats, conservative Republicans -- many from right-to-work states across the South -- struck at an old enemy: organized labor.

Chrysler Group and the United Auto Workers union said Wednesday that they had reached agreement on a buyout and early-retirement plan aimed at helping the ailing automaker slash 9,000 hourly jobs from its U.S. payroll. In letters sent this week to thousands of the company's manufacturing workers, Chrysler is offering a $100,000 cash buyout or, to those eligible, an early-retirement package that includes a $70,000 cash payment. Spokesman Mike Abrerlich said the automaker, the U.S.

General Motors Corp. will seek relief from its $68-billion post-retirement employee healthcare obligation in contract talks with the United Auto Workers union, according to an annual report filed with federal regulators. In the filing Thursday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, GM said that healthcare was its largest competitive disadvantage and that the burden could grow.

The United Auto Workers union rejected wage concessions proposed by Delphi Corp. and a group of private equity firms, jeopardizing a $3.4-billion investment aimed at pulling the auto-parts maker out of bankruptcy protection. "It was a pathetic offer," UAW Vice President Cal Rapson said of the 29-page offer from the company and six investors led by Cerberus Capital Management. If the investors walk away, Delphi may ask a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge to scrap the UAW contract.

United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger, who sits on DaimlerChrysler's board, said Wednesday that he would press the German carmaker to keep its U.S.-based Chrysler Group unit. Gettelfinger, speaking to reporters at Chrysler's headquarters in Auburn Hills, Mich., said the union believed that it was still an option for Daimler to retain Chrysler despite a sale process that began in February and has been credited with pushing shares of DaimlerChrysler sharply higher since.

This summer's contract talks between organized labor and the Detroit Three were expected to be tough, with Ford, Chrysler and General Motors all looking for significant concessions from blue-collar workers. Enter Cerberus Capital Management. The private equity firm's purchase of Chrysler seemed bound to raise the hackles of United Auto Workers leaders -- until union chief Ron Gettelfinger on Monday pronounced himself on board with the deal.

The United Auto Workers union said it received a guarantee that the pension fund for Chrysler workers would get an additional $1.2 billion as a result of the pending sale of the struggling automaker. UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said both Chrysler's current parent, Germany's Daimler, and its next owner, Cerberus Capital Management, would contribute to the pension plan.

Chrysler may get the same healthcare concessions from the United Auto Workers that its Detroit-based competitors received two years ago. Union President Ron Gettelfinger said Monday that the UAW must find a way to give Chrysler a deal similar to what it gave Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Corp. in 2005. "We've been talking to Chrysler quite frequently. We do need to find a way to fix the problem there now that Chrysler is in a downward mode," Gettelfinger said on a Detroit radio show.

Struggling auto-parts maker Delphi Corp. reached a tentative wage-cutting pact with its largest union in what may set the pattern for pay in the U.S. vehicle-parts industry. Details of the accord were not released. The pact was a condition of an equity investment of as much as $3.4 billion that Troy, Mich.-based Delphi needs to exit Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. United Auto Workers officials said the pact would cut wages for longtime workers from around $27 an hour to $14 to $18.50 an hour.