Snippage
We can speculate all we want about the company "setting up" the whole thing, etc. etc.
However, unions(AND companies) can be dumber than dirt! In Jamestown, NY(which for many years had been a MAJOR player in furniture mfging), Coca-Cola came in and wanted to build a new bottling facility, paying some pretty decent wages. The "furniture kings" killed the possibility of building IN Jamestown, but Coke built it just over the city line anyway, and couldn't sign up employees fast enough. As to unions, in the 70's, "Art Metal", a long time maker of office furniture, working out of old outdated facilities, sunk the whole wad on a new factory, better working conditions, A/C, etc.As noted, they bet the whole pot on it, even with cash flow problems, figuring they could pull out of it with new improved production. Well, the "union", in their infinite idiocy, decided if the company had money for the new plant, "they" should get some of it, and voted to strike. The company had nothing more to give, and the idiots couldn't understand which side their bread was buttered on, and after 6-8mo. the company just folded, leaving a lot of unemployed workers and a nice new plant moldering. Chamber of Commerce worked many years trying to get someone interested in the plant, considering many businesses were leaving NY state because of taxes.
They finally interested someone, and for a good many years Cummins Engines have been very busy there, with people clamoring to get hired.
Now, maybe Art Metal shouldn't have dived into the deep end of the pool without a better life preserver, but the union surely could have done something more intelligent than shooting themselves in the foot like that.
Norm