DETROIT -- General Motors Corp. says it plans to move the headquarters of its Saturn Corp. subsidiary from Michigan to Tennessee by the start of Saturn car production in June 1990.
Saturn Corp. employs 1,600 people in the Detroit suburbs of Troy and Madison Heights. When GM said it would build the Saturn car plant in Spring Hill, Tenn., it designated Troy as the subsidiary's corporate headquarters.
Saturn spokesman Bruce MacDonald said Tuesday the company will keep 600 product engineering employees at the two Detroit-area offices. The other 1,000 employees be screened, with an undetermined number to be transferred to Spring Hill, he said.
When GM dedicated the Saturn headquarters in Troy in October 1985, GM Chairman Roger Smith said, 'Michigan remains on the hub of automotive technology and Saturn intends to reman close to that hub.'
State officials and top leaders of the United Auto Workers union expressed surprise at the news and said they had few details on the decision to move Saturn's headquarters to Tennessee.
'I'm surprised from the standpoint that I was not aware anything like this was happening,' said UAW President Owen Bieber.
Meanwhile, Tennessee Gov. Ned McWherter got a sneak preview of the Saturn car Tuesday during a tour of the Troy facility with with Saturn President Richard LeFauve.
The governor, who appeared at a news conference with LeFauve and UAW representative Joe Malotke, said he saw a four-door sedan and a sportier model of the Saturn automobile.
'It's got pizazz,' McWherter said. 'I was really impressed with the Saturn car. I saw the family sedan and was very, very impressed with that and the sport model.'
Malotke said construction of the Saturn plant is 'right on schedule.' He said contracts are being let now for steel work set to begin in September, and no delays are expected.
The Saturn car, which will be introduced to the public in June 1990, is being closely guarded and only about 50 people have seen it, LeFauve said.
Reporters were kept outside while LeFauve escorted McWherter behind a locked studio where the Saturn is kept. Even the governor's bodyguard was not allowed in for the viewing.
The Saturn plant is expected initially to employ about 3,000 workers and build about 250,000 small cars a year.
The massive $5 billion program announced in January 1985, was scaled back last year from its original plans, which called for 6,000 workers and an output of about a half million cars annually.
