Pair of workers get caught in middle of Toyota vs. UAW
Two former hourly Toyota employees are denying that they leaked a potentially embarrassing memo pertaining to wages at Toyota's US plants. The document, which came from Seiichi Sudo, president and CEO of Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America Inc, states that wages are growing faster than Toyota's US profits.
The former Georgetown plant workers, Noel Riddell and Manuel Eade, were fired on February 8 after being accused of circulating the memo. The two workers were suspected, in part because they had shown the memo to management, and both admit to being union supporters. The workers were asked to resign from Toyota, but both refused, instead opting for a peer review of their case. They say that their peers found them to be innocent, but management overruled and fired them anyway. The memo is now being used as a rallying cry for the UAW, which has been hurt by years of declining membership. The memo, which was dated 2006, calls for $300 million in wage cuts in fiscal year 2011, and UAW officials (and most likely some of Toyota's hourly workers) think that means there will be more temporary workers in Toyota's plants, and less full-time hourly workers making $25 per hour.
The UAW has long wanted to unionize non-domestic plants, but to this point there has been little luck. We don't know if this memo will help unionize any Toyota plants, but it will be interesting to see if Toyota continues to expand plants in the US if a worker's union comes as part of the package.
[Source: Automotive News (Sub. Req'd)]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
indymcsc 10:16AM (4/02/2007)
Time to move everything to China.
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Mike 10:25AM (4/02/2007)
I fail to see why the company would fire the employees after a peer review concluded they did not circulate the memo. What is the purpose of having a due process in the workplace if the due process has no relevance to the actions taken by management?
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DAVE 10:28AM (4/02/2007)
The toyota fanboys are gonna pee their pants over this one.
See even the wonderful toyota treats its workers poorly.
Unions are the answer. I have worked at nonunion jobs and at union ones. Representation is the only way you will ever get a fair deal in this country.
And please if you are going to answer with the "lazy union" reply or the "I blame the workers for the companies problems" line, just do the world a favor and kill yourself because you obviously don't know anything.
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Lithous 10:33AM (4/02/2007)
Guys, guys, this is all just incorrect information here. What really happened is that Toyota gave raises and bonuses to these two guys for bringing to light to everyone in the company and outside what a very important exec. felt about the company.
This openness is what they expect from their assembly line employees when they make a mistake and they are like this with themselves (the execs) who enforce this on their non-execs.
Like a lotus they are an openned beauty in a world of ugliness.
If you believe all that then you believe that Toyota only sells green machines too.
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Bob 10:34AM (4/02/2007)
Bottom line.........TOYOTA sucks. They sell cheap cars and pay scab wages.
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nj 10:35AM (4/02/2007)
Even if toyota workers wanted to unionize it would never happen. For each product a US toyota plant makes there are multiple toyota plants elsewhere in the world that make the same thing. Toyota has a plant in japan and australia that both build the US camry for non-us markets for example. If american toyota workers voted in a union Toyota would just shut the plant down and shift production to other plants in the world until the workers agreed to not bring in a union. It's that simple.
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Tal 10:38AM (4/02/2007)
Is it possible that if there is a UAW presence at Toyota that will bring the FAT LADY on stage to sing for Toyotas' exit off stage in the U.S.?
There are too many other intelligent, hungry people in this world who are ready, willing and capable of assembling automobiles and will do so for subtantially less money per hour.
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Dave 10:40AM (4/02/2007)
#6 You make it seem so easy, except the backlash the big toy would receive in the US market and the massive cost of now having to ship vehicles across the ocean.
They would also have to stop running those cute ads where they brag about how American they are.
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Dave 9:00AM (4/03/2007)
Tai, are you kidding me? What country are you from?
On a level playing field no one can beat the US worker.
LEVEL- meaning you can't pay them 50 cents and hour, you can't give them inferior facilities.
The myth of the fat lazy American is just a propaganda tool used by other countries.
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A_D_Hominem 11:04AM (4/02/2007)
Would Toyota close a plant because its employees certified a bargaining agent? Probably not straight away but that first collective agreement could cause some interesting effects at other auto plants in the Southern, "right to work" states.
But we're getting ahead of ourselves here as a unionized Toyota plant would still be a long way off - it frankly puzzles me that this story even merits being reported.
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gwballin 11:33AM (4/02/2007)
I have only been in one position that joining a union was available. I declined to join.
Why? I was not going to pay someone to do something that I could do for myself for free.
Plans were in the process for that position to be eliminated across the US and the union fought to prevent that. Were they successful, no.
Was I successful finding a new position for myself, yes.
As for fair wages, if employees shows up to work everyday at the wage they are currently paid they are demonstrating that they think they are paid a fair wage. I know that I wouldn't show up to work if I thought I was being taken advantage of, I'd go find employment with a company that had the competitive advantage of treating its employees well and paid what I considered to be fair.
Competition makes sure that the best rise to the top, it you can't compete and loose you job because of it I feel for you what that is how the cookie crumbles. Think of it as an opportunity to find something that you have a competitive advantage in. What's next, making basketball players over 7 ft tall play on their knees so that short people can compete?
