Got any figures to back this up?
Labor is typically the largest cost in ANY industry.
The labor costs for a ton of steel are around $13. That figure was in the newpaper today. It didn't come from the union either. It came from a VP at Nucor.
BTW, the pension and healthcare benefits that retirees used to enjoy are called deferred compensation. Exactly the same as the stock options that some dot-coms used to hand out like candy.
From what I can see, it's not the workers that screwed up or even screwed the company. This mess was caused by the same thing that is responsible for 90% of the problems in business...management.