GM, auto workers reach deal on health costs

updated 8:26 p.m. ET Oct. 17, 2005

DETROIT - Not much has gone right this year for General Motors Corp., which has seen quarter after quarter of huge losses, production cuts, falling U.S. market share and high gas prices.

So it was with much relief Monday that GM Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner announced a tentative agreement with the United Auto Workers that could save the company $3 billion a year before taxes in health care costs. GM has lost $3 billion in the first nine months of this year.

“It was critical for Rick, critical for the company and really for the whole industry,” said David Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research. “GM’s board didn’t have Rick on a short leash and they weren’t threatening his removal, but they clearly expected to see something of substance and they got it.”

Wall Street analysts reacted positively to the news, although some said GM’s challenges are so numerous and varied that the health care agreement may not be enough. Among those challenges are competition from leaner Asian automakers, health care inflation, huge pension obligations and GM’s heavy reliance on sport utility vehicles, which have been faltering as gas prices rise.

“Severe operating challenges still confront GM, including mix, pricing and market share pressures plus a tough macro outlook as consumers face rising interest rates and energy costs,” Goldman Sachs analyst Robert Barry said in a note to investors.

GM, the world’s largest automaker, said Monday it lost $1.6 billion in the third quarter, or $2.89 per share, compared to a profit of $315 million, or 56 cents a share, a year ago. The loss included charges of $861 million for restructuring and lower asset values in North America and Europe.

Prompted by its deteriorating credit rating, GM also said it may sell a controlling interest in its profitable finance arm, General Motors Acceptance Corp., despite the boost GMAC gives the struggling automaker’s bottom line.

John Devine, GM’s vice chairman and chief financial officer, said the tentative agreement on health care would reduce GM’s retiree health care liabilities by about 25 percent, or $15 billion, over seven years. Cash savings are estimated at around $1 billion annually.

GM pays for health care for 750,000 U.S. hourly employees, retirees and their dependents. The company expects to spend $5.6 billion on health care this year. GM’s UAW members now pay 7 percent of their health care costs, while the company’s salaried employees pay 27 percent, according to GM. It’s not yet clear how that will change under the agreement.

Himanshu Patel, an auto analyst with JPMorgan Chase & Co., said the agreement will make a substantial dent in GM’s $80 billion health care liability.

Wagoner said the agreement marks the largest reduction GM has ever announced in a single day. GM had asked the UAW to help it lower its health care costs before its contract with the union expires in 2007, and both parties have been negotiating since the spring.

Wagoner refused to say whether GM would have unilaterally lowered retiree benefits if the UAW hadn’t agreed to the concessions by Monday, although he has said in the past the company had that option.

“These negotiations were done in a positive, cooperative, problem-solving spirit,” Wagoner told employees at GM headquarters in Detroit. “While it may have taken some time to reach this cooperative solution, I think it was time well-spent.”

The UAW said Monday that it agreed to the changes after an in-depth analysis of GM’s financial situation. UAW members must ratify the agreement, the union said.

“We believe it is clearly in the best interests of UAW-GM active workers, retirees and their families,” UAW President Ron Gettelfinger and chief GM negotiator Richard Shoemaker said.

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