For American car companies, I'd say management is at least as much as fault as unions. These managers typically get paid a lot of money and have made many bad decisions over the last few decades. For example; Chrysler K car, Ford Explorer exploding tires, Ford Pinto exploding gas tanks, plus a thousand small decisions that we don't know about but pay for everytime our American car breaks down.

The same can be said for just about every declining American industry.

--shinbone