I agree it's a question of perception more than reality. Every time one of those union thugs starts bloviating on television about workers rights someone goes out and buys a new Japanese car. Detroit can't clean up its act until the unions clean up theirs. The unions will never go away, thus, US automakers are locked in a death tryst with the unions. Unions are dying and will take down the automakers with them. A classic case of the parasite killing its own host.
The problem is like a bad marriage. Management is the put-upon husband; the unions the gold-digging wife; the workers the spoiled kids.
I agree the real problem is the unions. They just keep wanting more and pay/benefits for less and less work. Add government regulations and you can understand the situation. Manufacturers moved out of the US and outsourced
operations. It didn't help. they were still stuck with poor union workmanship. Foreign imports gave consumers an alternative with reliability and service. I don't owe American auto industry anything but scorn for years of frustration and high cost.
True and well said. I well remember when only one union, the machinists union, refused to sign the agreement with Eastern Airlines and it put them out of business.
I agree with you that the unions and the industries they are still in are in a death dance. The unions started as Communists organizations and their tactics are the same still. Class struggle, labor against management, is at the heart of who they are. No organization can survive with their two main components at war.
Of course, Communists don't intend for private enterprise to last. They intend for the state to own everything.