Friday, December 02, 2005
I BET THE GUY WHO THOUGHT THAT ONE UP GOT A BIG BONUS.
SPRING HILL, Tenn., Nov. 29 - This was the factory that was going to revive the American automobile industry, proving that Detroit could build quality cars and win back buyers who had defected to the Japanese.
Opened when auto companies were closing plants and cutting hundreds of thousands of jobs, General Motors' Saturn plant here was a rare opportunity for the company and its workers to literally leave the industry's old ways behind and embrace some of the lessons that Japan was teaching, with an American twist.
Now, Saturn is in danger of falling victim to the fate this plant was intended to avoid.
The plant, the only one exclusively devoted to building Saturn vehicles, is among 12 factories that G.M. plans to shut or partly close, eliminating 30,000 jobs in North America as it tries to recover from one of the worst slumps in its history.
snip
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SPRING HILL, Tenn., Nov. 29 - This was the factory that was going to revive the American automobile industry, proving that Detroit could build quality cars and win back buyers who had defected to the Japanese.
Opened when auto companies were closing plants and cutting hundreds of thousands of jobs, General Motors' Saturn plant here was a rare opportunity for the company and its workers to literally leave the industry's old ways behind and embrace some of the lessons that Japan was teaching, with an American twist.
Now, Saturn is in danger of falling victim to the fate this plant was intended to avoid.
The plant, the only one exclusively devoted to building Saturn vehicles, is among 12 factories that G.M. plans to shut or partly close, eliminating 30,000 jobs in North America as it tries to recover from one of the worst slumps in its history.
snip
Despite the risk of leaving their old jobs behind, workers were eager to come because there were to be no layoffs under the union contract at Saturn. (The contract was changed last year after G.M. persuaded workers that it stood in the way of introducing new models to the plant.)
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