COOL IN A CRISIS; GM STRIKE NOT FAZING WALL STREET.

Byline: Brian S. Akre Associated Press 

As General Motors Corp. faces the threat of another North American assembly shutdown, the potential loss of hundreds of millions of dollars in production has barely made Wall Street flinch.

With a United Auto Workers strike at a Michigan stamping plant in its fifth day Tuesday, GM's stock price had fallen just $2.31 a share to $73.19 since its close Thursday, the day before a strike began.

Why the muted response? When it comes to GM, Wall Street likes a good strike.

``General Motors is perceived as a multilayered bureaucracy that is very high-cost and very slow-moving,'' said analyst David Healy of Burnham Securities Inc. ``Any signal that this is changing through making plants more efficient or making the organization more flexible is welcomed on Wall Street.''

Because modern assembly plants use a just-in-time delivery system for parts, the strike at GM's Flint Metal Center already has led to the closure of six assembly plants in Michigan, Ohio, Kansas and Ontario, Canada. About 16,500 UAW-represented workers have been affected.

More shutdowns are expected as the strike continues. A total of 16 cities across North America have GM plants that use doors, hoods, engine cradles and other parts made at the Flint Metal Center. Analysts estimate the lost production could cost GM $300 million a week if all those plants close.

And if the UAW strikes another key parts plant in Flint on Thursday, as it has threatened, virtually all of GM's North American production could come to a halt. A similar shutdown because of a 17-day strike at two Dayton, Ohio, brake plants in 1996 cost GM about $900 million after taxes. That strike also contributed to a slight drop in nationwide industrial production, but its effect on the economy was made up quickly.

GM insists efficiency is the key issue at Flint, that outdated union work rules prevent it from using new equipment in ways that would increase productivity and save money.

``We are not expecting these employees to operate any differently than we operate at any other facility with similar equipment and processes,'' said Donald Hackworth, vice president in charge of GM's North American Car Group.

The UAW maintains it already has negotiated rule changes, but that GM has not followed through with all of a $300 million investment it promised. The union also objects to speedups that it says have made jobs more dangerous, and to subcontracting of work formerly done in-house.

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2 Photos

PHOTO (1--Color) Striking autoworkers Terry Hoffman, left, and Larry Wilkinson talk Tuesday outside General Motors' Flint Metal Center in Flint, Mich.

(2--Color) UAW members hoist signs in protest as they walk the picket line.

Paul Warner/Associated Press