Catherwood LibraryILR School

The United Auto Workers and U.S. automakers are locked in an epic struggle to hammer out new contracts that are likely to affect all of American industry, public policy and the locus of world commerce for decades to come. But those agreements, the first of which came last week at General Motors after a brief strike, are unlikely to remove the source of anguish for those in the U.S. auto industry. In this struggle, it is entirely possible to have empathy for both sides. GM had its back to the wall in providing nearly free health care coverage for 1.1 million people while supporting 400,000 retirees. The union was coming off a long string of significant concessions allowing the company to close 12 plants and increase medical co-pays by retirees and employees.