He’s taken a windy day and turned it into a hurricane. Labor is influential in Sacramento. On certain bills and issues, they are very influential. But they are one of many groups that can dominate.

It’s going to have significant impact on the companies and on the industry. It is a painful option for the union but it is the best option of those available.

Miller, by taking such a visible and hard line, may have underestimated the UAW. The union would like to see a settlement, but not at the cost of 60 years of gains.

Bankruptcy is allowing airlines to emerge with a clean slate, but it’s bad news for workers. Pensions will be affected, and it will mean lower wages and probably fewer jobs.

Everyone on the picket line who thought they could be out of a job for good will be out of a job for good.

It’s certainly representative of the discontent that’s out there. The retirees are frustrated, but I don’t think it represents a major threat yet.

They have a very determined strategy and they are plunking a lot of resources into this. Northwest is not going to blink at this point.

[Others aren’t so sanguine.] How do U.S. firms compete in the global economy? … If the only way to compete is with $10 wages, we have a problem that is much larger than just Delphi....

There’s a cushion but it doesn’t prevent the fall. It eases the pain but it’s not the same as having the stability of a successful company.

For a plant closing of this magnitude, the overall impact is somewhere between traumatic and devastating.

Both sides have an interest in settling this. Nobody wants a strike.

What’s new about the global economy is First World productivity combined with Third World wages. That can create some real downward pressure on high-wage countries.

Because they (Delphi) have considerable leverage at a moment of bankruptcy is not the same as saying the UAW is out of the game,

The union has very painful choices, but it’s managed to preserve important principles in a very turbulent environment. At the end of the day, UAW retirees will still have paid health benefits. Less than before...

This was difficult for the union to do, but the union is being pragmatic. Its goal is to preserve jobs. It realizes the severity of the situation that GM is in.

The members are angry and fearful. Imagine you work a lifetime, and then you see it go up in smoke.

I suspect they felt that taking a very hard line would send a message to the union. Instead the message that they sent was to dig in your heels.

Northwest could become the next Eastern.

There is more than one way out of this canyon they are in right now,

It’s another sign of the tension that is enflaming this strike, … GM is just pushing the UAW here, tweaking them.

This contract could be a watershed event within the telecommunications industry because a major union has used its existing leverage to break into a new area. This isn’t simply any company. It’s the largest telecommunications...

A lot will depend on who’s the first company up. You may almost have an insipid auction taking place among the companies trying to be first.

It’s unclear if it’s a route to a better job or to a more educated unemployment.