DEARBON, Mich., April 15 (UPI) -- General Motors stock skidded further Friday in response to the refusal by the U.S. automaker's union to reduce the company's health-insurance costs.
In mid-morning trading, GM stock had slipped another 58 cents, or 2.18 percent, to $26.08 a share. The stock closed Thursday at $26.66, it lowest since 1993, after the United Auto Workers said it won't reopen its contract to reduce the health care costs, the Wall Street Journal reported.
UAW leaders said the union has no plans to allow GM to change the basic health-care package it agreed to offer hourly workers under a four-year contract expiring in 2007, the Journal reported.
GM, which has warned its profits this year could decline between $1 and $2 a share, now estimates health care costs could rise to $5.6 billion this year. GM wants hourly workers to have the same, less generous health plan as GM salaried employees.
UAW members pay about 7 percent of their insurance costs, while salaried employees pay about 27 percent.
