I have watch many big comanis go bust. If they continue a long time after they should have stopped the situation gets ever worse. The people employed in and around a falling plant get the brunt of the problems. If the death process is long the people who can leave and get jobs elsewhere leave and that makes the situation worse. If the closing happens before the all the best people have left then new companies start right away and the whole place will be better off. There are a number of cases that can be studied for both cases. The situation is by far worst when the plant is basically the only thing holding the town together. In theory the unions try to keep this from happening. In practice the unions are negotiating for all the plants and they sacrifice easily one plant to maintain some life in others. The unions are great for employees in a growing company but they become deadly for companies on their way down. You might think that the unions are trying their best to do what they can for the employees. Unfortunately that is not so. The unions try to keep the company a life for as long as possible and will sacrifice plants and employees along the way. It is a misguided thinking and countless examples tell us that the actions should be quick and to the point rather than longwinding and painful. As I see it GM should go straight into chapter 11 now and try to save the mostprofitable parts of the business and close down the rest. If they do not they will be forcedinto chapter 7 closure soon and that will be a disaster. Also doing nothing will be a much worse option for everyone. One option is to close all NA operations now and concentrate on oversees operations. Possibly start up some operations later in NA again. Whatever happens will be interesting just for the mere fact of the size of the company involved.