Bargaining between the UAW and General Motors Corp. for a new labor contract, expected to include historic changes to union benefits, resumed mid-morning today after negotiators broke late Tuesday evening, a person familiar with the talks said. Negotiators are now in their fifth day of bargaining since the contract that covers the automaker?s 73,000 hourly workers expired Friday night. The parties are extending the contract hour by hour as they work to reach a tentative agreement. The talks have hinged on negotiations over whether and how GM could transfer its more than $50 billion in hourly retiree health cost liability to a trust ? known as a Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Association. If agreed to as part of the contract, the VEBA is expected to have union oversight.
See "GM, UAW back at the table with talk of 401(k) retirement plan", Katie Merx, Detroit Free Press, September 18, 2007