The United Automobile Workers union has decided to agree to only modest benefit cuts with General Motors Corp. before G.M.'s labor contract expires in 2007. The auto maker, which announced earlier this week a plan to cut 25,000 jobs, had hoped for significant concessions from the UAW on benefits over the next two years. G.M. has hinted that it will get the concessions with or without the union's acceptance, suggesting increasing tension in what has been a cooperative relationship in recent years.
See "Union Resisting Any Big G.M. Benefit Cuts", Danny Hakim and Jeremy W. Peters, The New York Times, June 9, 2005