The Repubs have got to be in the corner masturbating for joy at this.

United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger says the union will have to make further concessions as Detroit’s automakers try to meet the terms of government loans.

But Gettelfinger said Wednesday night that the UAW will go to President Barack Obama’s administration in an effort to change some of the terms, which he in the past has called unfair to labor.

Under loan terms from the Treasury Department, Chrysler LLC and General Motors Corp. have targets to have labor costs competitive with Japanese automakers that have plants in the U.S. They also have to swap cash for stock for half the companies’ payments into a union-administered trust that will take over retiree health care costs in 2010. There’s also language about eliminating the “jobs bank” in which laid off workers get most of their pay.

But Gettelfinger said the terms are unclear, and that the UAW will seek changes.

The union, he said Wednesday night, should get credit for concessions it made to the automakers in 2005 and 2007, some of which have not yet hit the companies’ balance sheets. The health care trust and lump sums in place of pay raises were among the concessions, he said.

He also said he expects Obama to meet soon with the chief executives of Detroit’s automakers to discuss the industry’s problems, although he had no direct knowledge of any meeting being scheduled.

Gettelfinger said he thinks Obama will bring a more straightforward approach to the auto industry than the Bush administration.

I like the optimism but I think that it is misplaced in this situation.  Obama will tell the UAW that they must sacrifice as everyone will.