The United Auto Workers (or at least their leadership) have decided that the best way they can preserve six-figure incomes for five-figure skill sets is to threaten the U.S. with a further descent into economic annihilation. They are willing to send their employers into bankruptcy, and they just might get their wish:
Negotiators for the United Auto Workers walked out of concession talks with General Motors Corp. Friday night in a dispute over payments to a union-administered retiree health care fund, a person briefed on the talks said Saturday.
The breakdown comes at a critical time as GM races against a Tuesday deadline to submit a plan to the government showing how it can become viable.
UAW workers are in for one helluva hard core wake-up if they discover that their bargaining position helped condemn the U.S. economy to the cellar for the rest of 2010. Unless, of course, the UAW's leaders know something we don't know.
Maybe they believe that the automakers are going to be bailed out again. Gotta preserve those bennies.
Maybe GM's leak that it is considering a Chapter 11 filing is just a tactic to scare Washington into accelerating the next bailout payment. Gotta fuel those private jets.
Or maybe the automakers would be better off if Uncle Sam threw them into bankruptcy and tore up their union contracts. Gotta let these turkeys experience failure. Aw, what am I thinking?! There I go with common sense again! Shame on me. ;-)
Nota bene: Anthony J. Alfidi does not hold any position in GM.