GM Goes Grassroots. A Son is Torn.

On November 12, Tom Brewer received an "URGENT call to action..." along with all other General Motors employees in the United States from GM North American President Troy Clarke. The return email address was "[e-mail]." The urgent task at hand: Call your members of Congress to request that the American auto industry receive a government "loan" of at least $25 billion.

Employees were then directed to a website through which to take action:

www.gmfactsandfiction.com

As a grassroots clean energy advocate and strategic communications professional, it's a type of request I know intimately. I've written and received countless emails just like it. Two this week. Tom, however, has not.

Tom has been an employee of General Motors since he graduated from Evansville University in 1974. At the time, for a Midwestern kid from "stonecutter" Bedford, Indiana, it was kind of like going to work for Google today.

As you can imagine, Tom's seen a lot happen in the energy and auto industries in the last 34 years, but before this year he never considered that his retirement, his health care, and indeed his professional future would be in such dramatic jeopardy. In fact, without ever changing careers, he once worked for the largest and arguably the most influential corporation in the world; now he's getting these emails. He never dreamed that he'd need to be calling his congressmen to save the company to which he's always been loyal, and upon which he and his family's livelihood has depended. I can speak with such certainty about Tom's past because I've known him for 27 of the 34 years he's been with General Motors, and we're very close.

Tom is my dad.

And, Dad, I can't begin to describe how torn I am this week... My friends always called you "Big Tom" because of your powerful build, and if you were "big" to them, you were superhuman to me. Just so you know, no matter what happens in the next few days, you still are...

Today, though, I'm the Internet Director (a brand new type of occupation) for the Energy Action Coalition (a brand new type of organization) and today you're the Planning Administrator of GM Manufacturing Spring Hill in Spring Hill, TN.

Today my organization is calling on me to mobilize hundreds of thousands of young people to fight in Congress and the halls of politics nationwide for the clean energy future that we MUST achieve for the future of our economy and our climate. This week your organization is calling on you to get on the phones with your congressmen to save the 100 year old auto company to whom you've devoted your entire professional life.

In the 27 years we've been a family, our story has never been more important to the country. On the one hand, if we don't bailout your company and the backbone of our economy, it seems we're doomed. On the other, if we don't work now for our future and a transition to a clean energy economy, we're doomed. It's heart wrenching, Dad. I'll go ahead and tell you now that I will help you, but I need you to be willing to help me too. Please hear me out.

My entire conscious life has been directly connected to you, General Motors and the Saturn plant in Spring Hill. The "Saturn" part of our story is especially important because it was a car and an entire company designed in the 1980's in response to Japanese vehicles that were kicking American ass during an energy crisis.

It hits so close to home right now, it hurts.

You took us from Freeland, Michigan to Middle Tennessee in 1988 when "Saturn" was nothing but 3,000 acres of corn field, some office trailers, and a rock quarry. We watched as the grassroots company grew from a trailer park in Spring Hill to an innovative, case-studied, globally known and tremendously respected brand that was actually different.

And it really really was different. Those weren't just commercials. I was there with you. Remember showing me around the facility for the first time? Remember the first Saturn Homecoming? Remember when they installed the pollution scrubbers and I was extra interested?

When the first Saturns rolled off the line in 1991, I don't know of another community of employees and local families in the United States that has ever been so proud. I remember you and mom popping in the video tape - the one of all of the Spring Hill employees and Skip LeFauve - and us watching together on the old brown couch.

It was a different kind of company. It was a different kind of car. It was innovative. And remember a few years later when Saturn became the brand through which the EV1 electric car was leased? The EV1 program put GM far ahead of the curve in the electric car field and promised to usher in a new era of American ingenuity. And remember, Dad, when you brought home an EV1 pre-launch model just as I was learning to drive?

