Saturn Couldn

[Charlie]

A new feeditems entry has been added:

Saturn Couldn’t Escape GM’s Dysfunctional Orbit

Paul Ingrassia from the Wall Street Journal: General Motors and the United Auto Workers union have waged war against each other

[Jaseball]

We've been saying for years GM and the UAW killed Saturn. Well they succeeded, but too bad for them they are probably soon to follow.

[Citation84]

The world changed while GM and the UAW tried to strangle each other.

[ductune]

Originally Posted by Citation84

The world changed while GM and the UAW tried to strangle each other.

Yes, Sad but true. It's important to note that it was the International UAW that agreed with GM to disassemble Saturn. The local Unions both in Spring Hill Tennessee and Madison Heights Michigan fought hard to keep the Saturn Agreement but GM told the local unions that if they voted again to keep the Saturn agreement, they would shut them down. The local Unions had to agree to give up rights to build Saturns and accept the National UAW labor agreement. That was the end of the partnership that helped to make Saturn a success in the early years

The International UAW leaders and GM Executives that Started Saturn were long gone and the new leaders on both sides wanted nothing to do with the partnership.

It was GM that wanted out of the Saturn Agreement. The International Union leaders agreed with GM or were powerless to support the locals in their bid to keep the Saturn Agreement.

GM wanted out of the Saturn Agreement so they could make Saturn common with other GM plants and installed the common GM manufacturing processes.
These common processes of course did not support plastic paneled cars with space frames. That's why plastic went away even though most customers wanted it.

[Starduster_Sat]

This article has it pegged. I'd forgotten about the UAW. One of the daringly novel things about Spring Hill was this very un-Detroit-like labor agreement. I've met some of these union types- very hard-edged people. I understood why- the history of labor unions vs management in this country is very bloodstained. Both sides are so imprisoned by and locked into that adversarial relationship that they cannot break free of it. They tried at Spring Hill. And couldn't accept it.

Hey, we were a cause, weren't we?

A caution for all of us... It is understandable to obsess about what could have been. But you can also get TRAPPED in that loop- unable to move forward. I will reiterate my post on the "Boycott Penske" forum:

[B]These are places that are gone.[B]

Now we need to be ready for what happens next.

Peace.

[ChgoBlues]

Mr Ingrassia got this one right on. For any of those that don't know the behind the scenes stuff, this article brings to light some of that, also noted by Jack O'Toole in his book.

And I have to agree, would have been nice to see what 'might have been'.