Witness the Continued Decline of the American Auto Industry

In a year that already saw Toyota surpass GM as the world's number one automobile manufacturer, we now see another huge hit to an American car industry that can't seem to find a strong place in the market.

After failing to negotiate an acceptable middle ground, 73,000 members of the United Auto Workers union began striking outside of GM plants shortly after 11:00 AM, EDT.

Now I'm not going to get into issues of unions and corporations in this post...I just want to highlight how huge an event this is...and some of the irony...You see, one of the biggest demands of the UAW was assurance of employment - a guarantee that future production plans would utilize American plants that employ UAW members. The strike is somewhat ironic, then, since an extended strike could irreversibly cripple General Motors, permanently ending the unionized jobs of these employees (because really, you think Ford and Chrysler can afford to take on more staff? How's their business doing? I thought so.).

Something else bitterly humorous about the situation is that most consumers won't notice the effects of the strike at GM dealerships. You see, all the brands' sales have been slow enough that inventory is still high around the country. Suddenly something that was costing GM is going to buffer the trouble caused by the lack of production.