I have absolutely no problem with how much a UAW member gets paid per hour, what kind of benefits they have, how tight or loose the work rules are...none of that. The UAW should negotiate the best deal they can get from the car companies.

But when what has been negotiated makes the car companies unprofitable and the only way to save them is with huge taxpayer bailouts...the deal should change.

If the taxpayers are asked to fund these companies to keep them alive, it's only reasonable that the UAW members be asked to sacrifice, as well. In this case, all the stakeholders except the UAW have been forced to sacrifice. Forced to abandon their legal contractual rights by the government using the full weight of it's influence. Our government made a political decision, first to save two almost dead companies, and then to fund the bailout with direct and indirect injections of taxpayer money thru the banks.

In my opinion, the UAW should have been asked...no, forced...to share the pain in order to justify the expenditure of billions of taxpayer dollars. The administration didn't ask or force them to do so, and I find that offensive...and very unfair.

The result is that the tax dollars of workers all over the country who earn less and have substantially less benefits will be used to fund the elevated wages and rich benefits of the UAW. That's unfair!

By the way, do the numbers. There is absolutely no possible way that Chrysler or GM will ever be able to repay the loans made by the federal government to keep them alive. The amount of bailout money given to Chrysler isn't even in the same ballpark as the loan guarantees of the early 1980's. If you look at the numbers, even if Chrysler returned to the profitability it enjoyed in it's best years and stayed there, they couldn't pay bank the bailout loans for many decades in the future. If the government charged even a nominal rate of interest on those "loans", they could never repay the government...or I guess I should say us taxpayers!

You're right. You''re better served choosing not to reply. There's no way that welfare payments to already well-off workers should be funded by others who are paid less and have substantially fewer benefits. It's simply unjustifiable. The UAW should be laughing up their sleeves, having duped our elected government into funding their elevated wages, benefits and loose work rules.

Unfair...and disgusting!

P.S. One of my sons works for Ford and I own three Ford products. And, by the way, early in my working career, I worked for five years as the Plant Superintendent of one of Chrysler's engine plants. Later, I spent over 20 years as a corporate banker, at one time being responsible for the banking relationships with all auto and truck manufacturers as well as suppliers. I'm not coming at this situation from an uninformed past.