Unless FORD can get rid of the UAW it will not matter if they take Gov Money or not.
If FORD does not meet every demand of the UAW they will just run to Barry and say we want the same treatment as the GM workers cause its only fair.
Game Over.
Ford is actually going to the table asking for further cuts that GM may have that give them a cost advantage. This is after Mulally brought in his crack negotiator from Boeing to cut a good deal with the UAW. Note, Ford's relationship with the UAW for years has been far better than GM's. Also they have been quietly working on Toyota like work rules plant by plant as noted in the Detroit papers, but it got little coverage and no one saw the significance of it.
The Ford Stock dilution last week was to 1. add additional shares to cover the equity swap for the bond holds and 2nd, to have enough additional shares for the 1/2 and 1/2 cash and stock for the "VEBA" i.e. to off-load their health and retirement liabilities to the UAW.
IF Ford can ever get profitable and off-load these all in one lump, IMHO the UAW would be less of a factor.
I am not trying to sing the UAW song here, but maybe this relationship has a lot more balance.