Gm Wants Flexibility To Replace Fewer Retirees

General Motors Corp. wants the United Auto Workers to give it more leeway so it does not have to replace many of the thousands of assembly workers who will retire in the next three years, sources said Monday.

The UAW is in separate negotiations with the Big Three automakers to replace the current national contracts that expire Sept. 14. Later this month, the union plans to announce which company it will target to reach the initial settlement.

From GM’s perspective, it needs to make its labor costs more competitive with those at Chrysler Corp., Ford Motor Co., and foreign “transplant” automakers that operate nonunion assembly plants in the United States.

The number of GM hourly employees today is less than half of what it was in 1978, when it had its best sales year ever and controlled 46 percent of the U.S. vehicle market. Today it employs about 240,000 hourly workers, and its market share hovers around 30 percent.