"They may have underestimated the union's resolve"

Despite all the outsourcing and early buyouts that thinned active ranks, GM should have known what it was dealing with:

General Motors Corp. and the United Auto Workers are close to an agreement on a new contract that would end a two-day strike by 73,000 workers at the biggest U.S. automaker, five people briefed on the talks said... An accord to halt GM's first national strike in 37 years may be announced as early as today...

The framework for an agreement for the UAW to assume an estimated $50 billion in future union retiree medical costs in exchange for a one-time payment from GM had already been mostly complete, according to the people. Bargainers spent the last two days on issues such as health care for active workers and reduced pension and retiree benefits for new hires, the people said.

"GM may have realized that the strike could go on for a while, that they underestimated the union's resolve,'' said Harley Shaiken, a labor professor at the University of California at Berkeley. "The key is that GM must have a commitment on future products and jobs,'' he said. "That's the linchpin that converts whatever sacrifices are made into future benefits for UAW workers.''

Gettelfinger and Co. didn't let management play chicken with them. They were practically dared to strike, and they did. And GM, either fearing the repercussions of a strike already being supported by the Canadian UAW and the Teamsters, among others, going a long time, or perhaps knowing they were asking for the sun and the moon, is looking ready to concede what they were seemingly unwilling to just a few days ago.

Or maybe they were afraid of this:

EDWARDS TO JOIN STRIKING AUTO WORKERS ON PICKET LINE IN BUFFALO

Buffalo, New York – Tomorrow, Senator John Edwards will join striking auto workers from U.A.W. Local 774 on a picket line outside of the General Motors Powertrain Plant in Buffalo, New York. On Monday, 73,000 U.A.W. members walked off the job after contract negotiations with General Motors reached a stalemate.

It's amazing what standing up to these people can do.