I still blame management more than the unions. My father-in-law retired as a VP of CONOCO many years ago and we've discussed this several times. He worked in the coal side and came up with Consol (Consolidated Coal, which got bought out back then by CONOCO which then got bought out by Dupont - all of which is now ancient history from the early 1980s). Anyway, he pointed out that the coal companies bargained hard but he felt fairly with coal unions and the unions got good contracts but reasonable ones as well. In his opinion, the automotive companies just rolled over and gave the unions whatever they demanded and never said no. So I laugh when I see people trying to play the pity card for GM and Ford management. It doesn't wash. They could have stood fast against unreasonable demands but instead they gave into them so they wouldn't have to confront the unions and force the unions to really think about what was good for themselves and the company for whom they worked. And the net result is the pension/medical care mess we see today that is eating away at GM and Ford. GM's management took the easy way out in the 1960s and 1970s and figured someone else could deal with the subsequent problems. Well, those birds have come home to roost. And they are still management's birds.