The US United Auto Workers (UAW) union has ruled out concessions - at least for the time being - to help rescue the ailing Detroit-based car industry. Ron Gettelfinger, the union president, said at the weekend that "the focus has to be on the economy as a whole as opposed to a UAW contract"...."We're here not because of what the auto industry has done", Mr Gettelfinger said during a rare press conference. "We're here because of what has happened to the economy."
Excuse me? Listen, I'm sympathetic to unions, because I think workers deserve to have someone speaking on their behalf, or they get ripped off by those who run things. But the unions also have to be sensible and willing to compromise, or bankrupcy is what happens. The days of the defined benefit pension and over-the-top health care coverage is over for private business. (My denomination sensibly went to a defined contribution pension 26 years ago.)
In Robert Samuelson's column in the WaPo, he argues that tough concessions should be made by all three components of any industry--management, investors, and labor--in exchange for federal assistance, and this should be true for any industry (including banking). This sounds right to me.
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