Yup, it was the Detroit unions that came up with the Pacer/Pinto/Hornet/Gremlin etc., and built products that got 12 mpg when gas prices doubled. Those were highly reliable products, too, as they had one third the warranty of those (union made) imports.
REALLY? On this planet it goes more like this. Some greedy CEO wants to use brand recognition to put a sub par cheap product out on the market and increase his short term sales numbers.
He calls in the engineers to design this stinky POS. The engineers design it, the union guys build it. The company suffers because the customer soon figures out what a rotten POS the product really is. The company takes a huge hit the CEO is handed a "Production" bonus because sales were up briefly in the first quarter. The CEO and the boards then claim they are being bled dry by the unions because sales are down and ask for concessions.
That's a lot closer to the truth.