GM, Ford Slide as $80 Billion Union Risk Hits Confidence (1)

General Motors Co. and Ford Motor Co. were among the biggest decliners in the US stock market Thursday on growing concern that demands from union leaders could send the automakers’ labor costs soaring.

The United Auto Workers are calling for wage increases and other changes that the biggest US car companies estimate would add more than $80 billion in expenses for each of them, Bloomberg reported this week. The demands come just weeks after the Teamsters union reached a tentative deal with United Parcel Service Inc. adding tens of billions of dollars in new costs, which led the courier to ...