[Donutblue]

IMO there are several Company and Union problems which have contributed to the tumbling empire:

CEO and Mangement - greed, mis-management and no integrity. To vote themselves these out of site bonus checks, stock options and sign on options is mis-mangement in every language. Your sucking the Company, stockholders and Union workers dry and setting a poor example to the workers. To let 30,000 employee's go and still be in operation clearly states a mis-managment issue.

Unions: While the objective is to ensure a fair wage and benefit package to the employee during their employement and retirement years, we look up to the CEO and management of the company and decide we are entitled to a piece of the pie the same as them - which is proper. However when employee's slack off / goof off or leave with a BS injury and believe they are entitled to a pension the rest of their life someone pays -- either the company pays the legal fees the pension or even both. Fellow employee's need to keep this in check for their own benefit.

Health:- skyrocketing health insurance premiums and increased employee longevity has increased company obligations and obviously extended pension payouts. Great to be healthy, but the mangement teams of these corporations need to plan this in their long range plans.

Just to justify my remarks I have been a Union employee for over 30 years and a past Union president. Yes, several issues can account for mis-management and business failure. But the responsibility always falls on the lead dog and his pack to lead us in the right direction and you start by setting a good healthy example.