During the Chrysler bailout of 1979-80, the UAW set a new standard for labour-management collabouration, when it worked hand-in-glove with the company to shut down plants, eliminate 50,000 of its members’ jobs, and impose $600 million in wage cuts and other concessions. In Canada, where inflation was a more immediate threat to workers than job losses, both because prices were rising more rapidly and Chrysler’s facilities were more modern, White and the Canadian UAW leadership initially refused to reopen the contract. They did so on the grounds that the contract-reopening was an attack on “Canadian sovereignty,” since it was the US government that was tying financial aid to Chrysler to immediate worker concessions.