UAW hopes for GM IPO "sooner rather than later"

DETROIT (Reuters) - United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger said on Tuesday the union would like to see an initial public offering by General Motors Co GM.UL "sooner rather than later" and said the projected lifespan of a union-aligned healthcare trust fund was in flux after the automaker's bankruptcy.

"It looks like that's what they want to do, they want to go public," Gettelfinger said of GM and Chrysler when asked about the timing of a GM initial offering at the Reuters Autos Summit in Detroit. "For us, sooner rather than later is better."

The UAW and Detroit's automakers reached historic contracts in 2007 that established healthcare trusts for union retirees that are due to become active at the start of next year. Part of the funding from GM and Chrysler is in company stock, the value of which is uncertain.

Gettelfinger in announcing the plans two years ago said that funding was arranged to make the GM healthcare trust, called a Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Association, last 80 years -- long enough to cover the current generation of retirees and employees.

Gettelfinger said that projection was no longer valid because of the U.S. government-sponsored bankruptcy at GM and the industry's turmoil over the past year.

As a condition of the bankruptcy, the UAW had to accept equity in GM and Chrysler -- rather than cash -- for half of the amount that the automakers' owed to retirees.

"When we settled General Motors, we said 80 years -- that 80-year timeline has fallen off the table because of the meltdown, because of the company going into bankruptcy," Gettelfinger said.

(Reporting by David Bailey, editing by Matthew Lewis)