Not Big Three's Fault?

Megan McArdle says the Big Three's problems are not entirely the UAW's fault, but pretty close. (She says blame the dealers, too -- I think I will!) It's a common argument: we can't blame the Detroit auto-makers for putting so many eggs in the SUV basket because the profit margin for compacts is too small... but McArdle adduces an especially galling variation on the theme. The unions actually forced a culture of passivity onto the management: "30 years of worrying how to meet the UAW's bill left a corporate culture that was not geared towards innovation, nor towards making small, efficient cars." That's right - labor is responsible for the flawed corporate culture and disastrous management decisions of Chrysler and GM. Failure to embrace hybrid technology? Killing the electric car? Not pushing for national health care reform decades ago to address their legacy costs? All the unions' fault.

What is particularly offensive about this argument is that auto workers are almost surely going to get shafted - pensions cut, health benefits curtailed, wages slashed - no matter what happens to the Big Three. To heap all the blame on them for Detroit's problems on top of that... it's just too much.