Now here is a surprise....

[turnpike boy]

The voids will be filled. By whom, really doesn't matter. The plants and equipment left behind will be consumed and utilized by the entities that will follow in behind them, and the workers will be back at work, albeit at a likely much, much reduced income and benefit level. The consumer demand for their products will return, in time, as the overall economy finds its' way back to health. Who will fill that demand depends on who finds the way to hang on.

The venom for the union members in here is awesome. Can you blame any working stiff for taking a fabulous wage rate and even better benefits package? Sounds like sour grapes to me; if you worked for an outfit for 20 or 30 years at a great wage and with the promise of pensions and lifetime benefits, only to have them yanked out from under you when you're too old to find any real work anymore, do you think you'd be just willing to give it up without a fight? It ain't the MEMBERS who dug all that out of GM and Ford and Chrysler. They supported their union, absolutely - are you saying you never asked you boss for a raise? - never tried to improve your standing in the world? The packages they got were due to union bosses who DID THEIR JOB, arguably too well. It was company MANAGEMENT who screwed the pooch, first by agreeing to union contracts they had to know would cripple their company, then by permitting (so-called) crappy quality conditions and crappy product lines, all the while feathering their own beds with paychecks and bonuses that are flat-out obscene.