In my understanding, the United Auto Workers union were one big reason why the US automakers were bailed out in 2008.

So if anything, they're (partly) responsible for keeping a dead/dying industry on life support. Can't blame them for not wanting thousands of people to lose their jobs, but market forces were definitely not favorable to American automakers at the time.

Then again, American automakers seem to be figuring things out. The problem with counterfactuals is that you can never actually observe them...