Washington - With a plan in their pockets and a promise of union concessions, the CEOs of the Big Three automakers are back on the Hill for another round of negotiations for a massive federal industry bailout.

Rolling into Washington in their companies' hybrid vehicles, the CEOs are back in front of the Senate committee for a second day of questions and pleas in their quest to secure $34 billion in emergency government loans.

Jim Press, the vice chairman of Chrysler, argued, "The fact of the matter is we are in a recession. Right now if one of the companies went bankrupt, as has been said, it would take others with them because the suppliers are so interlaced."

On Wednesday, the United Auto Workers agreed to a series of concessions to help the struggling auto giants, allowing the companies to delay payments to a union-run trust fund for retiree health care and suspending its controversial "jobs bank," which ensure laid-off workers up to 95 percent of their working salaries. Those changes are far from popular with UAW members: a Chrysler employee, Melvin Thompson, notes, "I have thoughts about the fact that the only people who are being raked over the coals for a loan is the autoworkers."

Deferring payments to the health care trust fund alone could save the Big Three ten to twelve billion dollars, but it isn't enough to keep them afloat, auto executives insist. They have warned Congress that they only have enough cash to last a few months at most.

Congressional democrats want to tap into the $700 billion financial bailout program set up weeks ago for the funds, but Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has said that there aren't yet enough votes in Congress to pass that plan.

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