BizSugar.com › News › How GM's bankruptcy could become a cautionary tale for small business

So what sets the two auto industry groups apart? Primarily two things unique to the Big Three: 1) Bad management; and 2) United Auto Workers Union (UAW).

Bad management can be replaced with good management. Indeed, this has happened with the foreign companies from time to time, and could have happened in Detroit. But the one thing the Big Three couldn't overcome was the current and residual baggage imposed by generations of unsustainable wage and benefits concessions in the UAW contracts.