United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger has decided to temporarily shelve talk with General Motors Corp. about the union taking over retiree health care, but the issue remains part of the bargaining, a person briefed on the talks said Thursday. The person, who asked not to be identified by name because the talks are private, said Gettelfinger rejected GM's latest retiree health care proposal on Tuesday night and wanted to move to other issues. GM, the lead company in talks with the union, wants to pay the UAW to set up a trust that would fund future retiree health care costs. But since the company and union are so far apart on how much GM would pay, Gettelfinger wanted to talk about other issues, the person said.
See "Union Defers Health Care Takeover Talks", Tom Krisher and Dee-Ann Durbin, San Francisco Chronicle, September 19, 2007