Around the Great Lakes - News edition

The Union

The strike is over. Details on the settlement will come out over the next few hours and days, but everyone's back to work. Well, everyone except those who have recently been laid off/RIFed by GM. it has become evident that the gulf between the state of Michigan and the rest of the country is widening. Reality is becoming skewed further and further as the state falls further and further from relevancy in the 21st century. Depending on who you believe, unemployment tops 10 percent in most of the major cities. The official numbers are lower, but not by much, and they're still 150 percent above the national average.

Interviews by local union presidents in major media outlets this week have thrust the disconnect in the face of the entire nation for the first time. A lot of these people really believe that it is the responsibility of the Big Three to guarantee jobs to them for the rest of their working lives and to guarantee jobs to as many members of the next generation as want them. This is bad. Most of the rest of the country, and most of the rest of the world, understands that this is simply unrealistic. Those corporations owe their employees very little. A safe workplace, yes. Good benefits, not owed, but should be expected by workers. That means low copays at the doctor's office and some vacation days, not employment for life. Japan nearly collapsed economically when lifetime employment started to end, and it responded. It responded in Japan's way, which won't happen in Michigan, but it responded. This has never happened in Michigan. The auto industry, and the state, wait for the next bailout to sustain them temporarily.

So how will things change? First and foremost must be education. Take advantage of those benefits. Go get a college degree. You might have to move. This happened to my family in the early 90s and we adapted. My dad worked for an automotive engineering company (as an engineer, he wasn't unionized). We moved, and we're better for it. Not everyone has to do these things. I think the people who suggest that the Big Three are done and might as well go away are crazy. There's a place for them, and a large number of their workers, in the American economy. But some people will have to adapt.

Second, the companies must diversify. Ford has actually done a decent job of this. They have an aerospace division. International partnerships need to be looked at as a real source of revenue, not just something to complement North American operations.

Third, look to the future. My wife and I will be buying a vehicle in the next year. We're under 30, upper-middle class, living in the inner suburbs of a major city with one child. Fairly typical people. And there is exactly one American car we'd consider buying right now - the Saturn Aura Green Line. We own one now - it's a 2001 Saturn. We don't really want an SUV or minivan - they're not practical for the way we drive or the places we drive. So we're quite limited. Ethanol is a boondoggle. Clear-cutting forests to grow surplus corn for ethanol is a bad plan.

So there you go. Pay attention. Michigan is in trouble. One of these days, it will be time to let go, and things will get really bad. And that's sad. But it's coming.