I’m pfollowing Auto industry’s problems for the time being, because it’s in my backyard. I know people who work or have worked in the industry, for DCX or for GM or for Ford. The current situation with Delphi is unsettling, to say the least. I noted previously, the disastrous effects of a strike, and today’s Detroit Free Press echoes the sentiment, again: “[I]f a strike drags out for more than three months, GM could burn through most of its $19 billion in cash, increasing the risk that the world’s largest automaker would go bankrupt, said Rod Lache, who studies GM for investors at Deutsche Bank Securities Inc.

Many older union members, however, are making pleas to avoid strikes. Richard Gedeon, a 53-year-old hourly worker at Delphi’s Packard plant in Warren, Ohio, said he does not plan to strike.

“It would give them a reason to close the plants,” said Gedeon, who has 34 years of service.

At this stage in the game, a strike seems about as counterproductive as it could possibly be, anywhere, ever. The auto industry is in serious jeopardy; companies are going belly-up precisely because they cannot afford the increasing burden of the liabilities that they wrecklessly agreed to in years past. But the bottom line is this: You (or the UAW) cannot get blood from a stone. You cannot strongarm someone (or a corporation like Delphi) into giving you something that they do not have. Delphi does not have the resources or the capacity to continue paying unskilled laborers a king’s ransom.

That the bulk of these union members can’t find another job somewhere that can offer the $27/hourly that they are demanding, is evidence that suggests they aren’t worth that much. After all, if they could find another job that could pay them as well, they wouldn’t be so worried about what is happening at Delphi, would they? You’re only worth what someone is willing to pay you. You are not worth what you earned last year. You are not worth what you think you “deserve” to be earning. You are only worth as much as someone values your labor, expertise, or a combination thereof.

Those invovled, the UAW in particular need to look at, and accept the facts of reality. If the UAW really wants to act in the best interests of its constituents, it would be wise to suggest concessions in lieu of a strike. Wishful thinking, bullying, and threats will not change the fact that a is a.