In ongoing talks with the United Auto Workers Union, General Motors has proposed a 401(k) retirement plan for workers over conventional pensions and wants to freeze raises for cost-of-living expenses to support a union-admministered fund for retiree health care.

The information, reported on the Bloomberg News site today, reputedly comes from sources with inside knowledge of the tone of the five-day negotiations, which resumed this morning after an evening recess.

If the union and the automaker agree to a two-tier system of wages for new hires, a 401(k) pension plan would be a good fit for the arrangement, but ultimately any such proposal would have to have the approval of the UAW rank and file membership.

Currently GM retirees receive a set yearly payout pension of approximately $36,000. Under a 401(k) plan workers can match a portion of company payments thus exercising more individual control over their long-term retirement investments.

Upon retirement, pay is then set by the amount of contributions and the performance of the investments in the fund. It is a plan to which many employers are currently turning.

The negotiations have been moving at a slower, more business-like pace since Monday with none of the marathon sessions that have characterized past talks in the interest of concluding a new contract.

The president of the UAW, Ron Gettelfinger, has made it clear that the union will press for a deadline if progress is not ongoing, but obviously both sides are preceding cautiously in the face of the complexity of issues before them.