Auto industry begins its collapse

Of the Big 3, Chrysler has always been a poor sister, but I've also always had a soft spot in my heart (head?) for it as the underdog. My first car was a hand-me-down Plymouth Valiant (1972)--my dad only owned Plymouths for almost as long as I have been alive, and right up until he died. So it was with a pang of sadness that I read that they are shutting down all of their plants for a month solid starting after this Friday. (The same article tells us that GM is following suit for the plants that are making the Volt engines, so that's more bad news as well.)
While one has to admire the pluck of Chrysler believing that things will turn around after January 20th--as we all want to believe--no one can think that any of the workers there can survive losing a whole month of income without some severe ramifications. Most likely, this is just the first of the dominoes to fall due to the Republican Party's senators' intransigence in lending a helping hand to the final great American industry. Let's hope it's also the last.