[Pencil.Fight]

I agree with just about everything that everyone's been saying, just not with how it's being said.

If we take a step back and look at the big picture, we all share the same goal (the consumers, the UAW, and GM). That goal is for GM to be in business and profitable for as long as possible.

Over the last 10 years, this has looked less and less like an attainable goal. However, GM is a business and they are trying to restructure and retain that profit and market share that they once enjoyed.

It's not a question of whose fault it is that GM was losing money (foreign automakers, GM's poor design choices, or the Union's demands). The only way for this to be worked out for everyone is for the UAW and GM to come together and work for the long-term benefit of the American Auto Industry. The word Union is based on the word "Unity", and that's what it seems like we need a whole lot more of right now.

I'm not going to pretend to know what's going on in the minds of the union negotiators, but it seems to me that the clash is a result of GM's long-term approach and the Union's short term approach. After all, the laborers only real concern is that GM stay in business long enough to support them through retirement, while the GM execs (who don't have to worry about their own pay) are looking much farther to keeping the company in business long past their own time on this earth.

Both sides need to better understand the other. This argument would be over much quicker if each side would stop holding onto their own points so tightly and just try to see it from another point of view. I'm not taking any side in this debate. In my opinion, they're both wrong.