We have some experience here with contract-procurement/outsourced parts. I think it's about 12 years since the race to outsource component production was merged with the impetus to minimize component cost.

Labor [particularly airlines] hit on the notion that until a corporation was bankrupt , wages should be forced up(??)

Now management is using similarly warped approaches , embracing bankruptcy as a means of simultaneously voiding previously-collectively-bargained wage & benefit agreements , while shifting pension burdens to the government (?!!?)

Article by Danny Hakim , NYTs auto industry key writer:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/09/bu...gewanted=print
or
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/09/bu...pagewanted=all

free access i think thru 10/16/05

Quoted by Ron GEttelfinger:
"Delphi's decision is obviously an extremely bitter pill,"....

[excerpts]--
Delphi wanted workers to accept wages of $10 to $12 an hour, ....
On Friday, in a move that dismayed the union, Delphi sweetened severance packages available to its top 21 executives, a move the company said was necessary to retain its newly assembled management team. Union leaders, however, said it showed a lack of shared sacrifice.
"Once again, we see the disgusting spectacle of the people at the top taking care of themselves at the same time they are demanding extraordinary sacrifices from their hourly workers, engineers, administrative and support staff, midlevel managers and others," Mr. Gettelfinger said.