Both using employees as bargaining chips?
That's a reasonable way to look at it.
Another interesting thing about GM is that, before the bailout, the shareholders truly were residual claimants. Most of the company was owned by the pension fund. A company that big, with that long a history, isn't very much like a young, growing, profitable new enterprise. It's close to, but not quite, a social/socialist enterprise where the government has a very large say.