Scapegoating the UAW

Like any organization run by humans, unions have had their share of problems, their share of corruption. But, to blame the UAW for the failure of U.S. Car manufacturers is to scapegoat American workers and to unfairly blame them for the industry ills. I have my doubts that any government bail out can save Detroit, but if the Big Three crash, it's the tightening credit markets, the outsourcing or insourcing of American jobs and goods, the failure of industry executives to make cars that, say, I want to drive and the desire of some republicans to "break" the unions so that workers will have no meaningful voice in how a company runs that deserve the lion's share of the blame. Detroit made their deal with the devil when giant SUV's became the flagship product, reflecting the now-now-now, me-me-me mentality of the republican establishment. Well, the future came sooner than they hoped and now, for the Big Three to survive, they need a bridge to an entirely different attitude. Blaming workers who dare to protect themselves through collective bargaining is hardly the way to begin that journey. After all, haven't the industry executives been doing a little collective bargaining of their own-with the taxpayers?

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