The idea that the UAW was going to give up the ghost and concede pension and benefits issues to the Big Three to help them with their turnarounds probably had a short shelf life.

GM (GM) and Ford (F) have been getting upgrades left and right on Wall St. based on the assumption that the big union would cooperate on cutting costs further as the US car industry continues to lose share at home to the Japanese. And, the UAW has been talking to Chrysler’s potential owner, hedge fund Cerberus, about helping its on health benefit costs.

Maybe UAW chief Ron Gettelfinger got tired of all the press about how his union would bail out the car companies and help their shareholders. That would come, of course, at the expense of jobs and benefits that labor at the companies has been used to having for decades. In the meantime, they have watched GM’s share price double since late 2006.

Gettelfinger recently told Reuters that the union was not heading into the upcoming labor negotiations with the U.S. automakers in a "concessionary mode."

With pressure from Washington to cut emissions and improve fuel-efficiency, a costly undertaking, and labor costs well above Japanese rivals, the Big Three are still in a pinch. They have not solved the one problem that might allow them to form a partnership with labor.

But, they would have to start selling more cars.

Douglas A. McIntyre

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