I knew I was experiencing the future. For a teen with car and baseball magazines strewn across his bedroom floor, I beamed and bragged about you and about GM to everyone in town (and in that town it really was everyone) - though I would never admit it to you at the time. But of course as this story goes, the promise of that future ended with lobbyists in California and executives in Houston and Detroit. "Different" died. Those grassroots died.

And, as you and I both know, GM didn't stay ahead of anything - in Spring Hill or anywhere. The last of the GM EV1's were rolled to their "death" in 2005, and last month, you and the former-Saturn Spring Hill plant recently had the best product launch in GM history, which would be amazing ...except that it came with the unveiling of a brand new SUV, the Chevy Traverse.

Similar to when the first Saturns rolled off the assembly line, it's difficult to describe my feelings on this except to say that I'm so proud of you, Dad. Absolutely, yes. But I am furious with General Motors. I "support the troops, not the war."

In manufacturing terms, you and the thousands of GM employees in Spring Hill, TN and around the United States are deserving of heroic praise for your work and performance, doing more with less. In executive terms, Rick Wagoner, Bob Lutz and all the rest in Detroit should be flat out ashamed.

The Traverse is a beautiful car by traditional American auto standards, and GM has certainly spared little of its mind-numbingly waning cash promoting that traditional beauty. This "crossover" (read: glossy covered SUV), however, was born into two abysmal climates - economic and environmental - and even starting to think about any new automotive product in traditional American auto schemes represents gut-level, irresponsible, Bush-ian failure. That any car company in 2008 actually promotes something like 25 mpg (with a tailwind, going downhill) for 100 year old suck-bang-blow technology is an absolute travesty.

That it's coming from General Motors whose very survival depended on game changers and innovation for much longer than the last 24 months, is practically a crime. I know you can't innovate on a dime, Dad, but GM has had decades. The Traverse is like a hipster Tahoe. An oxymoron. Whatever they call it; however they promote it; as pretty as it may be, doing the same-old-thing-but-a-little-better is not innovation. And again, for a company with three million dependents, not innovating is not just wrong for business, it borders on moral corruption.

That's who you and I are supposed to call our Congresspersons for? That's what my grassroots support is supposed to promote? Any new vehicle launch begins years before it hits a dealer lot. I know that as well as anyone. New vehicle launch is the exact job I've watched you do for decades. Unfortunately you don't get to choose what product you produce. Rick and Bob choose that. They chose the Traverse and 100 other products and initiatives this decade, and it's precisely that lack of foresight that is unforgivable. It's precisely for these reasons that I'm inexpressibly torn this week as Congress moves to vote on an auto industry bail out.

And I'm sorry, Dad, I know we talked about this - but a "bail out" is exactly what it is. It's not a loan. "Loans" are something you do in good faith. Like when you bought our home. Remember when you walked into the First Farmers & Merchants Bank in Columbia, TN, looked Jim Cook in the eye, told him what you needed, shook his hand, and he gave it to you because with a look and a handshake he knew you were a man of integrity and character?

If you can honestly tell me that Rick, Bill, and Bob are as deserving as you were - that you would give them a loan on a look and a handshake - I'll call it a loan too.

I can only imagine that a soldier's family feels 100x worse: "Please fund the equipment my father/mom/husband/wife/son/daughter needs to survive... and dear god, please GET US OUT OF THIS MESS!" I know we have to do something, Dad. I do. The last thing I'd ever want is for you and and three million others across this country to lose their jobs. To lose their pride. But I don't just want you to have A job, dad. I want you to have a good job. A job that's part of the leading edge of what this country can do. What it can BE. Like you used to have.

I want my entire generation - bigger than any generation in US history - and those that follow us to have the best jobs in the world too. I don't want 1 in 10 jobs in the US to take a hit next week, but I also don't want hundreds of millions of already-struggling Americans to blow their tax dollars on failure. I don't want to pull out the last straw on you and your friends and colleagues, and I don't want to build scaffolding for something that's so badly broken. The truth is that I am only where I am because of the man you are and your providing for me. And you did that as a loyal employee of General Motors. I get that.

