Detroit – They’re b-a-a-a-a-ck. Actually, they never left. And that’s the problem.<\/P>
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It’s fitting that – one year to the month since GM declared bankruptcy – the annual United Auto Worker’s convention is being held here amid renewed, militant calls that the Detroit Three give back last year’s labor concessions. In retrospect, the White House”engineered bankruptcy looks like a brilliant move, artfully dodging a prolonged bankruptcy of a major American industry in the middle of a national economic free-fall.<\/P>
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But it is also apparent that the “UAW bailout” – engineered by a union-beholden Democratic president – did not address Detroit’s structural problem. Indeed, experts say the automakers missed a once-in-a-generation opportunity to fundamentally change the industry, scrub its union culture, and enter the 21st century with a modern, union-free business model like their U.S.-based Japanese, German, and Korean competitors. . . .<\/P><\/p>\n