GM Slashing 30,000 Jobs, Closing Plants

General Motors has absorbed nearly four billion dollars in losses this year. This has led to the decision to eliminate 30,000 jobs and close down nine North American production plants by 2008. The company hopes that this will bring production in line with demand and allow the automobile manufacturer to begin making money once more. The 30,000 jobs represent nine percent of the company's entire global workforce. This has not been an easy decision to take by the United Auto Workers, who have quoted GM's actions as being "extremely disappointing, unfair, and unfortunate" and "devastating to many thousands of workers". The union will be protected by its job security agreements, but contract negotiations in 2007 will now be more difficult. Although GM stands to cut costs by seven billion dollars, it will also cut its amount of production. Also, because the union has stated that negotiations will be more difficult in the future due to the job losses, I'm wondering about the impact this will have on labor-management relations, and how this will affect the company's future.