UAW head says union will make more concessions

DETROIT - United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger says the union will have to make further concessions as Detroit's automakers try to meet the terms of government loans.

But Gettelfinger said Wednesday night that the UAW will go to President Barack Obama's administration in an effort to change some of the terms, which he in the past has called unfair to labor.

"There will be some more things that I think that we need to do, that we will recommend to our membership," he told reporters at the Automotive News World Congress. "But now how far we go, that's still out there, the jury is still out."

Under loan terms from the Treasury Department, Chrysler LLC and General Motors Corp. have targets to have labor costs competitive with Japanese automakers that have plants in the U.S. They also have to swap cash for stock for half the companies' payments into a union-administered trust that will take over retiree health care costs in 2010. There's also language about eliminating the "jobs bank" in which laid off workers get most of their pay.

But Gettelfinger said the terms are unclear, and that the UAW will seek changes.

"I don't know that we'll be talking to President Obama directly. But obviously we're going to be talking to some people in his administration," Gettelfinger said. "There's a lot of questions about what was done that no one can answer at this point in time."

Gettelfinger also said he expects Ford Motor Co. to get whatever concessions the union agrees to with the other companies.

"It would seem to me like we would not want one of the companies to be disadvantaged over the others," he said.

He also said there's enough time for the automakers to get viability plans done by the Feb. 17 deadline, but he said it would be better to have more time. Last week, he said the timetable for completing the plans was "almost unattainable."

The union, he said Wednesday night, should get credit for concessions it made to the automakers in 2005 and 2007, some of which have not yet hit the companies' balance sheets. The health care trust and lump sums in place of pay raises were among the concessions, he said.

He also said he expects Obama to meet soon with the chief executives of Detroit's automakers to discuss the industry's problems, although he had no direct knowledge of any meeting being scheduled.

Gettelfinger said he thinks Obama will bring a more straightforward approach to the auto industry than the Bush administration.

He also said in his speech that automakers faced a political lynch mob by some lawmakers when their CEOs appeared before Congress last year.

Gettelfinger also implied that UAW will resist the Treasury Department requirement to take stock instead of cash for the health care trust. He said he didn't know what the value of the companies' stock would be when the loan terms are finalized.

On Wednesday, GM received the second piece of its government loan package, a $5.4 billion installment that will allow the giant automaker to pay its bills and avoid running out of cash.

The latest installment, which came five days later than scheduled, brings to $9.4 billion the amount that GM has received in loans from the Treasury Department. The company is to get another $4 billion Feb. 17 when it submits a plan to the government to show how it will become viable.

Chrysler has received a $4 billion loan and is seeking another $3 billion.

It too has to submit a viability plan to the Treasury Department to justify the loans.

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