GM and Chrysler just came out with their new estimates of bailout need in order to avoid failure and they are quite staggering in light of the testimony given back in December. Chrysler is asking the government for another $5 billion and GM is asking for an additional $30 billion.
GM Story
These asks come with the qualifications that Gm will lay off another 20,000 US workers (another 27,000 globally) and Chrysler will lay off another 3,000 US workers. These new estimates for bailout cash also are again assuming that car sales pick up in the near future (which seems pretty unlikely) and more importantly that their percentage of market share doesn't erode even more than it has been. Given the current state of the economy, plus the gains in market share being made by the foreign transplants, I would look for GM and Chrysler to be back asking for money again this year (assuming that they get this ask).
These new cuts will inevitably mean that the suppliers will also be making commensurate cuts to their workforces as well. It would appear that the Detroit Three are simply not going to be competitive going into the future and that the UAW may very well be on its death knell as we speak. I hope the Congress/Obama really think about throwing more good money after bad towards GM and Chrysler, as it seems that almost no amount of cash is going to save them from the perfect economic and bad management storm that has hit them.