American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings Inc., Visteon Corp. and ArvinMeritor Inc. are either closing plants, buying out workers or researching plans to offload health-care costs to halt financial erosion in the U.S. in 2008. Meanwhile, these same companies are building new plants, hiring workers and winning new contracts in Europe and Asia.
The backlash from the American Axle (AXL) strike will ripple through the auto sector potentially putting a stake through the heart at General Motors (GM) and Ford. These companies are in no position to withstand a prolonged union stranglehold.
Unions had their place in the development of our country’s manufacturing boom as there was an inequity between company and worker. That inequity has flipped somewhat and now is in favor of worker over company.