UAW says GM stance pushed union into strike

By Poornima Gupta

DETROIT (Reuters) - United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger on Monday said the union had been pushed into a strike by General Motors Corp after the automaker failed to meet it halfway in marathon contract talks.

"You can be pushed off a cliff, and that's what happened here," Gettelfinger said, speaking to reporters at a news conference at the union's Detroit headquarters.

Gettelfinger said that union negotiators would head back to the bargaining table on Monday and remained ready to discuss one of GM's key demands of establishing a trust fund to pay for retiree health care.

"We are ready to go in and wrap these negotiations," he said, adding that bargaining has to be a "two-way street."

But, he cautioned, that the UAW had no intention of suspending the strike before an agreement was reached with GM.

Gettelfinger, in his first public comments since bargaining began in July, said that the union's "No. 1" issue was to protect the job security of 73,000 union-represented GM workers in negotiations.

"Job security is very important for us," he said.

Talks between the two sides also reached an impasse over issues related to wages and benefits of workers, job creation, profit-sharing and investment in U.S. plants, the UAW chief said.

"We're fighting to preserve workers' benefits," said Gettelfinger, who was joined by Cal Rapson, the UAW's top GM negotiator, and other members of the bargaining team at news conference.

The UAW set a deadline late Sunday night when negotiators from both sides failed to reach agreement on a new contract to replace a 4-year deal on wages and benefits that expired on September 14.

Gettelfinger said GM's push to establish a cost-saving voluntary employee beneficiary association, or VEBA, was not the reason that the UAW had decided to declare an impasse in the talks.

"We were pushed into a strike and that's where we're at," Gettelfinger told reporters.

Gettelfinger said GM has proposed setting up a VEBA during the talks and the UAW is "more than willing" to discuss the issue.

He revealed the UAW had first proposed the idea of a trust fund in 2005 while negotiating mid-contract concessions on health care costs, but GM didn't embrace the concept.

"Why they didn't take it then, I don't know," Gettelfinger said.