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Tsunami Racer 11:38AM (4/02/2007)
let's not lose sight of the fact that toyota, nissan, honda, bmw, hyundai are all ADDING jobs to the American landscape. and they're not just putting together kits anymore; most parts are sourced from US suppliers, which add even more jobs. toyota just added another truck factory to texas while the big (US) three are shutting down facilities everywhere. who's really the bad guy in the US automotive picture?
the UAW is the least of toyota's concerns. the unions got it's own problems: losing membership left and right and forced concessions to the big (US) three. plus a PR problem with the general american public. it's only a matter of time before this antiquated organization, a relic of the industrial revolution, goes the way of the drum brake.
Live Better. Work.
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Max 11:46AM (4/02/2007)
Reading comprehension isn't your strong point.
Managers are part of the peer reviewed team.
The article stated the peers sided with the peers and managers didn't.
The way Autoblog/Autonews wrote it makes it seem the peer reviewed process was overturned by management. Managers were already part of the deciding team.
Keep trying you liberal unionite commies.
My fellow Republicans will keep laughing at you piss and moan.
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That One Person 12:15PM (4/02/2007)
#11 Tsunami...who will still employ more workers and invest more in this country even after layoffs (which suck ass)? Oh yeah, Ford and GM. You make it sound like they are shipping jobs to other countries and completely closing up shop.
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Lithous 12:01PM (4/02/2007)
"let's not lose sight of the fact that toyota, nissan, honda, bmw, hyundai are all ADDING jobs to the American landscape."
If by "ADDING" you mean American companies losing hundreds of thousands over decades and the foreign companies replacing tens of thousands then...
There is a direct correlation between percent of market share lost and market share gained therefore jobs lost and jobs gained. The number of jobs "gained" is nowhere near the those lost. I can see you are a great accountant though. Ignore the losses and only count the "gains".
BTW, isn't Nissan laying people off in America? Gee, I wonder if it has to do with the good times that Toyota and Honda are having with 50% (or more) of their worldly profits coming from the U.S.? Naw. When GM was making 50% or more of their world profits in America guess how many workers they were employing? Um, more than 10 to 20 times that of Toyota.
All hail the new math!!!!! 32K is better than 300K (jobs)!!! Yeah, the new math is hear to stay!!!!
Wait, how are our test scores in America compared to the rest of the world? I see, it isn't *your* fault you think the new math is good.
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Mike 12:15PM (4/02/2007)
WAIT WAIT WAIT!!!
Did that post say that the UAW guys on the line make $25 an hour, plus benefits?!?!??!
If I were Toyota I woulda canned those two guys AND all their union sympathizer friends too. A union compensation package like that for a guy that screws in headlights all day is LEGAL EXTORTION.
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Bebee 12:31PM (4/02/2007)
Nice move. Toyota should articulate more clearly that the jobs will be moved to Mexico if any of the union workers should show up for work at any of its plants.
5,000 application in a week span for 4 Toyota jobs illustrates the position of this automaker: somehow hordes of people want to become those poor disadvantaged Toyota employees.
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A_D_Hominem 12:28PM (4/02/2007)
Well, it is true that Japanese (and a few other foreign) auto makers are increasingly employing Americans in making their cars. They are "creating" jobs in the US if you overlook the fact that the cars they produce are helping close down other makers' plants in the US. Nevertheless, it is better for the US that those jobs are not moved offshore.
Keep in mind that the big 2 1/2 also invest huge amounts of $ in R&D in the US - I'm talking industrial R&D such as new technologies, advanced materials, and production methods. In addition to employing highly educated Americans (and avoiding a brain drain), the R&D helps strengthen the competitiveness of the US in related industries. Japanese automakers do design, testing, and manufacturing in the US but they do very little of this type of R&D here - we have to remember that they are, after all, a free-market company but also an instrument for Japan's industry and economic policies.
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DJ 12:30PM (4/02/2007)
I think these workers are forgetting that they live in small, isolated towns where the average wage is probably $10-15 per hour. Toyota, Honda, etc comes in and offers 2-3x plus OT and they complain. Most college grads dont even make that much, but yeah... they deserve it.
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Lithous 12:33PM (4/02/2007)
"A union compensation package like that for a guy that screws in headlights all day is LEGAL EXTORTION."
Though I have never worked for a union ever I would say by looking at all the people online on forums all day that MOST wouldn't have the discipline to work on an assembly line. And I'd further say that it is nice to have a little more compensation for having to here their fellow Americans PISS on them day after day after day on all the forums and other types of media.
Yep, I'd love to see most office workers not be able to just email on a minutes notice they are going to be out for the day (because of this or that). Um, not do personal phone calls all day and not surf (it'd be hard to do that on an assembly line). Hear how bad their works is from a bunch of ace holes all the time (like this forum).
Um, $25 is nothing for such things. Have 99% of office workers who mouth off about the rate try it for a month. They'll go cry to their F'ing spouse at the end of every day.
To bad most of you commenting on here aren't employed by Circuit City. That would be a match made in heaven if you ask me.
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