UAW and GM sign contract

Breaking news from Marketwatch:

GM and the UAW have signed their contract.

As I understand it, the arrangement re healthcare is that GM will transfer a around $50 billion to a trust controlled by the UAW; this will be used to pay for retirees' healthcare and relieve GM of any obligation.

It relieves GM of a significant burden. However, now it will be the UAW rationing its members' healthcare, rather than GM doing it for them. UAW members will now be pissed off at their own union; I wonder if they'll go on strike?

GM and the UAW should have used this as a teachable moment to push for a national solution, whether a national healthcare system or a universal insurance coverage (Americans are capitalists, so the latter is probably more palatable). Unfortunately, the President and others would rather see workers and children go uninsured, and American productivity suffer, than have a national health system, or at least a national insurance system.