UAW Position On Health Care Concessions Unreasonable, Opinion Piece States

Main Category: Health Insurance / Medical Insurance
Article Date: 31 Jul 2007 - 7:00 PDT

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The United Auto Workers recently began contract negotiations with the Big Three automakers -- General Motors, Ford Motor and the Chrysler Group -- and, although the companies are "teetering on the brink of bankruptcy," union President Ron Gettelfinger has said that he will oppose additional health care concessions, an indication of the "depth of the UAW's entitlement mentality and its detachment from the world that its fellow Americans inhabit," Shikha Dalmia, a senior analyst at the Reason Foundation, writes in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece.

In 2005, GM and Ford employees represented by UAW agreed to health care concessions "during an unusual round of mid-contract negotiations" to help make the companies, which pay $1,500 more in health care costs per car produced than Japanese automakers, more competitive, Dalmia writes. However, she writes, "UAW workers still enjoy a health care deal that no one else in America or Japan -- or quite possibly the planet -- does."

In addition, although Gettelfinger has recommended a "Japanese-style government health care system for all workers" in place of additional health care concessions, "Japanese workers bear a far bigger burden" for health care than GM, Ford and Chrysler employees represented by UAW, according to Dalmia. The current contract negotiations between UAW and GM, Ford and Chrysler are "arguably the most critical ... in the history" of the companies, Dalmia writes, adding, "It is not within the power" of Gettelfinger to save the companies, but "it is certainly within his power to kill them" (Dalmia, Wall Street Journal, 7/27).

Reprinted with kind permission from http://www.kaisernetwork.org. You can view the entire Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report, search the archives, or sign up for email delivery at http://www.kaisernetwork.org/dailyreports/healthpolicy. The Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report is published for kaisernetwork.org, a free service of The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. © 2005 Advisory Board Company and Kaiser Family Foundation. All rights reserved.

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