The latest source for new health care workers: the factory line. The Wall Street Journal (link for subscribers) runs an article about current and former UAW members who are hitting the books.

With buyouts reaching up to $140,000, nearly 68,000 employees have taken early retirements or buyouts offered by General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler.

Many younger workers are taking the chance to leave the line and pursue other ventures—including nursing and other medical fields. Ford, which pays some of its former workers to go to school, estimates that 40% of its former employees who take that route enter the medical field.

Workers find a lot of advantages. The pay is good: $62,000 for a dental hygienist, and $60,000 for a registered nurse—this at a time when jobs in auto manufacturing pay about $54,000.

The work, according to those who have started to make the transition, is less repetitive and less boring.

Meanwhile, contract talks between the union and the Big 3 continue. At issue: health insurance costs:

As part of the negotiations, GM put two proposals on the table for the UAW, according to people familiar with the proposals. One involves the establishment of a union-run health-care trust, or VEBA, which would be funded by GM cash, debt and possibly stock.

A VEBA -- which stands for voluntary employees beneficiary association -- would clean considerable risk off the balance sheet and significantly reduce the annual costs associated with the liability. The other option excludes the VEBA but calls for deeper, more-painful cuts in several areas so that GM can inch closer to labor-cost parity with its chief rival, Toyota Motor Corp. GM has pushed the VEBA option hard, telling the UAW that the arrangement would protect against unilateral retiree health-care cuts by the auto maker in the future if needed.

UAW President Ron Gettelfinger, meanwhile, has called for taxpayers to take over health care financing.