You're lumping the unions in again in those financial decisions.
It takes two, one to ask, one to say yes. I am not anti union, in fact, just the opposite. We have the working condtions we do now because a bunch of people got together and stood up to the 'capitalists'. It cost many people their lives or livelyhoods in the early 1900s.
The thing is, both the unions and the companies talked themselves into inflexible and expensive contracts. They also defined that relationship and made it an oppositional one. This relationship has led to a very inflexible workforce compared to the Japanese plants.
I wonder that nobody offered to reduce their wages for a limited time period. Short term pain to get the company through a very bad time. I bet there are a whole range of options that neither side explored because of their limited thinking and entrenched positions.
