I don't think that the automakers are unwilling to prod the UAW for help...I think they realistically believe that there is no chance this would happen. The automakers have been on thin ice for years, losing market share and profitablity. The UAW continued to press for more and more...kind of like slaying the goose that laid the golden egg. I have heard some finance experts suggest that, as a condition for government aid, that the union contracts be negated and that the union cough up give backs. I think this is a wonderful idea. The idea that government (taxpayer) money would be used to fund union members who drove the industry into insolvency, while accumulating wages and benefits that most Americans don't enjoy, is absurd. Union members should share the pain, or go unemployed.