Peter DeLorenzo points out the stakes in play with Delphi’s bankruptcy:

The Delphi bankruptcy is the latest major crack in the pressure cooker that the U.S. auto industry has become over the last two decades – only this one is definitely the tipping point into a dimension that industry insiders have been dreading. Lower cost competition from around the world has changed the auto manufacturing landscape completely – and Detroit has been operating under a model that has been obsolete for years. Strapped with a crushing wage and benefits structure negotiated in an environment fueled by an optimism that in retrospect had absolutely no right to exist, the American car companies and the United Auto Workers union are now facing a future that revolves around a harsh reality that comes down to this one simple but all-encompassing statement: change or die.