The Machinists are saying, ‘We’re going to make a stand and make them respect us,’ … This is what the union strategy is as a Labor Day celebration of the power of labor.

They’re doing it to appeal to the younger workers.

This is payback time for AMFA. That’s the way the labor movement is looking at it, … Raiding is a sin, and [they believe] AMFA raided and won [by] saying it would never accept concessions....

They’re also doing it in order to show if you go on strike, this is money you’re going to be losing.

Cutting costs is not a business plan. You can cut costs but it doesn’t sell cars.

I thought a month ago that the industry had reached a plateau, and we would finally see what the direction would be, … Instead, it’s just gone from bad to worse.

They don’t want to ruin a good thing, but at the same time, they don’t want to lose a good thing.

This is probably as bad as it gets for a union leader. He’s in a fight with no allies.

Workers have got to be asking themselves, what do we have to do?

General Motors is more than just a symbol of American industry. It envelops the towns where it operates, and people become dependent on it in those towns.

I think it may have emboldened some employers to reassess their situation, making them realize if they plan carefully they can withstand a strike, … And that means, yes, you can ask for major demands...

It may give the governor a sense he has to prove something establish his reputation to not back down. I am afraid the parties are really digging in. This has become a first-class dispute, a...

People looked at jobs in the auto plants like property, like something that they owned, something that could be passed down from father to sons. That was pretty much making it for a lot of...

Quite bluntly, to an auto worker at General Motors or an airline worker facing demands for concessions, this doesn’t mean a hell of a lot, … Their concern is ‘can my union deliver at the...

In organizing itself I see a tremendous increase in the reinventing of the labor movement as the heir of the civil rights movement. I think it’s the recasting of the labor movement in a way...

They almost see their job as a property right.

This is not going anywhere, … This is not going to be settled.

In collective bargaining, it’s important for both parties to get used to losing because they have to make initial demands or offers and then they have to be willing to accept less.

Traditionalists didn’t see any reason for it and saw it as a challenge to real collective bargaining. Over the years there has been a rethinking of this idea.

Their feeling is, ‘This is my only chance to get a job in this industry again, and I’m taking the job of a worker who miscalculated and walked off the job,’

It’s a union that’s been defeated, and they’re trying to decide how they’re going to be defeated.

I think that (AFL-CIO President John) Sweeney will have to make a strong statement about the AFL-CIO and how it’s strong and still relevant.

[The strikers are on their own against] a very determined employer and a large pool of replacement workers, … If things remain the same and continue on this path, then the strike would be doomed.

I think it (the AFL-CIO) will survive as long as it has key unions still in it like Steelworkers and Auto Workers and especially the Communication Workers, … But it’s going to be a loss...

The question is: Are bigger unions, better unions?

This is a small union, and it doesn’t have any allies, because it’s kind of a pariah in the labor movement,

What they’ve done is really almost jump-start reconsideration of health care benefits,

They are trying to do an end-run around the union and go directly to the membership, … They believe that what they’re doing is acceptable to the membership, but not to the leadership.