Strike!

I wonder how Ron Gettelfinger sleeps at night. I know the UAW members deserve to be paid for the work they do, but do they have to shut down GM in the process? And what of Ford and Chrysler? It's been practice for decades to rape the healthiest auto company in contract talks and then force the same terms down the throats of the other two, regardless of their ability to meet them.

I was hoping the UAW would go after Chrysler this year because I could see the PE owners walking away from their investment, trashing the entire thing to break the union. The UAW would go on record as shutting down one of the hands that feeds them, and that would be the end of of the UAW's reign of terror. Ironically I think that the PE guys would get their money back as the Big Two would need those plants to fill the demand that would build after the mess was cleaned up. Going after GM is from that old hardball playbook. It's time for GM to use some old school rules, too. Shut down. Shut down hard enough to hurt everyone they can touch. Don't make it easy for the UAW - their members have mortgages and summer homes and Harley-Davidsons on the line here. Make it hard for Michigan, make it hard for OH. Make it hard for every Tier supplier out there. Make it clear that it is in the best interests of the country for GM (and Ford and Chrysler) to make cars on the same terms as its competitors.

I hate dealing with strikes; they screw up my life, too. The D will be a mess, Michigan will suffer, and all sorts of bad crap will happen. But it's time for the UAW to wake up to today's realities in cost accounting and the automotive manufacturing process. We'll see who's been hitting the snooze bar at 11AM today.