AUTOS

GM Cites Health Care Burden: General Motors Corp. said it cannot afford current health care costs and will ask unionized workers to pick up more of the tab. The auto giant said it will not be able to wait for Washington to enact a national health care plan and must come up with a cheaper arrangement to provide health care benefits for more than 265,000 union employees. Such concessions will not come easy. UAW leaders have vowed to strike if Detroit’s Big Three auto makers try to alter the union’s current health care plan, deemed one of the most generous in the country. GM officials say the plan, together with pension costs, adds about $1,500 to the price of each of its cars and trucks built in America.