Last year’s strike by the United Autoworkers union versus American Axle & Manufacturing was a revealing development for the U.S. manufacturing sector: it aired all the problems involved in maintaining high-value production programs in the global economy, in the face of rising costs and declining demand. Needless to say, it also revealed the tensions that persist between manufacturers and Big Labor.

Those tensions have become much more apparent as manufacturers worldwide have been crippled by the credit-market collapse and demand is virtually stalled.

The UAW’s side of the argument in 2008 contained much of the populism that is now so prevalent. Calls for “justice” and “fairness” against “greedy” business owners and executives are common.

The fact that populists rarely if ever credit responsible or self-denying owners and executives is, to me, proof that their complaints are merely rhetorical. But, if this story is true, last year’s critics of AAM’s management salaries, and populist of all sorts, have now the chance to prove otherwise.