The UAW has agreed to suspend the Jobs Bank program and allow the Detroit 3 to delay making payments to a retiree health care trust in 2010 to help the automakers through their cash crisis, UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said.
Gettelfinger spoke after summoning the presidents and chairmen from Detroit 3 locals for an emergency meeting in Detroit today.
The union is willing to make modifications to the 2007 contracts reached with General Motors, Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC, said Jeff Everett, a local Chrysler president who attended the meeting. He said concessions on wages and benefits for active workers weren't discussed.
"Times are tough, and we are going to do what we have to do,'' said Everett, president of UAW Local 1166 in Kokomo, Ind., in an interview. Under the so-called Jobs Bank program, laid-off factory workers can receive as much as 95 percent of their regular pay. The payouts have drawn scorn from opponents of federal aid who see them as a sign of Detroit's excess.
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