High Noon in Detroit

Always interesting, sometimes scary, always avoidable: That's the dynamic whenever labor and management square off. Once negotiators fail, workers stop working, and management watches productivity grind to halt. It doesn't have to be.

The General Motors-United Auto Workers strike is the latest in this showdown of wills. It's no secret that union membership has ridden a long road downhill, no more than it's a secret that GM's profits and market share is pointed in the same direction. So what will happen? Still hard to say.

What should happen? First, each party should do something stunningly obvious but apparently humanly impossible: Look at how they can help each other to become more successful. If neither win, GM, in a tenuous position anyway, would double its troubles. Likewise, workers don't always connect the dots: If their employer is saddled with expenses that it's competition lacks, the company has a hard time competing, will shrink and, inevitably, will die.

The old-fashioned demands of Big Labor for job protection ties management's hands. Shackles make it hard to react to competitive pressure. Work rules that stand in the way of efficiencies need amending -- and in return Big Labor's constituents need to share in productivity and profit increases. Align the interests of both sides and exciting things start to happen.

Let's hope this graying icon of Corporate America has management that is equitable. Let's also hope the UAW's members realize the same thing. Finally, let's hope that Washington will recognize that a broken health care system is among the troubles and will work to help both workers and management.