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A
striking
plant
worker
blocks
the
passage
of a
truck
outside
the
General
Motor
assembly
plant in
Bowling
Green,
Ky,
Monday,
Sept.
16,
2019.
More
than
49,000
members
of the
United
Auto
Workers
walked
off
General
Motors
factory
floors
or set
up
picket
lines
early
Monday
as
contract
talks
with the
company
deteriorated
into a
strike.
(AP
Photo/Bryan
Woolston)
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GM stops
paying
for
health
insurance
for
striking
union
workers
Bryan
Woolston
Reuters.com
DETROIT,
MI -
General
Motors
Co
shifted
health
insurance
costs
for its
striking
workers
to the
United
Auto
Workers
union as
its
members
walked
the
picket
line for
the
second
day on
Tuesday.
The
UAW on
Monday
launched
the
first
company-wide
strike
at GM in
12
years,
saying
negotiations
toward a
new
national
agreement
covering
about
48,000
hourly
workers
had hit
an
impasse.
This
year’s
talks
between
the
union
and GM,
Ford
Motor Co
and Fiat
Chrysler
Automobiles
NV (FCA)
were
expected
to be
tough,
with
thorny
issues
such as
healthcare
costs,
profit-sharing
and the
use of
temporary
workers
on the
table.
The
UAW said
Tuesday
that
some
progress
had been
made
during
talks.
As of
Tuesday
evening,
talks
were
still
continuing
among
some
committee-level
bargaining
groups
but no
deal was
imminent,
officials
said.
The
strike
has now
surpassed
the
length
of the
nearly
two-day
2007 GM
work
stoppage.
Meanwhile,
GM said
coverage
for the
striking
workers’
health
insurance
reverted
to the
union,
which
unsuccessfully
sought
to have
the No.
1 U.S.
automaker
cover
those
costs
through
the end
of the
month.
That
places
another
drain on
the
union’s
strike
fund.
“We
understand
strikes
are
difficult
and
disruptive
to
families,”
GM
spokesman
Jim Cain
said in
an
email.
“While
on
strike,
some
benefits
shift to
being
funded
by the
union’s
strike
fund,
and in
this
case
hourly
employees
are
eligible
for
union-paid
COBRA so
their
health
care
benefits
can
continue.”
GM
has said
in the
past
that it
annually
spends
about $1
billion
a year
on
healthcare
coverage
for its
hourly
workers,
suggesting
the
monthly
cost per
worker
is in
the
range of
$1,700
to
$2,000.
The UAW
on its
website
said its
strike
fund
covers
certain
benefits
such as
medical
and
prescription
drugs,
but not
dental,
vision
and
hearing.
(uaw.org/strike-faq/)
A
UAW
spokesman
had no
immediate
comment,
but
Terry
Dittes,
vice
president
in
charge
of the
union’s
GM
department,
in a
letter
to union
leaders
on
Tuesday,
said the
UAW
would
review
its
legal
options
regarding
GM’s
decision.
During
the
walkout,
UAW
members
also
receive
$250 a
week
from the
union’s
strike
fund.
In a
statement
on
Sunday,
GM
outlined
its
offer to
the
union,
saying
the
package
included
plans
for
Michigan
and Ohio
assembly
plants
currently
lacking
products,
$7
billion
in U.S.
investment
and a
signing
bonus of
$8,000
per
worker.
GM also
said the
union
would
retain
“nationally
leading”
health
care
benefits.
Charlie
Highlander,
59, who
also
works in
the
Bowling
Green
plant’s
paint
shop,
said the
strike
was
about
protecting
the
rights
of
younger
workers
who are
paid at
a lower
wage or
are
hired as
temporary
workers.
“I’m
out here
mostly
for
them,”
he said.
“It’s
about
the
young
people
for me.”
The
contract
talks
with GM
have
been
overshadowed
by a
mushrooming
U.S.
federal
corruption
probe of
top
union
officials.
The
investigation
has
raised
questions
about
UAW
President
Gary
Jones,
who a
source
said was
an
unnamed
official
cited in
a
federal
complaint
last
week
detailing
alleged
embezzlement
by union
leaders.
The
strike
has also
become a
political
issue,
and both
U.S.
President
Donald
Trump
and
Democrats
who want
to
unseat
him in
2020
have
weighed
in.
Trump
and
Democrats
see the
votes of
UAW
members
in the
Midwest
as
critical
to
victory.
GM’s
workers
last
went out
on a
brief
two-day
strike
in 2007
during
contract
talks. A
more
painful
strike
occurred
in
Flint,
Michigan,
in 1998,
lasting
54 days
and
costing
the
automaker
more
than $2
billion.
Reporting
by Bryan
Woolston
in
Bowling
Green,
Kentucky;
additional
reporting
by David
Shepardson
in
Washington;
writing
and
additional
reporting
by Ben
Klayman
in
Detroit;
Editing
by Dan
Grebler,
Nick
Zieminski
and Lisa
Shumaker
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