[SIZE=+4]Saturn workers may strike GM[/SIZE]
FLINT, Mich., July 17, 1998 -- The labor troubles at General Motors Corp. are growing as the automaker's Saturn workers in Tennessee will vote Sunday on whether to give union leaders permission to call a strike.
Even though the Saturn workers have long been portrayed as a model of union-management cooperation because of their unconventional UAW contract, a dispute arose with GM over worker bonuses. The dispute has been exacerbated by GM's use of Japanese spark plugs in Saturn engines since one of the two Flint strikes cut off the supply of GM plugs last month.
And at GM's engine plant in Romulus, outside Detroit, workers disrupted production Wednesday to protest the use of the Japanese NGK plugs there. The Romulus plant makes engines for GM's new generation of full-size pickups.
"I think it's a total disservice to all of America for General Motors to be using Japanese spark plugs in their products," UAW Vice President Richard Shoemaker said. "Again, I think it lends validity to what we've been saying all along, that they have an 'America last' strategy."
The strikes, which began June 5, have cost the world's No. 1 automaker at least $1.2 billion. They have idled 25 assembly plants and more than 100 parts plants across North America, as well as nearly 179,00 workers.