The talks have been ongoing for 19 days and there is no word if they are actually any closer to an agreement. Sure, it sounds good, but at this point both sides want to appear to have the upper hand.

Representatives of General Motors Corp (GM.N) and the United Auto Workers union returned to the bargaining table on Saturday amid expectations the two sides were closing in on a deal that would slash health care costs for the top U.S. automaker.

By Friday, the two sides had moved closer to a deal that would allow GM to shift responsibility for providing health insurance for over 540,000 GM retirees and their spouses to a new trust fund, two people familiar with the talks said.

GM and the union also agreed to bring in a third party to audit the financial assumptions behind such an agreement.

Wall Street analysts have said such a deal could cut GM’s costs by $3 billion annually in exchange for a one-time payment from the automaker expected to top $30 billion.

When the previous contract was negotiated, there were 380,000 members of the UAW, this year, there are just 180,000. They better agree to something or by the time they negotiate in four more years there might not be a UAW to negotiate with.

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