HTML-Encoded Finding Aid

Title: Irving Bluestone:  Saturn

          Corporation Collection

Genre: Papers

Dates: 1985-1995                                     

Size  : .75 linear feet, 1 1/2 manuscript boxes

ID   #:  213                                                   

OCLC:                                                         

©Walter P. Reuther Library of Labor & Urban Affairs

HEFA.01b.update

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SCOPE & CONTENTS

Ø     Subjects

Ø     Correspondents

Ø     Transfer

 

CONTENTS

 

Reuther Web Holdings

Scope & Contents

The papers comprising the Irving Bluestone: Saturn Corporation Collection were placed in the Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs in February of 1995 by Mr. Bluestone and were opened for research in November of 2000.

 

In 1982 General Motors began discussions about using innovative design and manufacturing techniques to build a quality, cost-effective small car that could compete with foreign-made vehicles. The following year the UAW was brought into the discussions and the Saturn Project was officially launched.  GM unveiled Saturn Corporation as a wholly-owned subsidiary in January of 1985 and six months later the historic labor agreement giving the UAW full partnership in the management of the enterprise was signed.  In 1986 work began on Saturn’s unique facility at Spring Hill, Tennessee, which accommodated the manufacture of all major components of the car on site, and the first Saturns went on sale in the fall of 1990.

 

In 1992, retired UAW Vice President and General Motors Department director, Irving Bluestone co-authored Negotiating the Future, which described how a new, non-adversarial approach to labor-management relations could help America compete in world markets.  Most of the material in this collection was assembled by Mr. Bluestone for his chapter on the innovative labor-management experiment between the UAW and GM’s Saturn division, although some of the press coverage and correspondence with UAW Saturn Local 1853 president, Michael Bennett postdates the book’s publication. 

 

The Irving Bluestone: Saturn Corporation Collection contains instructional material, speeches, newspaper and magazine articles and other items documenting the development of the co-management/team production model at Saturn as well as the controversy that emerged over the implementation of this radically different labor-management relationship.

 

Subjects

 

Automobile industry and trade--United States

Automobile industry workers--United States

Industrial relations--United States

Management--Employee participation--United States

Quality of work life

Saturn Corporation

Saturn Corporation--Employees

UAW Local 1853 (Spring Hill, Tenn.)

 

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Correspondents

Michael Bennett

Irving Bluestone

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Transfers

A videotape of the segment on Saturn Corporation in the 1991 ABC documentary, “Revolution at Work,” has been placed in the Archives Audiovisual Collection.

 

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Contents

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[Box1] [Box2]

 

[Box 1]

 

         1-2.   Saturn Corp.; Bennett, Michael, corres., articles, speeches, 1989-93

         3.      Saturn Corp.; Bluestone, Irving, interviews, 1990-91

         4.      Saturn Corp.; history

         5.      Saturn Corp.; philosophy

         6-9.   Saturn Corp.; press coverage, 1986-95

         10-12.         Saturn Corp.; UAW contract, 1985-86, 1991-94

         13.     Saturn Corp.; work organization and decision-making, 1987-91

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[Box 2]

 

         1.      Saturn Corp.; work organization and decision-making, 1987-91

         2.      Saturn Corp.; work organization and decision-making—articles, 1980s-1990s

         3.      Saturn Corp.; worker recruitment and training, n.d.

         4.      Work in America Institute Productivity Forum, 1990-94

 

 

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