General Motors offers $1.6 billion, buyouts to close Ohio plant

19 Oct, 2008

General Motors Corp will pay $1.6 billion into a health-care trust for retirees and offer buyouts of up to $140,000 to union-represented factory workers in exchange for an agreement to close an SUV plant in Ohio by the end of the year. The creation of a voluntary employee beneficiary association - or VEBA - was the most striking component of the tentative agreement between GM and the IUE-CWA union.
GM agreed to pay $1.6 billion into a fund for IUE-CWA retirees over the next few years in a deal patterned after the automaker's agreement with the United Auto Workers last year, the union said.
GM confirmed it had reached a tentative agreement with the IUE-CWA union over terms for closing its Moraine, Ohio plant where it builds the Chevy TrailBlazer and GMC Envoy. GM spokesman Tony Sapienza said the automaker would not comment on the details of its offer to the roughly 1,500 union-represented workers until after a ratification vote scheduled for next week.

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