Does Anyone feel like Bailing

[Undertoad]

Noticed in NYT story this morning saying it's the end of the line for SUVs:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/24/bu...er=rss&emc=rss

More than 1,000 workers were laid off at the Moraine plant. Under terms of the U.A.W. contract for all its members, they and the workers in Janesville and Newark will collect unemployment checks and payments from G.M. that together equal about 80 percent of their take-home pay.

For a YEAR. What an amazing deal.

Of course, in a market, everything is connected. The other side here is that GM is motivated to close the plant *sooner*, so they don't have to pay for nothing for too long. With gas prices dropping like a rock, perhaps there is life for the line after all. But GM can't risk it.

There is always the other side to these deals. The union negotiates a higher salary and greater benefits. The company must then lay people off wholesale, when the tough times come, instead of keeping more people and saving money on salary and benefits.

Still, GM had their chance to build a car in a non-union state, from scratch, with non-union North American labor just like the Japanese companies... and they built Saturn. Were we supposed to be impressed?