Datz, excellent thread of info, and wiki, you know a lot as well. But I think there is something here that is very important that needs to be added:
When the industrial revolution started in America in the 1800's there was massive abuse of workers by big corporations, so in the twenties and thirties unions were formed with the explicit purpose of protecting the worker from abuse by the company.
Well, the opposite has happened with the United Auto Workers Union (UAW). They had become so powerful in the 1980's that they got amazing concessions. Do you know that there is one senior worker about 62 years old who is paid a total benefit package of $130,000 a year and his job is...cutting the grass at the GM Headquarters Building.
The UAW held GM, Ford and Chrysler ransome by having enough power to bring them to their knees with a labor strike...they became too powerful, and the government didn't care.
Do you know the UAW created a thing called "The Jobs Bank" where an auto worker who gets layed off from his GM factory job goes to this "Jobs Bank" and is still paid 90% of his salary for doing nothing.
So the Union got everything they demanded and raped GM.
Who's crying now?