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Big Three Workers Give an Inch on Health Care
By DANNY HAKIM and JEREMY W. PETERS, March 22, 2005
Like other Big Three auto workers, Deborah Stewart has medical coverage that is, if not a free lunch, then close to it. No deductibles. No monthly premiums. But Ms. Stewart, who works at a sprawling General Motors complex in the shadows of the Detroit skyline, says she believes it cannot last. "They're losing money, saying they've got to make changes, and I think everybody expects that it's going to come," said Ms. Stewart, 55, referring to cuts in health care benefits. A 30-year G.M. veteran who oversees robots that attach fenders to cars, she was heading out after her shift Monday at the Detroit/Hamtramck assembly plant, which produces cars like the Buick LeSabre. "I think it will come," she said, "without a doubt." With the decline of the domestic auto industry accelerating, the United Auto Workers union has agreed to a baby-step rollback of its vaunted "first dollar" health care coverage, which has long made assembly work at a Big Three automaker one of the most attractive blue-collar jobs in America. Under the coverage, workers at G.M., the Ford Motor Company and the Chrysler division of DaimlerChrysler pay no deductibles or monthly premiums. But this year, the union agreed to let Chrysler start imposing the first deductibles to be paid by Big Three workers, ranging from $100 to $1,000 for workers or retirees who use preferred provider organizations, known as P.P.O.'s. Chrysler workers were informed in a letter on March 10, and the development was first reported this weekend by The Detroit News. While Chrysler will reap only modest savings from the step, and while auto workers still have coverage that is the envy of many white-collar workers, the move is deeply symbolic and a sign of the union's acknowledgment of the competitive pressures from Toyota and other foreign-based competitors. Considering that Chrysler is the healthiest of the Big Three at the moment, and that similar provisions are in all of the Big Three contracts, such arrangements are expected to follow for G.M. and Ford. "It's a precedent breaker, and it's a union that relies on precedents and agreements," said Sean P. McAlinden, director of the economics and business group at the Center for Automotive Research, an independent research firm in Ann Arbor, Mich. "If something has never been done before, it's very difficult for the union to ratify it or an official to allow it. Then once it happens, it can be blown up."