US automakers absolutely struggled in the 70s when foreign car companies showed up and started competing. It wasn't Kia that gave them fits, it was Honda and To

US automakers absolutely struggled in the 70s when foreign car companies showed up and started competing. It wasn't Kia that gave them fits, it was Honda and Toyota. It was 100% an existential crisis, and unions made the situation worse. Which isn't to say that unions are necessarily bad and didn't produce good things for their workers, but they made it very difficult for the US auto industry to adapt. A link to a long series about the interaction between US automakers and the unions is below. Of note is the story about how automakers' market share declined precipitously in the early eighties when Japanese automakers figured out the US market. The US auto industry is not a great example of how a union can work with an employer in the face of existential threats. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/10/08/business/uaw-auto-union-timeline.html#/#time386_11128 https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/10/08/business/uaw-... https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1981/10/11/f-the-japanesee-advantage-auto-success-due-to-more-than-lag-in-wages-/231523da-2e62-4bf0-b1ae-eadc4efe0170/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/business/1981/10/11/f... https://www.investopedia.com/articles/economics/chrysler-bailout.asp https://www.investopedia.com/articles/economics/chrysler-bai... (Heavy International Competition)