The unions are sabatoging the auto industry

We're talking about the maintenance of employment at GM and Ford and ultimately the survival of the comanies. Actually manufacturing in the U.S. has picked up in the past few years. However, productivity has increased alot as well and thus less workers are required.

The costs incurred at GM and Ford due to labor agreements put them at a competitive disadvantage.

An excerpt from an op ed piece in today's WSJ:

General Motors and Ford, bleeding cash and market share, have vowed to cut 60,000 jobs over the next half-dozen years. So far, though, they have been unable to request, much less obtain, more than token economic first-aid from the United Automobile Workers. A recent modest health-care "give-up" proposal at Ford provoked angry union militants to accuse their president, Ron Gettlefinger, of rank appeasement and was endorsed by a vote of only 51% to 49%. Ford's announcement of its "Way Forward" downsizing has led UAW leaders to grouse that both auto makers should be mobilizing to increase sales rather than engaging in brutal cutbacks.

The collective bargaining negotiations upcoming in 2007 loom as a likely auto industry Armageddon, in stark contrast to a rising trend among similarly threatened industries in Germany, where unions are quietly customizing deals to protect jobs and preserve employers. The evident unwillingness of the UAW rank-and-file to participate in that sort of salvation effort is a legacy of the union's justly admired founder, Walter Reuther, an inheritance likely to prove now progressively more obsolete and self-defeating.

I'm not against unions per se (looks like coal mine workers need a strong one) but the never give an inch mentality in an industry that is on the slide is counter productive IMO.