September 27, 2007
Reality intrudes at General Motors
Column on the Financial Times comment page, September 27th
Even though 73,000 union members walked off the job, waving placards and protesting at General Motors’ intransigence, there was something about the United Auto Workers’ short-lived strike this week that felt fake.
The motor industry is one of the last bastions of union power in the US private sector and, if GM had remained strike-bound, parts suppliers in Michigan and elsewhere would soon have been damaged. Detroit’s big three are financially troubled and struggling to halt the advance of foreign competitors such as Toyota and Hyundai. The stakes for them were very high.
Yet the strike was hard to take seriously. It seemed more like role play than a genuine threat, something the UAW’s leaders had to do to show their members they were not a pushover rather than a fight they thought they could win. So, after two days, they came back, having accepted watered-down contracts in return for bonuses if GM recovers.
The rest of this column can be read here. Post comments below.
