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.

They’re going to try to make an argument that simply cutting wages, slashing benefits, etc., is not the only way to go. Whether the bankruptcy judge buys that remains an open question.

This is the first pitch in the game of hard ball and I think the union is both angered and not by any means intimidated.

Historically, GM has been the most tone-deaf of the auto companies when it comes to labor issues. But York is speaking plainly and directly about critical issues between GM and the UAW.

What we’re looking at in Seattle is a debate over the rules of the game and how the environment and labor will be treated — whether they will be debated elsewhere or whether they will...

Caterpillar is a powerful symbol of this process. It dominates its field. It is one of America’s largest exporters, and it is very profitable. If there ever was a company that could bring back the...

There’s no other way to diplomatically frame it – there’s an empty chair there.

It certainly has escalated,

Delphi has essentially said: ‘We need competitive wages.’ Those wages currently are being set in China, not Flint, (Michigan).

Miller has clearly chosen bankruptcy over collective bargaining to restructure the company. Delphi is using a bankruptcy judge to begin moving in the direction of Chinese wages and benefits.

The global economy has become a blast furnace that seeks to eliminate many of the gains that steelworkers have won over the years.

It may be

The union was caught in a global hurricane, and they managed to come out of it with minimal structural damage. They preserved key principles; they gave up some money.

The corporation knows the sensitivity of these kinds of issues, they have a lot of experience with what will provoke a local strike. What I suspect they (the GM management) didn’t anticipate is that it...

These are very important findings that come at a critical moment in the immigration debate. What the study indicates is that if we view the contribution of immigrants to the total economy there may be...

If you cut wages by two-thirds, that creates a class of people that can’t afford to go to Wal-Marts. If other industries do this, America will have a far smaller middle class, and the whole...

This could be the biggest buyout in memory and a turning point in the history of the industry.

Health benefits have been at the top of the list for what unions have sought to hang on to. This reflects how serious union leaders feel this is.

I think this case is, in fact, a watershed. I think what it does is — in the most dramatic way we’ve seen to date — it introduces the wages of the global economy into...

If GM actually did pursue this route?there would be a really poisoned atmosphere in the United Auto Workers plants where the parts are shipped.

They’ve got tough issues, but nobody wants to put the moneymaking on hold to sort it out.

There’s a real awareness on both sides [of labor’s divide] that it’s not business as usual. There are some really tough challenges out there for unions, but it’s also a moment of real opportunity. There...