Legislation proposed to tighten the sweeping U.S. corporate bailout program has omitted specific targets for labor concessions that were a key feature of last month's Bush administration rescue of distressed auto makers.
A portion of the bill proposed by House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank on Friday sought to codify the auto bailout with terms that, with two exceptions, basically mirror those imposed by the White House when it extended US$17.4 billion in emergency loans to General Motors and Chrysler.
Key changes proposed by Frank would ensure oversight of the auto rescue under a trustee, or "car czar," and would eliminate language on steps the United Auto Workers union must take in coming weeks to reduce industry costs.
Under the Bush administration's bailout, car makers and the UAW are to make "their best efforts" to reach an agreement on concessions to the 2007 contract in at least three areas.
The administration wants the UAW to end its "jobs bank," which pays furloughed workers, and accept half of corporate contributions to a retiree health care trust fund in stock rather than cash.
The most contentious issue in Bush's bailout plan is a goal that seeks to bring hourly wage costs in line with those of Toyota and other Japanese auto makers operating non-union factories in the United States.
The labor give-back provisions were spearheaded by Republican Senator Bob Corker of Tennessee and incorporated into the bailout by the Republican White House and the Treasury Department.
(Xinhua News Agency via Shanghai Daily January 12, 2009)
