Are the United Auto Workers Really United?

UAW Local 95 Cuts Retirees' Health Care

I won’t pretend to be educated on the politics of the UAW, but I have to ask; how can a union negotiate away benefits of their retired union brothers and sisters without so much as giving the retirees the right to vote on the same package active workers voted on?

Something seems violently un-American about UAW Local 95’s actions.

(From Wednesday)

Hourly workers at General Motors in Janesville are voting today on an agreement that would require union employees and retirees to pay a greater share of their medical bills.

Mike Sheridan, president of Local 95, said only active workers are eligible to vote

(From Thursday)

Hourly workers at General Motors in Janesville overwhelming approved an agreement Wednesday that would require union employees and retirees to pay more for their medical bills.

GM hourly retirees would pay a maximum of $752 per family each year for health care, or $370 annually for an individual, plus co-payments for prescription drugs, the UAW has said.

GM is the largest private provider of health care in the United States, providing coverage for about 750,000 active hourly workers, retirees, spouses and family members. It expects to spend $5.6 billion on health care this year.

"GM has far more problems than health care," Dohner said. "We've done our part to help out, and now it's up to GM to deliver on the rest of it."

Sheridan, who represents Janesville in the Wisconsin Assembly, said one aspect of that is pushing state and federal government to move to some sort of universal health care.