Still No Agreement in GM-UAW Talks

Tense talks continued between GM and workers today as outside parties were greeted with unusual silence, the Wall Street Journal reports. "I haven't heard much of anything and that's completely different" than before, says a union rep. Still at issue is a health care fund for retirees and how much GM will put in it. A strike appears remote, however, as GM plants told employees to be ready for work tomorrow.

Analysts say the US auto industry is in dire straits thanks to an almost $30-per-hour labor gap with Japan – which is causing strife in a union that needs to compete but is afraid to look weak to its members. “It's not so much problems between GM and the UAW,” says a Journal source. “It's a problem within the union right now.” (More General Motors stories.)