Toledo workers wish to buy Chrysler: Kerkorian may want in

Why wouldn't that work? It's worked for Saturn..

Was created by GM to combat market loss to the Japanese cars.

It was not the result of a car maker buying another and then considering divesting itself of the acquisition.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn_Corporation

http://toledoohioneighborhoodconcerns.com/blog

"Was created by GM to combat market loss to the Japanese cars.

It was not the result of a car maker buying another and then considering divesting itself of the acquisition." neighborhood

ya lost me. The article talked about one possible scenario being an employee ownership. Saturn is an employee owned company - not sure where the purchase thing came in? But Saturn has always been owned by the employees.

"The problems go back to Saturn's creation in the 1980s by Roger Smith, who was GM's chief executive at the time. His plan was to build a car that was fully competitive against small Japanese automobiles. So GM spent billions creating a unique vehicle and building a new factory in Tennessee.

Saturn was special in other ways. All its cars had plastic bodies, which wouldn't rust or dent. And the original union contract for Saturn was more of a cooperative venture between workers and management than the usual confrontational approach. The idea was to make Saturn as much of a separate company as possible, to build cars and relationships that GM seemed unable to do with its existing divisions and infrastructure."

http://www.forbes.com/2004/08/17/cz_jf_0817flint.html

"But Saturn has always been owned by the employees." This article refutes this idea.

And further;

"Saturn, founded by General Motors Corporation on January 7, 1985 as a wholly-owned subsidiary, is a brand of automobiles marketed in the United States and Canada. GM began manufacturing Saturn automobiles in 1990, largely in response to the success of Japanese small-car imports in the United States.

Its motto was "A different kind of company, a different kind of car". Not only would it copy Japanese car style, it would try to copy Japanese management style: workers would have more control and involvement in the plant, the UAW agreed to lay off the Saturn division, and in general things were 'done differently' than they had been at GM, drawing from experiences gained through its NUMMI and CAMI Automotive joint ventures."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturn_Corporation

http://toledoohioneighborhoodconcerns.com/blog

Saturn ran an advertising campaign positioning the company as employee owned, featuring 'owner employees'. And I never questioned it.

Pretty slick.

DETROIT, April 23 (Reuters) - Representatives of billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian, who has bid for Chrysler Group (DCX.N: Quote, Profile, Research), met a group of Chrysler workers on Sunday who have separately proposed an employee stock ownership plan for the automaker, people familiar with the matter said on Monday.

The meeting follows a $4.5 billion offer for Chrysler from Kerkorian's investment arm, Tracinda Corp., which said it would consider giving United Auto Workers, Chrysler's largest union, a "substantial share of equity" as part of the deal.

http://www.reuters.com/article/tnBasicIndustries-SP/idUSN233304522007042...