Bankruptcy Extortion

Delphi's recent filing for bankruptcy apparently was sufficient to get the UAW to cave in to GM on health care, knowing that GM held the bankruptcy card and could screw the workers out of even more:

DETROIT (AP) -- General Motors Corp. and the United Auto Workers have reached an agreement that will help the automaker lower its health care costs, GM's chairman and CEO said Monday.

The announcement came as the world's biggest automaker said it lost $1.6 billion in the third quarter and said it was considering selling a stake in its financial arm in a bid to restore its investment grade credit rating.

The tentative agreement on health care is projected to reduce GM's retiree health-care liabilities by about 25 percent, or $15 billion, and cut GM's annual employee health-care expense by about $3 billion, CEO and Chairman Rick Wagoner said. Cash savings are estimated to be about $1 billion a year.

And will be realized in increased illness and death. [Sarcasm]But hey, workers in Whereverstan are willing to work 160 hours a week for 2 cents an hour with no benefits at all, so you gotta compete.[/sarcasm] Keynes said, "In the long run, we're all dead." Well, the long run keeps getting shorter.