yup
yup, it was the UAW rank & file that told GM to continue keep making 5 different brands of the exact same car 40 years after that business model was even viable. "Let's make the same bad cars and sell them as a Buick, Chevy, Pontiac, Cadillac & Saturn (let's not forget GMC)."
Now that's brilliant business sense that hasn't worked since 1960. They deserve to take a dive for their mismanagement alone.
Did management lock themselves in a time capsule?
Then along came Toyota, Honda, Nissan, VW & BMW to actually build cars that people want to buy in the USA . They can alter models to meet the changing tastes of the masses in half the time that GM or Ford can.
What are the managers of the big three thinking?
a Caliber vs. a Corolla. Have you ever driven a Caliber? Then you'll know.
a Malibu vs.a Camry.
a Lexus vs. Caddy.
a hummer which is really nothing more than a 8 mpg slug suburban/ tahoe with big fender skin and plastic interior.
a venture vs. sienna. GM could never get the minivan concept right, EVER.
Its all perspective and the UAW doesn't play a role in US automaker's corporate culture of self destruction.
any wonder why people would rather buy a Toyota. Toyota has only 3 targeted, yet different brands that sell to demographic groups. Its not a Chevcadpontibuick. Put three holes on the side of a POS Malibu and call it a POS Buick Century and yet its still a POS. Now, that's smart business strategy. And if Toyota had to shut down Scion because it no longer sells to the young market its aimed at, do you think Toyota would crawl to congress to ask for cash. No, they would fold the operation and move on.
The last decent idea that Detroit came up with was the Caravan and Chrysler has even screwed that pooch with the changes they made to the Caravan this year. Big three innovation, outside the box thinking, died with the '65 Mustang.
oh. and GM execs actually put their signature on the UAW contracts to renew them time after time with little or no backbone at the bargaining table. The UAW hardly held a meat cleaver to the hand of GM execs holding the pen that signed their CBAs all of these years. so you can't blindly blame the unions because the automakers signed off on the deals. The unions are only a 1/4 of the problem. The management of the big three still believes "Leave it to Beaver" is how Americans still think.
Give them 25B to make more horrid Dodge Calibers and E85 Trucks that still get 15mpg and they can't sell them. Keep thinking that people still want to buy Pontiacs & Buicks. Do you really think Tiger Woods would set foot in a Buick if they didn't have an endorsement deal with him? Chevy Volt? yeah that's the ticket for GM to crawl out from under their own rock. NO.
http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE4AI8C520081119?sp=true
.....and you want to ONLY blame the unions. how perceptive.