By Doug Cunningham

On the verge of collapse, the U.S. auto industry returns to Congress seeking more than $30 billion in emergency federal loans to survive into the New Year. It’s a high-stakes drama for domestic autoworkers and the millions of U.S. jobs dependent on the auto industry.

[Gettelfinger]: “Millions of jobs will be lost in this country if we lose this industry.”

That's United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger in an emergency meeting of the UAW in Detroit where the union is considering more concessions to get those federal loans for the auto industry. GM, Ford and Chrysler employ roughly 250,000 people. And more than a million retirees get auto company pension checks. Gettelfinger says these federal bridge loans are critical to the industry's survival in the United States. And he says workers and their unions are not to blame for the auto industry’s crisis.

[Gettelfinger]: “Are we going to blame the auto workers who are, by the way, ten percent of the cost of an automobile? Or are we gonna take a look at what’s happened to our economy, to the housing crunch, to the Wall Street bailout and the failures on Wall Street?”

The UAW may scale back its jobs bank benefit that pays workers for a time after they’re laid off. The union may also let the auto companies to delay payments into a retiree health care trust fund.