I'm just having a near-impossible time trusting your bosses with what they're asking for. I want you to have your paycheck and your health care and your pension, and shares of stock that are worth more than my morning Dupont Circle coffee, and I also want the electric and high efficiency cars I've dreamed of for over a decade.

My grassroots demands the clean energy future that I HAVE to have for your grand children.

I am a clean energy professional fighting for our collective next decades, and I am a General Motors son worried about our collective next week. So here's where I'm at, Dad...

As I said, I'm going to help you. But I need you to help me too. To some, it would appear that our jobs and our perspectives are diametrically opposed. But as you know, I see us as inextricably linked - whether we were linked by blood or not. It's crucial that someone like you and someone like me work together to move our country forward. And the grassroots is the place to do it. But it has to stay there. It can't be Rick and Bob.

Troy Clarke wrote you, and you've passed it along to me, to ask that we use the force of active citizenship to save a company and an industry. It's unprecedented in GM history, and if GM is actively and truly engaging in the democratic process from the bottom up because it cares about the future of this country, I will support it. I'm going to call my Congresswoman this week, as you and Troy asked, and I'm also going to call the Congresspersons of every state I've lived in for the past 10 years and I'm going to ask them to provide a loan for your company, Dad.

But here's what you and Troy Clarke should do for me.

Next week, and the week after, and every week until every dime of that loan is re-payed, you and Troy and all your colleagues and bosses will call your congresspersons and give them updates on how quickly you are retooling your facilities to build the next generation of clean cars and how many people you have put back to work with Green Jobs.

And before you hang up you're either going to ask for (or thank them for, if me and MY colleagues have anything to say about it) the investment in a new clean energy infrastructure that will not just save a company and an industry, but create an entirely new one.

...you know, it's funny. As I was writing this, the song "409" by the Beach Boys came on my iPod. (Yes, I still listen to the Beach Boys.) My eyes started tearing up, and if I hadn't been in public, I would have all out cried. It is one of the first songs I remember singing along with you in our car, Dad. "She's real fine, my 409..."

The thing is, a 409 cubic inch, 6.7 liter Big-Block Chevy engine isn't fine. It's not even ok. It never really was. That thinking... that tune... is what got us in this mess. I hope beyond hope that one of these years when I come home for Christmas to introduce your grand kids to Big Tom, we'll be singing a new tune together in a whole new kind of car built by the grassroots of your company.

Read More:

Should the Government Bail Out the Big U.S. Three Automakers? HuffPost Bloggers Weigh In

Follow Jake Brewer on Twitter: www.twitter.com/jake_brewer

Comments

[osovolante]

Jake
I want to thank you for letting me cry. I am a Nashvillian, a friend of several Saturn workers. One week ago I received a letter saying the house that I have rented for the last four and a half years - and paid rent on time every month - is in foreclosure and will be auctioned off on December 10. I have not been able to contact the owner in the last nine months.
I had to take leave at work a month and a half ago - the stress was too great to handle. My room mate was laid off.
I am not hungry or cold today. I have hope for the future, I have faith. But now I cry. It has hit home. I need to process this and move on, but the sorrow and grief is so deep.
Thank you Jake

[Ladyvoice]

What a dilemma. And how articulate you are in expressing it. I think all the American people feel the same way.. support the troops, but hate the war. How can the message get back to management, without losing 3 million jobs, that we are tired of their mismanagement? They haven't been listening for decades. What makes us think they will listen now? How are they acting differently, so that we know they hear and will change? Is it we who are crazy for expecting different results?

