PeteEU, the Unions get part of the blame in this instance because they sought and forced a weakly managed Company to cede to their ridiculous demands.
They did this by using the threat of strike action.
While it is obviously the job of the Unions to obtain the best deal possible for their members it is also the Unions responsibility to know that the Company will not be harmed by these demands.
In effect the Unions have to realise that by excessive demands a Company will go bust, then they are not really defending their members jobs.
The Unions and their members are going to have to be realistic, either tone down their demands or lose their jobs.
Unemployment pay in the US is so completely unlike unemployment pay in the UK, in the US it does not continue endlessly, their is no Social Security payment after the Unemployment benefit runs out.
But then in the US we do not pay near $8.00 per gallon of fuel.
Of course the unions get part of the blame, but they don't get all the blame, which is what I bet most conservatives will spin.
At least 50% of the blame must be put at the head of the companies themselves. Their crappy quality and conservative thinking of sticking to the past and not innovating. They should be allowed to fail, if it was not for the knock on effects....
Another 15% at the feet of Congress who were too weak to fight back against lobbying by the big 3 over decades. If Congress had not caved year after year on better fuel economy standards, then the big 3 would not be in this problem today.
Another 15% at the feet at US society as a whole. Your healthcare system sucks, and it is time to admit that it does. That the big 3 are burden by huge health care costs for its workers shows that the system is broken. Also your attitude to the car must change and that stupid excuse of "we live in a large country and hence we need to drive big ass cars" must die a horrible death.
The final 20% can be put on the Unions. Yes they have been greedy, even by European standards frankly. Should they have refused going down in wages? Depends on the demand by the Republicans... very little info in the article. I suspect that the Republicans saw a chance to finally hit the unions hard, and went all in demanding unrealistic cuts in wages and benefits... after all they are in a win win situation politically... for example demanding that they go down in wages to the same level as those given to similar workers in the southern states.. of course forgetting that the cost of living is also lower there, compared to up north... Now they can blame the Unions, their arch nemesis for the failure (which they are doing). If the Unions had accepted their demands, then they could claim they saved the industry while sticking to their outdated conservative ideology.
What is sad is that while the Republican politicians will probably get re-elected in their backward states on this, it will be on the back of a million plus "democratic" voters up north.. really shows the true face of conservatism.. no heart and no brain and especially not a pragmatic bone in the body.
I almost wish that this action will have a devastating impact on the US, as it would stick it to the conservative movement big time.. but unlike American Conservatives, I hope to god that the impact on the US economy and especially the people affected by this utter stupidity, will not be as bad as many experts have for seen. America does not deserve such pain yet again and especially not because American conservatives lack pragmatism and live in a lala world.