Bush's Plan Makes Auto Crisis Obama's Problem

GM chief executive officer Rick Wagoner says a March 31 deadline for the companies to be in the black or give the money back is a tight one.

To Play, or Not to Play: Auto bailout on track, but Obama pressed for more action

(ABC News Photo Illustration)

"I don't think it's impossible," he told reporters after the bailout was announced Friday. "We obviously have some big steps we have to take."

One of those steps is dealing with auto workers' wages. The loans announced by President Bush includes a "target" of bringing the wages of Big Three auto workers down to the level of Japanese manufacturers operating in the United States.

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The United Auto Workers union is already asking the Obama administration to reverse planned pay cuts. But, in an interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos to be broadcast on "This Week" on Sunday, Vice President-elect Joe Biden warned that union workers will have to make more concessions.

"Labor isn't the reason why the automobile companies are in the trouble they're in," Biden told ABC. But, he added, "Labor, in order to save their own jobs, in order to save the prospect of an industry, is going to have to make some more sacrifices."

That puts the Obama administration on a collision course with some of its most reliable supporters in one of the nation's largest labor unions.

"Organized labor feels it's giving too much, but if Obama gives labor what it wants, they will have to subsidize the industry forever," Morici said.