were going to "break the whole system." She got her information from NBC. She is not usually hysterical, but she bought this one hook, line, and sinker. Thank you NBC. I finally had to simply stop talking with her about it because she simply wasn't able to see beyond the "breaking the whole system" hysteria.

A billion is chump change..
The GM plant here in Arlington Tx builds the Tahoe, Yukon, Escalade and Suburban.
They pump out 400 units (vehicles) per shift which is 1200 units per 24 hours when running 3 shifts which is the norm.
Approximately 1 vehicle per minute comes out finished and ready to ship.
This is one plant, GM has multiple plants across this country

Somehow NBC got her all worked up about the auto workers wanting WAY more than they should and that was going to "break the whole system". Like I said, she is normally a relatively sane person. I'm so afraid of the next year.

GM would beat us up regularly for 50 cents per part cost reductions and threaten to pull their business if we didn't give it to them. 50 cents a part doesn't sound like much unless you sell 10k of them per week. Adds up to real money.

At one of my employers, GM asked for a 2% retroactive price reduction over the prior year. They wanted the company to write them a $8 million dollar check for parts that we had already sold, that were installed on cars they already sold and were on the road. Told us that if we didn't give it to them, they would resource all our business. Since GM was 70% of the business in my plant, they had no choice but to go along and give it to them. One of our competitors said no, and we got some of their business. It was a cut throat business and not for the faint of heart

Why do you think nearly everyone who attempted to enter it in the last 60 years has failed miserably? The only exception I know of is Tesla.