I think there's one very important thing to remember when you talk about manufacturing in this country. We won WWII by out producing the axis powers. The A bomb brought Japan to it's knees, but Germany was defeated by our ability to overwhelm them with mass produced tanks,planes, ships, etc.
When you move steelmaking, and manufacturing jobs to China, or somewhere else you have no control over, I believe you leave the country at peril.
Should you become involved in a protracted conflict with say Iran, you do not have the ability to produce in this country adequite replacement equipment to fight a non nuclear conflict. You barely have enough now to try to sustain what's going on in Iraq. That's why you have a lot of old UAW retirees workin at the Rock Island arsenal building armored humvee doors.
Just in passing, most union people are some of the most patriotic folks you'll ever meet.The president of Iran would not be welcomed at any UAW plant that I know of.
Anyway the main point of this rant is that you need equity, and fairness during bargaining time. All sides need to respect the needs, and issues shared by their common goals.The union needs to be realistic in their demands, and the company needs to respect the workers, and not say things like we can get trained monkeys to do your job, or we'll get a bunch of Mexicans to replace your sorry asses.(been there, heard that) Comprehensive striker replacement bargaing legislation, joined with mandatory federal mediation intervention so as to not damage the economy, or threaton national security would be a plus. At any rate when this country can not internally build, in mass numbers, enough weapons to fight a prolonged conflict, because of manufacturing outsourcing, and gutting a skilled union workforce, we're simply screwed.