[Aaror]

There is a third option...
For 60 years the big three have been an oligopoly. For those who don't want to look that up, it is a small number of companies which forms a monopoly by agreeing, actively or tacitly, not to compete on price or features. No wonder they have not innovated.
If the problem is a small number of car companies not competing, the solution is equally obvious (yes, I know there are a lot of other problems, but solve one and others may solve themselves). Saturn is a different car company, let it have it's independence, give one share of saturn to every GM share owner, and let it compete with it's parent. Same with Buick, Mercury, Lincoln...
Have the government split the big three like they split AT&T. And to pay for this, the government gives the new companies loans, and also takes over part of the pension, say half. That way if one or more of the new companies does go under, those folks don't lose their whole pension, and with half the pension costs, one of the big things dragging the car companies down goes away.

[Repubnomore]

Oh that it were only true that Saturn was a different kind of car company.

Saturn no longer makes compact, fuel-efficient models with plastic bodies. It is just another GM brand with rebadged models from other GM divisions.

GM's management is 100% to blame for their current situation. We do need to support the troops, though.

We need to pressure our government to enact tax incentives for consumers who purchase fuel-efficient vehicles over SUV's. We can't trust corporate management to change (as witnessed with the Wall Street bail-out). Management will only respond if consumers are demanding fuel-efficient models.

Let's create that demand.

[Finnegan569]

I'm a Michigander and work for one of the Ad Agencies that service GM. I'm too emotional to really respond properly. All I can say is thank you. Your post was spot on..

[ObamaSheeple]

The Chinese want to buy them, there is your bailout. The rest of us are all tapped out. The Wall St. crooks beat GM to it. GM can't even grub for money properly. The weasels lack any business acumen or foresight.

It sux for workers but the rest of us that have been laid-off have struggled with not as much as a blog entry to help us through. Why should GM workers be any different?

Shed your tears if you must, just know that many have been shed long before yours have. Besides, the ball-less Congress will give GM a bailout to continue their poor business practices and fail a year or two down the road anyway, wasting yet more taxpayer dollars.

If want to know who to blame, just watch the smugness GM executives have when you watch "Who killed the electric car?". I wonder how smug they are now?

[ObjectiveRealist]

[
It sux for workers but the rest of us that have been laid-off have struggled with not as much as a blog entry to help us through. Why should GM workers be any different?
]

It's not personal. It doesn't mean that they "should" be treated any differently, but GM workers are treated differently just because there are so many of them. The possibility of them all losing their jobs at the same time as Ford and Chrysler workers could be as bad for me as for them, before very long.

The US auto manufacturers supposedly employ 1 million people, but adding dependent businesses like suppliers and dealerships, which have absolutely no other business than Ford/GM/Chrysler, the total jobs lost would be 3 million. US Bureau of Labor Statistics count the entire 'civilian labor force' as 155 million workers, so using the lowest and highest estimates I've heard of the number of lost jobs that would result from the Big Three, their closure would increase the national unemployment rate somewhere between 0.64% and about 2.0%, which could realistically make the difference between a bad recession and a terrible, much longer depression. $25 Billion might be a good investment, but only if GM is required to bring back the EV1. They won't get competitive again until they start catering to my segment of the market, I promise.

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.nr0.htm

[jeg]

First, I agree wholeheartedly about GM not learning from it's mistakes-- I own a Saturn SC2, which has served me faithfully. I'm confused by ads from companies like Hyundai advertising "high MPG cars" that get the same mileage as my 8 year old car (which is good, but not great by any standard).

Instead of complaining about GM, or Ford or Chrysler, how about we try going forward, instead of staying stuck in the past? Like it or not, if we're going to have a "green" future, we need the auto industry. Relying on foreign cars, even ones assembled here, makes us vulnerable. China knows that, we should too. The government's willing to bail out Wall Street-- but leaves Main Street to rot, then wonders where the customers went.

We as consumers bought the SUV's and Big Trucks by the hundreds of thousands, yet we blame the auto industry for making cars that we wanted. We're as much to blame as they are.

We have to get cars like the Volt on the road, because the Prius isn't good enough, and neither is the Insight. Without pressure from GM, Toyota would still be insisting that a plug-in hybrid isn't feasible. The Volt isn't good enough either, but it's a start. We can either try to build a car company from scratch, or we can work with what we've got by insisting, as consumers, that the Big 3 build better cars. But they have to survive.

