You probably have heard that a deal was reach between the UAW and Chrysler. Like last week, though, it’s really had to tell from reading the traditional media what exactly the deal will be–other than workers are going to get the shaft. The Wall Street Journal doesn’t say much about enhanced pension protection (meaning, if there was a bankruptcy down the road, pensions would get an unspecified level of better protection–normally, in a bankruptcy, pensions get clobbered), which was rumored to be a key part of the deal:

Terms of the labor deal are likely to emerge on Monday when the union starts presenting the details to its membership. The agreement is believed to include about a 50% reduction in the amount of cash Chrysler owes a $10 billion health-care fund that was set up in 2007. The auto maker is also expected to have won at least hundreds of dollars in per-car labor savings from the UAW.

The UAW will likely get cash and equity in Chrysler in exchange for its concessions. A deal with Chrysler is a steppingstone toward avoiding bankruptcy protection, according to a person familiar with the matter. Still, "a lot of work remains in order to get the good case scenario."

   The gamble–and I don’t like the odds but I also see no other option at this juncture–is that you relieve the company today of the cash requirements so that it can survive as an independent company and take a stake in the company and pray that it is worth something in five years when the health care fund needs a new infusion. If the gamble doesn’t work out, a lot of older people are going to be without health care.

   So, my suggestion is this: can the UAW link its concessions to a promise to enact single-payer health care with the simple observation that, down the road, there will be a lot of people who will likely be left high-and-dry, with no meaningful way for health care coverage?

   The New York Times focuses more on the pension protections allegedly being offered:

In order to persuade the union to back the sale to Cerberus, Daimler agreed to pay $1 billion to Chrysler if the company’s pension plans were terminated in a subsequent bankruptcy filing. Details of the Treasury’s deal with Daimler were not available.

Last week, the union reached an agreement in principle with the administration and Chrysler that would protect workers’ pensions in the event of a bankruptcy filing and provide for a change in the financing of a health care trust set up in 2007.

Under that pension deal, workers would lose some benefits after the bankruptcy filing but would receive more protection than they would with a Chapter 11 filing that lacked government direction, people with knowledge of the agreement said.

   It’s not clear what the the scope of "lose some benefits" and "receive more protection" means.