What do the automakers want?
The automakers are asking for about $25 billion in loans to help them survive until 2010. Advocates for a bailout argue that if the Big Three can hang on until then, they’ll be in position to be competitive long term. That’s because billions of dollars in annual savings won in the 2007 labor agreement with the United Auto Workers union kick in that year, including shifting the responsibility for retirees’ health care costs to union-controlled trust funds. What’s more, it’s likely that car sales will pick up again by 2010 and that plant closings between now and then will bring the Big Three’s capacity in line with this demand.
