Actually Josh, I think it's great news for the industry. Not everything is a fight, not everything is an adversarial position. The most successful companies are the ones where employees and employers work together with pride toward a common product...the unions have not done that...ever. They have always looked out for their own best interests. That was good and all back in the day, but unfair labor practices are virtually outlawed in this day and age and the unions just add another layer of bureaucracy to the whole process.
Josh, the emotional argument that these are lives and livlihoods at stake really doesn't do it with me. Face it, every industry has experienced this recently. Why should unionized autoworkers be above this?
Do you want to blame Wagoner and Smith for this? I don't think so. The unions have brought it on themselves, and the writing has been on the wall.
I don't want to make a sweeping generalization that autoworkers are ignorant, because they are not. Anyone, in any business, is ignorant if they are only a very specialized worker. One must present a portfolio of job skills to be competitive as an employee, and anyone who tried to buck this is, in my opinion, ignorant--autoworker or not.
I don't want to come across like a jackass on this because I know it hits pretty close to home for you, but at the same time the writing was on the wall...this shouldn't be a surprise to anyone.