Worry and anger as autoworkers study pact

Major concessions

The agreement with GM includes major concessions: a new two-tier wage system and a shift of $50 billion in health care obligations to the union. The UAW gave up cost-of-living raises in exchange for a freeze on health care premium payments.

GM made open-ended promises to invest in U.S. plants and products.

Mixed reactions

While union leaders and significant numbers of workers feel the agreement was the best they could get, many at GM, Chrysler and Ford plants across the country believe the agreement is a setback.

“It’s not perfect, but it’s as close as we are going to get,” said Danny Wood, a UAW local official at the Flint, Mich., plant.

Stan Washington, a Grand Blanc, Mich., retiree who worked for GM for 35 years, said, “It’s much more concrete in the promises than I thought.”

Other workers interviewed, however, expressed worry and anger. Most, whether they supported or opposed the agreement, directed their anger at GM, not the union, which they felt was between a rock and a hard place.