Not long after getting the shocking word that Ford Motor Company is making plans to cut a full 12% of their salaried workforce by July the damage estimates start rolling in from the protracted UAW strike of American Axle.

The experts figure the company lost out on $370 million in business while union boss Ron Gettelfinger spent his time playing politics.  And as the dust settles?  The Michigan auto-parts supplier is forced to eliminate 2,000 jobs.  Details, according to the Detroit News

The job cuts are expected to be achieved primarily through buyouts and early retirements and will affect American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings Inc.'s six original facilities in Michigan and New York, purchased from General Motors Corp. in 1994.

The Detroit-based supplier wants to eliminate about 42 percent of workers at three plants that will stay open under the new pact, which was ratified last week after a bitter, 87-day strike. The plants include Detroit Gear, which employs 1,900 workers. Some 800 jobs will be lost at three plants that have closed or will close, including the Detroit Forge factory, which employs 300. Before the strike, 3,650 UAW workers were employed at the six sites.

So there's that.  But if they're tired of talking about rough news that's already happened and want to look forward to the bright future brought to you by Michigan policy makers they could start discussing the word from an unnamed source at General Motors this morning that additional restructuring is on the way, including, you guessed it, more job cuts.  The Associated Press reports that the new plan's framework and additional details will be made available during the company's annual meeting on Tuesday, June 3.  Right around the corner.

But I can hear the arguments already... the lefties are saying `boy that really stinks but Michigan lawmakers have nothing to do with the auto industry.'  Always an interesting argument.  Somehow the President is responsible.  Congress?  Never.  State lawmakers much closer and more intimately involved with the various production plants and management teams?  Bah.  What could they do.  Somehow, mystically, George Bush continues picking on Michigan's biggest industry.  Because he's a mean guy, I guess.

Or maybe, just maybe, Michigan manufacturers are at a competitive disadvantage with automakers building cars in other parts of the United States.  I'd like to use the phrase "right to work" here but that's dangerous in this State.  Because somehow enacting that policy at the State level would make a difference.

Read on...