DETROIT, March 17 (UPI) -- Local United Auto Workers chapters at General Motors Corp. (NYSE:GM) accused the automaker of pushing for too many lower-pay positions, The Detroit News reported.

With the contract signed five months ago, GM is set to phase out older, higher-paid factory workers with a variety of retirement plan offers, The Detroit News said Monday. They will then reclassify about 16,000 jobs nationwide as "noncore" jobs, where the workers will be paid about half the average $28 per hour for assembly work.

GM is supposed to negotiate with each local to decide which jobs get reclassified.

Dwayne Humphries, Local 276 shop chairman in Arlington, Texas, however, said GM has designated more than 400 jobs in his local to be downgraded, when the contract calls for 296.

"We have taken exceptions to some of the assessments and number of jobs " he wrote in an online column last month.

In Orion, Mich., a similar argument is simmering with Local 5960 claiming it should accept 300 noncore jobs, while GM is pushing for 580 there, the News said.

The individual arguments with GM union chapters has made it impossible for the company to put any local contracts in place, the report says.