[Clemenza]

I could give you a LONG history going back to River Rouge about communist activity that coincided with mass layoffs in the 1930s. Management capitulated to the Unions after WWII because the American labor force effectively had a monopoly on labor pricing power, as Europe and Asia had been destroyed.

When Europe recovered, the Asian tigers started roaring, and the energy crisis hit, the days of auto laborers ruling the roost began to die a slow death. Folks tend to forget that the days of (unskilled" "Amurcan werkers gittin' deservin' middle class wages" was for a relatively short time (1948-1973) due to the factors I mentioned above.

[SES1066]

A very interesting and illustrative example of the UAW and a failed auto company came in the late 50's and early 60's when Studebaker Auto went belly-up. A company that was running for a century (Studebaker Wagons were very popular in going west) prided itself on a 'family relation' with its work force. When the UAW became supreme this attitude was not returned. Studebaker had a reputation of paying higher wages and having higher quality product than the other auto companies.

As the UAW moved to a monolithic position in regard to ALL of the auto companies, this hurt the smaller companies in favor of the larger ones with deeper pockets. Basically what happened was that the UAW used Studebaker as a club to beat the other auto companies until it was Studebaker that was lagging and unable to match the others in wages and benefits.

A sad,sad story of what appears to be good guys getting shafted by a union with purview over an entire industry and uninterested in 'family relation' type agreements.