I see Meagan buying into the sad misperception that unions are the bain and great evil facing auto company management. In fact, the large auto makers have good relations, through almost all recent history, with their unions.
She also seems to buy into the false notion that Detriot cannot make a profitable car, even with unions.
Here is some separate background, for those interested (see below). Libertarians (and their sidekick Conservatives) appear to be set to get comeuppance for their lack of economic vision regarding employer-provided healthcare.
An outright failure and windup of GM, in the current economic environment, might be exactly the kind of Hooverish thing that would assure the ascendancy of Liberalism for two generations.
General Motors established its pension in the “treaty of Detroit,” the five-year contract that it signed with the United Automobile Workers in 1950 that also provided health insurance and other benefits for the company’s workers. Walter Reuther, the union’s captain, would have preferred that the government provide pensions and health care to all citizens. He urged the automakers to “go down to Washington and fight with us” for federal benefits.
But the automakers wanted no part of socialized care. They seemed not to notice, as a union expert wrote, that if Washington didn’t provide social insurance it would be “sought from employers across the collective bargaining table.”
Detroit was too flush to envision that it would ever face a financial strain. Ford and Chrysler signed identical pacts with labor, so all three automakers were able to pass on their costs to customers. Besides, the industry’s work force was so young that few workers would be collecting a pension any time soon.
-Roger Lowenstein, NYT
But the automakers wanted no part of socialized care. They seemed not to notice, as a union expert wrote, that if Washington didn’t provide social insurance it would be “sought from employers across the collective bargaining table.”
Detroit was too flush to envision that it would ever face a financial strain. Ford and Chrysler signed identical pacts with labor, so all three automakers were able to pass on their costs to customers. Besides, the industry’s work force was so young that few workers would be collecting a pension any time soon.
-Roger Lowenstein, NYT
Also, "Obama, Inslee Introduce Bill to Help U.S. Automakers Produce Hybrids, Lower Health Care Costs, Wednesday, April 18, 2007"
Update: More on autos. Fair Game?
