Accounting & Investing Info for San Antonio A & M
Gee GM strikes are not what they used to be. This article perhaps sums up better than any other what I have been saying about the metamorphosis of the auto industry. In 1970 hundreds of thousands of workders struck. That one strike raised the national unemployment level. That was hardly the case for the one last week.
Change is the only constant. The UAW and GM did not change. They no longer lead their industry. Period.
And it is because they haven’t changed that they are in the position that they are in now. They did not build cars anybody wanted to drive or cars that lasted. You would have thought with the fact that they knew they had all of the costs that they had, labor, healthcare and future retirement costs, that they would have continually been searching and developing ideas that would have brought continual future streams of income. It was their lax attitude towards the future that led them to the point where they are now. When hearing about the upcoming strike, I also wondered about the impact it would have, how long it would last, and how would it be resolved, yet after 48 hours it was all over, and like you said Dr Elam, with barely a blip on most people’s radar. This, like everything else that has happened recently with GM, further shows how far a once mighty leader of the auto industry has fallen. It should also come as a warning to other leaders in industries, that lax development and innovation will eventually lead to them being just a player in the game with a small role.
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Another part of the story is a lack of a governance systemt to really fix the proble. The union did not seem too concerned as GM Ford lost share in the 70s and 80s but there what to do strike for better design? And so the union consoled itself in contracts that eventually could not be met and the company watched their share of the market slide, now can anyone put Humpty Dumpty back together again, probably not.
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Professor Elam 
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