"The message from the membership is they absolutely want to support the retirees," UAW Local 1853 President Michael O'Rourke said after the vote.

Voting among UAW locals at GM plants began last week and will wrap up on Thursday, a UAW spokesman said. A majority of the votes among UAW members at GM plants is required for the new contract to take effect.

The vote affects more than 500,000 retired workers and about 110,000 active workers nationwide. GM employs about 5,000 hourly workers at its Spring Hill plant. There are more than 1,300 retired workers from the plant, which produces Saturn vehicles.

Under the proposal, retired workers would pay $10 a month for single coverage and $21 a month for family coverage. They currently don't pay health-care premiums.

The actual premiums will be $50 and $110, but a new employee benefit fund is being set up to offset the cost to retirees. GM has agreed to put $3 billion into the fund over the next three years. Active workers will forgo $1 an hour, more than $2,000 a year for each employee, from a raise scheduled for next year.

"What you're seeing here is a microcosm of what happens to Social Security in the future," said Jim Sanfilippo, an analyst with Automotive Marketing Consultants Inc.

Overall, GM's retired workers outnumber active workers by more than 4 to 1. The company estimates the changes will save it about $3 billion a year before taxes. The switch in retiree benefits will eliminate about $15 billion in benefit liability over the next seven years.

GM is shifting its retired work force from a defined benefit plan to a defined compensation plan, from a plan with unlimited liability for the company to one in which the automaker will pay out about $3.2 billion over the next seven years for retiree health-care payments.

Franklin resident Dora Mack Talley, who retired from GM last year after 25 years of service, said the new plan won't put a financial burden on her.

"I'm OK with it because a lot of the people that I know would say all the time how blessed we were to not be paying for insurance this long," she said. "It's highly unusual for companies in this day and time for employees not to have to pay for their insurance. We're paying minimal compared to some of my other family and friends that I know."

Retiree out-of-pocket costs will be capped at $752 a year for family coverage, including premiums and co-payments. Payments beyond that will come from the benefits fund, which will be governed by a board independent of GM.

"We realize a company in trouble is not going to be able to pay better wages or anything else in the future or maintain the benefit intentions that we've enjoyed," said Eldon Renaud, president of UAW Local 2164 in Bowling Green, Ky.

Retired hourly workers currently pay about 7% of their medical costs. Under the new plan, they'll pay 12%, which is still far less than the 31% that GM salaried retirees pay.

Ford Motor Co. and DaimlerChrysler's Chrysler Group have indicated they will seek similar concessions from their UAW locals. Non-automotive unions, such as the United Steelworkers and Communications Workers of America, also are interested in the outcome.

"Any time GM and UAW has something going on, we're all curious about how that may affect us," said Rick Feinstein, president of Communications Workers of America Local 3808 in Nashville, which represents BellSouth employees.

BellSouth and the union agreed to a five-year contract last year, so the impacts of the GM/UAW changes won't be felt for a few more years, Feinstein said. But he expects it will be a hot topic at the bargaining table.

Steelworkers locals have a retiree benefits cap provision in their contracts with Bridgestone/Firestone that is scheduled to start in 2007, so the GM/UAW agreement will be an issue at contract negotiations between the company and union this spring, said Lewis Beck, president of Steelworkers Local 1055 in La Vergne.

The provision has been in contracts between the company and locals since 1991, but it always pushed back the effective date in contract negotiations, Beck said. It was not delayed in the one-year contract that was approved this year.

O'Rourke said the Spring Hill local is firm in its support of its retired members and stand behind the efforts of the international union in Detroit. It attributed the 33% vote against the plan with dissatisfaction by some over GM executive pay and the company's decision a week after the agreement was reached to give a 50-cent per share dividend to stockholders.

"His quote was, 'I feel secure in the company's liquidity,' when, a few months ago, they were about to go bankrupt and had to have health-care concessions. I find that amazing."

"We had an agreement," Graham said. "If he's got enough money to pay the stockholders, he's got enough money to pay for our insurance until 2007."

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