USW, IUE-CWA File Objection to GM 363 Sale

USW, IUE-CWA Join Forces to Fight for 50,000 GM Retirees Abandoned by Bankruptcy Proceedings

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Unions representing 1 ½ million members are supporting an objection to stop General Motors' proposed asset sale, charging the move would eventually leave tens of thousands of their retirees and dependents without health care.

IUE-CWA, the Industrial Division of the Communications Workers of America and the United Steelworkers are mobilizing together to fight to protect retirees who are facing the loss of health care and other benefits due to legal maneuvering by GM in its Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.

GM has refused to negotiate a voluntary employee benefit association, as it did with the United Auto Workers, for more than 50,000 retirees and dependents who instead only have standing as unsecured creditors. If GM sells its assets to a new company, GM will have no resources left to negotiate a VEBA or pay any claims

"We are outraged over the disparate treatment of our retirees," said IUE-CWA President Jim Clark. "We believe GM is not only violating the bankruptcy code but violating a moral code in its handling of this situation.  We call on both GM and its new senior shareholder, the U.S. Treasury Department, to be fair to these people who built GM."

"We will not stand by and watch our retirees be treated so shabbily while their own tax dollars go to help pay benefits for others in their same situation," said USW President Leo W. Gerard. " We aren't asking for special treatment - we just want our retirees treated fairly."

"Though our numbers at GM are small, our retirees don't deserve to be cheated out of their benefits," said CWA President Larry Cohen.  "All of our unions and all of our members stand in unity to save the rights of these retirees."

The unions have proposed that the court could condition any sale on settlement of the retiree issue.  One suggestion is to include the retirees in the original VEBA.