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From the Nashville Tennessean:

Pact would end Saturn's special labor status

ERIC PARSONS / FILE
Saturn's special arrangements with GM could end if workers approve a new labor contract. Employees would lose their exemption from temporary layoffs, and union leaders would lose their say in plant decisions in the change.


By KEITH RUSSELL
Staff Writer


Saturn Corp.'s days as a ''different kind of car company,'' where workers are protected from layoffs and where union leaders and management share decision-making powers, might soon end if union members approve a new labor contract tomorrow.

Saturn parent General Motors Corp. and the United Auto Workers union announced a tentative labor agreement yesterday that they said would cover approximately 6,000 workers, the majority of whom are at Saturn's automotive assembly plant in Spring Hill. Also, a small number of nonmanufacturing employees in Troy, Mich., would be included.

Both sides declined to provide details of the pact until tomorrow after a scheduled ratification vote by union members. The company said the vote for Spring Hill workers will take place from noon to 6 p.m. tomorrow inside the auditorium of Spring Hill High School.

Several Saturn workers said they were informed yesterday that the new agreement calls for Saturn workers to eventually be brought under a national labor contract covering more than 117,000 UAW workers at other GM plants. That four-year deal was inked in September.

If so, it would mark the end of an era at Saturn.

Saturn spokeswoman Sue Rehmus declined to say whether employees will be moved to the UAW's umbrella contract with GM.

''Prior to ratification, it's premature to discuss anything,'' Rehmus said. Michael Herron, chairman and manufacturing adviser for Saturn's UAW Local 1853, did not return phone calls yesterday.

GM created Saturn in the late 1980s as a stand-alone company with its own chairman, board of directors and a separate UAW contract hailed for its innovative emphasis on cooperation between management and union members.

The pact exempted Saturn employees from temporary layoffs because of slow production, and gave union leaders a say in plant decisions. Saturn employees in turn accepted a lower base pay than their counterparts at GM plants though they also had the opportunity to receive performance bonuses.

Switching Spring Hill workers to the UAW's national contract would mean an end to those special arrangements, said Mike Bennett, a former UAW president and retired Saturn worker who helped broker the Spring Hill plant's original contract. ''It would broaden management's opportunity to lay off (workers), and the union would never be involved in decisions,'' Bennett said.

That would be a tragedy, Bennett said, ''because GM and the UAW made a commitment to the people who relocated here. They … moved to Tennessee with an understanding of a different kind of involvement. Now, after 13 years the whole thing collapses.

''This is a common GM car company now.''

Many think change is just what Saturn needs.

Created to help GM compete with its Japanese rivals in the small-car market, the company has lost money in 12 of the 13 years since it began selling vehicles in 1990. GM reportedly has told Saturn workers the division lost $1 billion in 2002 and expects to lose a similar amount this year, as sales have slumped for the company's mid-size L-series sedan and small car Ion, the latter of which received lukewarm reviews.

The difficulties have compelled GM to seek to strip Saturn of some of its autonomy as the company tries to cut costs and boost sales and profits across all of its car divisions.

Employees at Saturn's Spring Hill plant say they are already working under some GM operating guidelines and building cars with GM power trains and parts. And new Saturn vehicles such as the Relay minivan are being made in nonSaturn GM plants.

Others view a new labor pact as one more important step in making Saturn a viable cog in GM's turnaround.

''It was great being an isolated island in GM with a kind of special circumstance, but the options for Saturn were to become a more integrated part of GM or cease to exist,'' said Brian Lund, an analyst who covers GM for Morningstar Inc. ''I think becoming a bigger part of GM is better than becoming extinct.''

Richard Benavides is one Saturn worker who's open to being brought into the GM contract fold. ''I'm glad it's over,'' said Benavides, who has been at the plant for 12 years. ''It's never worked before. It's obvious. We're losing billions and billions of dollars.''

Even so, Benavides said many workers at the plant are anxious about the labor agreement's details. Younger workers who lack seniority are particularly worried because they fear the prospect of layoffs, he said.

Many Saturn workers at the UAW union hall last night shrugged their shoulders when asked about news of the deal. They can't really form opinions, they say, because they don't know what the options are or what might happen.

''I'm concerned. I hate to lose what we have now,'' said Ross Mangicaro, a technician who works on the assembly line for Saturn's Vue compact sport utility vehicle. ''They (the company) need to have layoffs and we are aware of that, but we don't want it.''

Bennett, the former UAW president, said he's unsure how workers will vote tomorrow. Approximately 30% of union members voted to join GM's national contract when the question last came up in a vote five years ago.

''It's increased, but is it 50%?'' Bennett asked. ''It's closer, but I don't know how close.''