[Paul Loeb - Huffpost Blogger]

Great post...I'm part of the National Writers Union that part of the United Auto Workers, in fact met my wife through the union. It would be a tragedy to see that union go down, after its members fought so hard for justice in so many battles and on so many fronts. It really was the cutting edge of what created the American middle class, and none of America's major industrial unions did more for the civil rights movement.

At the same time, the future has to be green or we fry. There's another Huffpo piece where San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsome announces a billion dollar Bay Area investment in electric vehicles by a company named Better Cars. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gavin-newsom/recharge-america-with-ele_b_145650.html That's great and heartening, but it's an Israeli company, started by some visionary entrepreneurs who've already worked out arrangements with Israel and Denmark. I know they'd be playing catch up, but imagine if GM or Ford or Chrysler could do the same.

[ObjectiveRealist]

GM has to have at least the plans for the EV1 sitting around somewhere. If Wagoner would just commit to start producing that again before the end of this year, I'd certainly support federal funding to keep the auto workers employed. Unfortunately, so far, I see no merit in keeping the auto *companies* open. If the reason to bailout Detroit is the workers and dependent businesses such as suppliers and dealerships, then right now I'd rather just expand Welfare on credit than expand CO2 pollution on credit. My only present reason to write Congress to support the bailout is the workers. EV1s for sale would give me a reason to care about GM. The other two companies would then be compelled by the market to follow suit.

[ramblingjohnny]

They probably would find an excuse not to anyway. We lets these corporations grow so fat that they hold in hostage the livelihood of millions of peoples over us. The official policy of the United State is not to negotiate with hostage taker. The lesson must be learn I say we force a dismantlement in smaller company of the big three on the ground that they constitute an illegal cartel.

[StellaDuBois]

The EV1 was a tst platform that was never offered for sale, only lease. It was not viable for the marketplace with the price tag it would have carried (modern equivalent - the $100,000 Tesla). The lessons learned from the EV1 will been seen in the 2010 Chevy Volt.

[Jake Brewer - Huffpost Blogger]

Thanks, Paul. First, let me just say that your book "Soul of a Citizen" was one of the pivotal books I read as I discovered the nature and meaning of active citizenship. It's something I've shared with young people around the country, and while I know you see the impact of it on a regular basis in your speaking, this is yet another testimonial almost 10 yearsafter I first creased the spine.

Thank you sincerely for your work and your voice.

As for the Better Place project in California, I'm familiar with it, and have followed Shai Agassi for the last year or so. I believe he and Better Place are not only the exact type of entrepreneurial innovation that this country needs, but are also the Sergey/Larry and Google of the next 10 years. The ecosystem that follows in its wake will be well served.

It's my understanding both General Motors and Ford had an opportunity to work with them in Israel, Denmark (and China) and ultimately turned it down. Nissan, not surprisingly, is the primary auto-making partner now.

I still think there's time for GM/Ford/Chrysler to transition to the advanced solutions that BP espouses, but it obviously has to come with a loan or they can't get there. And in my opinion, the loan is only worth giving if it is contingent upon direct reporting of the innovation and job creation the companies MUST do to get there.

[NoraLeah]

My dad remembers heated arguments with my grandpa, a union Ford mechanic, in 1968. Dad was 18 and long-haired; his older brother had just burned his draft card. They supported the pacifist McCarthy for the Democratic nomination. My grandpa was supported the mainline Democrat Humphrey, then supportive of the war. The fights over the dinner table sound awful. Grandpa swore if my uncle went to jail for draft-dodging, the younger kids wouldn't be allowed to visit him.

But despite it all, he defended his long-haired sons to the other mechanics. Blood is thicker than oil. Your story reminded me of that.

Thanks for the post (which I was tipped to by Michael Silberman's twitter). I was so moved I posted a bit of it on my sustainability blog: http://205­0ad.org/po­st/6078440­1/gm-goes-­grassroots­-a-son-is-­torn.

