The CEO's of the big three appeared before the house financial services committee Wednesday, pleading for help for their financial woes.

The $25 billion is to prevent the big three from collapsing, which would be a very tough blow to an already weak economy; and that impact would reach Michiana very quickly.

The chamber of commerce says that in St. Joseph County alone there are more than 3,400 jobs connected to the auto industry, and those jobs would be in jeopardy if bankruptcy really is what lies ahead.

For many of those businesses it's already been a tough few months, and there's no sign of that stopping.

I’d love to say that everything’s great and nothings changed, but it has,” said Tim Trump, general manager of Campbell Ford in Niles.

A below average year has already forced Campbell Ford to lay off workers and cut back wherever possible. Trump says they have no choice but to follow what's happening on Capitol Hill closely.

“I read something the other day that something like 3 million people (nationally) would be either unemployed or directly affected by the failure of any of the big three. So yeah, it’s pretty overwhelming,” Trump said.

“When you consider how many people we lost with the RV (companies), you know, can our county city area really absorb more terminations and layoffs? It’s tough,” said Phil Damico, Director of Business Growth with the St. Joseph County Chamber of Commerce.

The chamber is worried about local auto part suppliers that supply to the big three. One example is Nyloncraft in Mishawaka, which employs more than 300 people. They’ve already had lay-offs this year.

“At one time every machine ran here ran 24 hours a day 5 days a week and it’s down now to less than half capacity,” said Nyloncraft President Jim Krzyzewski, as he stood in the portion of the factory that makes the products that are sold to GM.

GM is their second biggest client, and makes up roughly 20% of their business.

But the chamber of commerce says it’s a relief… that it’s not 100%.

“The majority of our (local) companies are not locked solely into the big three, which is good… We may not see as bad of a hit as Michigan or… other (areas with) plants throughout our state,” Damico said.

But that doesn't mean a big three bankruptcy wouldn't be big trouble.

“The first thing that would happen is it would be a hit to our cash flow, which is being monitored every day. We feel we could survive that, but it would be very painful. Survival is very key right now,” Krzyzewski said.

If GM declared bankruptcy, Krzyzewski anticipates they'd probably lose out on some of the money GM owed them for their orders.

They get paid about every 60 days, and they say fortunately they just got their check last week.

Meanwhile he says they're watching what happens in Washington very closely; and not just with GM, but with Ford and Chrysler, too.

The big 3 CEO's said themselves Wednesday that if any of them go bankrupt, the other two could very well follow since they're so inter-connected.