Excerpt: The United Auto Workers union on Wednesday offered two major concessions to the Big Three auto makers, a day before the Detroit companies are set to make a second appeal to Congress for a bailout. Two weeks after insisting his union had already done enough to help the car makers, UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said the union would allow the companies to delay billions of dollars in payments into funds that will cover health-care costs for retired workers. The union also will suspend a controversial 'jobs bank' program under which workers continue to collect most of their wages after they are laid off.

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