WASHINGTON

Humbled and fighting for survival, Detroit's once-mighty automakers appealed to Congress with a retooled case for a huge bailout yesterday, pledging to slash workers, car lines and executive pay in return for a federal lifeline.

GM said it wouldn't last till New Year's without an immediate $4 billion US and could drag the entire industry down if it fails.

General Motors Corp., asking for as much as $18 billion to keep afloat and survive even worse economic storms, painted the most dire portrait to date of what could happen if Congress doesn't quickly step in.

"There isn't a Plan B,'' said GM chief operating officer Fritz Henderson. "Absent support, frankly, the company just can't fund its operations.''

Without help, Henderson warned, General Motors "will default in the near term, very likely precipitating a total collapse of the domestic industry and its extensive supply chain, with a ripple effect that will have severe, long-term consequences to the U.S. economy.''

That bleak outlook has also got Canadian politicians, business leaders and auto sector employees anxiously watching Washington, given that most cars and trucks made in Canada by GM, Ford, Chrysler and two Japanese automakers -- Toyota and Honda -- are exported to the U.S. Details of GM's request for government funds came the same day that U.S-based auto makers reported another dismal month of sales.

GM's November sales in the U.S. fell 41 per cent, Chrysler's dropped 47 per cent and Ford's declined 31 per cent. Their overseas rivals posted abysmal results in the U.S. as well. Toyota's November U.S. sales tumbled 34 per cent while Honda's fell 32 per cent.

The numbers also were grim in Canada. Sales fell 24 per cent at GM, 16 per cent at Chrysler Canada and 33 per cent at Honda Canada. Toyota bucked the trend with a 1.9 per cent increase in sales, sparked largely by strong sales of the Corolla, Matrix and Lexus RX 350, vehicles assembled in its plant in Cambridge. Ford also recorded a 1.3 per cent sales increase in Canada.

Back in the U.S., leading Democrats have said they might call Congress back next week to pass an auto bailout -- but only if the carmakers' blueprints show the Big Three have reasonable plans to stay viable with the help. Making no commitments, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said yesterday that the House wants to see a "commitment to the future. We want to see a restructuring of their approach, that they have a new business model, a new business plan.''

All three U.S. automakers' plans envision the government getting a stake in the auto companies that would allow taxpayers to share in future gains if they recover. Executives were also offering up a host of symbolic concessions designed to repair their images, badly tattered after they arrived in Washington last month on three separate private jets to plead for federal help.

Ford CEO Alan Mulally, GM CEO Rick Wagoner and Chrysler chief Bob Nardelli all planned to drive to Washington in fuel-efficient hybrid cars for hearings tomorrow and Friday.

Mulally and Wagoner both said they'd work for $1 per year if their firms took any government loan money, while Ford offered to cancel management bonuses and salaried employees' merit raises next year, and GM said it would slash top executives' pay. Both said they would sell their corporate aircraft.

Ford Motor Co., in far better shape than GM and Chrysler LLC, asked for a $9 billion "standby line of credit'' to stabilize its business but said it didn't expect to tap the funds unless one of Detroit's other Big Three went bust. Its plan projected Ford would break even or turn a pretax profit in 2011.

The company plans to cut its number of dealers by more than 600, to 3,790 by the end of the year. The unions were preparing to make sacrifices as well. UAW leaders summoned local union leaders from across the country to an emergency meeting today in Detroit to discuss possible concessions. Up for discussion were the possibility of scrapping a much-maligned jobs bank in which laid-off workers keep receiving most of their pay and postponing the automakers' payments into a multibillion-dollar union-administered health-care fund. U.S. automakers are struggling to stay afloat heading into 2009 under the weight of an economic meltdown, the worst auto sales in decades and a tight credit market.

GM, Ford and Chrysler went through nearly $18 billion in cash reserves during the past quarter, and GM and Chrysler have said they could collapse in weeks. Ford's recovery blueprint said it would invest $14 billion over the next seven years.

The Associated Press With files from Record staff