Job security? There is no more job security! How can any company be expected to provide such a thing? You've got to be kidding!
Since there is no such thing as job security anymore, the UAW's expectations are totally unrealistic. What are they thinking? Even if GM wanted to grant this, they are hardly in a financial position to do so, especially right now. Employers these days compete in a global economy, subject to worldwide market forces and far-reaching economic considerations. Companies have been forced to become more efficient, to automate, to eliminate unnecessary jobs, all the while combatting escalating raw material costs, skilled labor scarcity and health-care expenses rising at 25-30% per year.
The best way for an individual to guarantee their financial security is to forget about job security and other entitlements and start thinking about investing in their own financial security. They must learn, learn, learn; becoming an expert in a given particular field, becoming utterly invaluable to an employer or an industry.
In the end, both the workers
In the end, both the workers and GM know they need each other and they both know they cannot afford a prolonged strike. NewsVisual made an interesting Knowledge Map http://www.newsvisual.com/newsvisual/2007/09/union-and-execu.html of the executive ties between GM and the UAW that could get the negotiators back to the table. Based on these ties and the general economic situation, this strike should be relatively short.