Saturn Fell Prey to GM, UAW Bungling

Prospects for GM's Saturn division dimmed with the Penske Automotive Group's failed bid to keep the nameplate's dealer network alive. But the division's problems began long before GM's bankruptcy and downsizing. GM management and the United Auto Workers union both sabotaged the ideas behind Saturn.

The division began as a model for regaining market share from Japanese automakers, improving dealer service and reforming labor practices. With collaboration and more flexible work rules, a no-pressure dealer sales strategy and a peppier product made in a Spring Hill, Tenn. plant, Saturn could have helped spread reforms to other GM brands.

When Saturn finally launched in 1990, its no-haggle pricing resonated with the public. It initially gained customers who owned Japanese vehicles.

But Saturn soon became just another cog in the GM machine. Executives didn't invest in upgrading the Saturn lines. Also chipping away at Saturn was Stephen Yokich, who took over as UAW president in 1993.

He disliked how Saturn broke with the UAW contract pattern. Workers received 80 percent of standard union wages plus profit-sharing.

When Saturn needed more factory space for a new model, Yokich convinced GM to locate production in a Delaware plant with conventional union pay and rules. And as former Wall Street Journal Detroit bureau chief Paul Ingrassia reports, Yokich sought to impose more conformity by working to defeat Saturn UAW local leader Mike Bennett in 1999.

GM belatedly tried to revive Saturn. But even with the Aura, which won North American Car of the Year in 2006, the name had lost its luster.

Perhaps Saturn can still get a new lease on life. If it doesn't, it won't be because the original ideas behind it were faulty, but because management and the union steered it off the road.

But for the long term, the U.S. stock and bond markets still offer the best opportunity for an open-eyed investor to make some meaningful money.

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