"....Either that or have the union members swap wages/benies for a commensurate amount of stock in the company"
I just took it as a given that if it doesn't involve more bennies or less work that unions would not cooperate. I think that is a reasonable assumption.
United Airlines did your alternate suggestion - The employee stockholders will be effectively zeroed out before they emerge from bankruptcy. I think this serves as an example - Union labor will always bankrupt a company, so I am sure they won't accept equity in return for working harder - It works with most other americans, but apparently not union members.
I think a GM/Ford merger is in the cards, out of necessity - either before or after a bankruptcy......a merged company that operates with voided contracts, pension plans, and a dramatically smaller aggregate workforce might survive, and might even make a car that could be sold profitably. Granted, this may take a while as both companies have substantial non-north american assets that can/will be sold off to feed the dying union beast.
I probably live in an unrealistic dreamworld, but I see all businesses as a partnership between 4 parties. One is the company owners, two is the company management, three is the company customers, and four is the company employees. If any one of these partners feels they are not receiving their just due, a company can not survive. Owners MUST make a profit. Management MUST make every effort to maximize the owners profits, customers MUST receive a product/service at a fair and reasonable price, and employs MUST make a wage commensurate with their productivity and the earnings potential of the product/service. If each of the partners in this equation acts honorably everyone benefits from a strong business with growth potential. Unfortunately, many times, greed enters the picture and destroys a good partnership, owners repay the loyalty of employees to the company with job cuts, outsourcing and labor relocation, management abuses employees in order to aggrandize themselves in the owners eyes, customers exhibit no loyalty to a company even when it has provided them with exceptional value, and employees, especially when they introduce unions into the mix, extort exorbitant compensation from the business. It's a sad state of affairs.
I remember several years ago a privately held company in New England owned by a single family, actually the patriarch of the family was the sole owner. It was located in a small town and was the single largest employer in the community. A fire destroyed the facility, and I was so impressed by that old man. He kept virtually all of the people who worked there on the payroll (out of his own pocket) while the facility was being rebuilt. For those employees who wished to find other employment while they waited, he paid for their retraining. It was an amazing example of the partnership that can be had when all parties involved get a "fair shake". It's too bad most unions and companies can't see the benefits to that kind of partnership.