UAW to crawl through GM's books before considering concessions

The UAW has retained a group of experts to help it evaluate GM's financial position before the union considers making concessions, says UAW president Ron Gettelfinger. Of particular concern is the $20 billion that GM claims to have sitting around in cash, and the fact that GM's stockholders still receive a $2/share dividend (that's a $1B/year exercise). Gettelfinger also notes the recent success of incentives (although those have yet to prove profitable), and GM's supposedly impressive upcoming new models. GM's looking to increase the union co-pay from 7% to the 27% charged to its salaried employees, a move that would save about $1B/year. It would appear that the UAW is essentially engaged in stalling tactics, hoping that GM's second-quarter financial results improve thus taking some of the pressure off the union. Since the contract negotiations won't open for over a year and a half, expect this topic to fester for quite some time.