[berkeleygirl1962]

Wow. This is powerful, thoughtful, emotional stuff, and beautifully written. Big Tom should be very, very proud of the son he raised.

[gretchenart]

beautiful blog Thank you.

[SOLERSO68]

Maybe the UAW can recall its grassroots origin. The UAW, and the other old, strong Unions are Powerful grassroots organizations. Its been so long that maybe they have forgotten it but they were a MIGHTY force for "change". I would be thrilled to see them wake up and remember how strong they are.

[shoutingatmytv]

Jake, thanks for a great post, which I also linked on my blog. My grandfather worked at GM, so while I didn't get the e-mail you spoke about, the company looms large in our household too. (I also have a cousin who's a Saturn dealer, so your reminiscences about the Saturn launch struck a chord as well.)

I couldn't agree more with your conclusions, and I'd be hard pressed to have more sympathy with the anxiety you and your family must be feeling. Best of luck to you and your Dad.

[carney1016]

I just received an email from "[e-mail]" thanking me for sending a letter to congress. didn't send any message. Someone is using their address book to increase the petitions.

[KillTheMessenger]

Fraudsters just don't have manners these days, do they?

[javajive]

Very well written, Jake. I hope you don't mind but I've linked to your article via my blog: http://www.thejavajive.com/blog

You write from the heart, and it shows.

[Jake Brewer - Huffpost Blogger]

Of course I don't mind. Thank you very much, man.

Would love to hear the thoughts of a Michigan native on the subject one of these days

[Vickster]

Your wish is my command.

Twenty-eight years ago, I worked to get The Citizen's Party on the Michigan ballot because their candidate, Barry Commoner, had an energy policy based on using whatever renewable resources could be found in each particular region (solar in the Southwest, wind in the Great Lakes region, sewage to heat urban neighborhoods, etc.) I've always been an advocate for mass transit too.

Likewise, I have friends and family members who've worked for GM, so I have the same conflicting emotions as you do towards the auto industry. There is a part of me that says "let the auto industry go down in flames". Then I think about the human toll this would take and change my tune.

From a Michigander

[Matt51]

Look - companies sell what people want. What they want is different if gas is 4.60 per gal or 1.65 per gal. Look at the Toyota Tundra or the Nissan Titan. Fuel cells are a fraud. Hybrids are a fraud - real world 40 mpg can be achieved with a small gasoline engine, no need for electric. Electric cars are a fraud. until better batteries are invented, if they ever are. Better sources for biofuel does make sense. Small cars are more dangerous. 25 mpg is good at todays gas prices. People need to stop piling on Detroit and get real.
Big three die, the auto industry is never coming back again. Too many decision makers are lawyers or poly sci background, have no concept of what the US would lose or what it would take to get it back.

[KillTheMessenger]

There is nothing fraudulent about a real hybrid (and there are only two of those in the US market right now). You get a good sized car that drives well, has leg and head room and sips like a tiny non-hybrid. There is nothing about it that's not to like, if one is honest about it.

Now, honesty, judging from your writing, is not exactly what is on your mind, though.

[RevMetheus]

You want safe cars with better gas milage? In the late 70s, Volvo made 4 prototype cars that sustained 100mpg on a mixture of gas and biofuels. They were slightly cost prohibitive to make, but the tech is out there and has been for 30 years, since the last Oil Crisis.

Then there is your "Small cars are dangerous" meme. Yes, if everyone else on the road is driving a tank, then the smaller cars can be less safe (although airbags are the great equalizer.) But it doesnt have to be this way and you dont have to buy into that crap.

The US has already lost its manufacturing edge because of greed and myopia, and it doesnt matter whether the decision makers are poli-sci or all have MBAs (like our current pro-biz government.)

You want to buy into the 25mpg party line, great, but the rest of us dont and have been waiting for the Big Three to wake up since 1975.