If the United Auto Workers didn't have enough frustrated and worried members already, the latest news about Daimler AG is bound to get them even more annoyed. The German-based company paid a $15.7-million bonus to Tom LaSorda, now Chrysler's vice chairman and president. This comes just a few months after the UAW agreed to significant givebacks to help the auto maker turn itself around. Individual union members probably won't tolerate much more of the pay disparity. The bonus came as a result of the sale of Chrysler to Cerberus Capital Management, according to the Detroit Free Press.

The news comes the same week as the death of the popular Douglas Fraser, who led the UAW for many years. Would he have stood for union givebacks and then generous executive payouts? He knew what it meant to be an auto worker. He went to work in a Detroit auto plant in 1934, during the height of the Depression, and rose through the ranks of the UAW to lead the union from 1977 to 1983. Current UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said upon hearing the news of the death of his friend and colleague, "He never forgot that we were working for our active and retired members." Then let his memory, and the memory of many union battles, encourage the UAW to make its collective voice known about the bonus paid to LaSorda at a time when many auto workers simply don't know if they will have a job.