UAW gets warning

LAS VEGAS – With Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Corp. facing market share declines and financial troubles, United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger told the union’s convention Monday that it’s time for new thinking.

In a speech to about 1,300 members at the UAW’s 34th convention in Las Vegas, Gettelfinger seemed to be preparing the union for a different relationship with the troubled domestic automakers as they face challenging times.

“Like it or not, these challenges aren’t the kind that can be ridden out,” he said. “They demand new and farsighted solutions – and we must be an integral part of developing these solutions.”

Gettelfinger, who also blamed many of the auto industry’s problems on the Bush administration, said a concessionary health care deal with Ford and GM was the most difficult decision he’s made as president.

He said that came after an extensive review of the companies’ finances and was necessary to address the companies’ huge retiree health care liabilities and to preserve future benefits.

Ford and GM workers approved the deals late last year.

Under the agreements, retired autoworkers will start paying monthly contributions, annual deductibles and co-payments for some medical services. They don’t pay such fees now. Hourly workers won’t be required to pay deductibles or monthly contributions, but they will have to contribute some of their future wage increases to a trust for future health care expenses.

In an hour-long speech, Gettelfinger said the nation’s skyrocketing health care costs are hitting Ford and GM hardest because they have older work forces and a large number of retirees. He said a lack of action on a single-payer national health care plan by the Bush administration has hurt the domestic auto industry.

Bush, he said, “has stood on the sidelines as health care costs soar out of control.”

Ford has said it spent about $3.5 billion to cover 550,000 hourly and salaried workers, retirees and dependents last year; GM spent $5.4 billion in 2005 for its 1.1 million employees, retirees and dependents.

Ann Marie Hauser, spokeswoman for the Republican National Committee, blamed the auto industry’s woes on Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, a Democrat.