Assembly workers at Toyota's Georgetown, Kentucky plant make about $25 per hour, they build the best-selling non-truck in North America, and a lot of workers still aren't happy.
UAW members that are hurt on the job get paid 100% of their wage until they're well again, but at a Toyota plant, you may get placed in a less physically demanding role, but at a lower pay rate. This is just one example of why workers are meeting every Wednesday at a local Holiday Inn creating a game-plan to introduce the UAW into Toyota's biggest plant in North America. Another driving force for unionization is a leaked document that outlines Toyota's goal of controlling its labor costs by capping wages. Toyota officials say that being able to adjust pay at its own discretion allows it to provide stable employment for its workers when other manufacturers are leaving the region and the country all together.
The Georgetown plant has been around for 25 years without unionization, mostly because Toyota has treated its employees very well and paid wages that were competitive with what UAW members made. With Toyota's big profits and immense growth, some employees at Georgetown feel all they have to look forward to are more temp workers and "flexible pay". We know there are a lot of Autoblog readers who would be thrilled to make $25 per hour (including many Autoblog writers), but for the 7,200 workers in Georgetown, the siren call of the UAW may be getting harder and harder to tune out.
[Source: Freep]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Avinash machado @ May 29th 2007 8:37AM
If the workforce gets unionised will Toyota move production to Mexico?
epilonious @ May 29th 2007 8:57AM
Dear UAW: In the last 19th and early 20th century you revolutionized workforce relations and greatly increased the standard of living for workers who were otherwise getting the raw deal.
As far as I can tell, there is a wonderful place where you still have the opportunity to do that: It's called Mexico.
Meanwhile, sniffing around the Toyota plants gives the impression that you are far more interested in following money than actually helping workers.
Biff Baxter All American @ May 29th 2007 8:50AM
The best gauge of industrial decline or closure is whether or not the work force at that facility is represented by the UAW.
Period.
majortom1981 @ May 29th 2007 8:58AM
Unions do not help workers. I am forced to be part of a union for my job./ the union does nothing for me. I pay $25 dolalrs a pay check towards them and they do nothing for me. Why is it that unions think that everybody must be in one.
i hate that.
Todd @ May 29th 2007 9:06AM
Way to bite the hand that feeds you unskilled, Toyota line workers!
Your greed is on the verge of putting yourselves out of work, is that what you want?
Do the right thing and call the FBI and ask them to investigate your own Union's practices.
Den in IN @ May 29th 2007 9:11AM
This would level the playing field a bit.
Maybe they would be forced to take money out of the interior and everyone can whine about the plasticyness of it or maybe they will be forced to use less high strengh steel and the car will be less solid. Maybe the creamy engines will be replaced with a little less high tech numbers that get the job done just fine. Then they will be just like domestic cars and the new hot stuff can come from Korea or China.
Or they will just take production to Mexico and all of the $25/hr workers will be forced to move to Chicago and flip burgers. Quite a lot of whining involved in that outcome too.
felipe @ May 29th 2007 9:17AM
stupid people never learn.
if they do get stupider and there is a union
i hope Toyota moves to mexico, serves those 'never satisfied' asses right.
Unions only care about there own survival, they are a crack dealer hiding in the H.Inn across the street like it was a 7-11 outside a school.
Edsel @ May 29th 2007 9:22AM
The best paid UAW jobs are not on the factory floor but in the UAW offices.
tooler @ May 29th 2007 9:38AM
I hope the history of British auto industry will not be repeated in USA.
Ralph Milano @ May 29th 2007 9:40AM
The beginning of the end of Toyota in the US.
Now the line workers will have no work at all thanks to the UAW.
Mattlach @ May 29th 2007 9:40AM
$25 on average an hour for a simple assembly job that pretty much anyone who can read and follow directions can perform is completely ridiculous.
Thats $52k per year, well into the territory of highly educated professionals.
The fact that blue collar workers are making this much and complaining about it absolutely astounds me, considering they are barely more qualified than a McDonalds burger flipper making $5 an hour.
Sherman Lin @ May 29th 2007 10:01AM
Corrollas and Tacomas are already made by UAW workers in Fremont California, They have been there fror years
waitingforvizzini @ May 29th 2007 10:16AM
It is distressing that people who claim to love cars have such disdain for the people that make them. I dare you to say the things you've said in comments and posts to a line worker coming off his/her shift. The anti-union bent of these posts and comments just turns my stomach. you ought to be ashamed of yourselves.
Dausman @ May 29th 2007 10:16AM
Go ahead Georgetown workers....heed the siren of the UAW call....it will be the begining of the end to your quality of life you have been accustomed to enjoying.
There have been multiple blogs stating the same or similar opinions....the UAW and you as members of the UAW will eventually be the reason Toyota will no longer exist amidst those beautiful rolling meadows of central Kentucky.
There are millions of workers in the world willing to work for less income. They are as bright or brighter than the G'town crews and are highly capable of being trained to do exactly what you do....Mexico has been used as an example.... and why not? It's close to the U.S. and people are eager and willing to work.
Those producing the Ford Fusion for example seem to be doing an outstanding job .....they could do the same for Toyota,could they not? The Japanese/Toyota will not let the UAW destroy what they have so painstakingly spent so many years to build...the largest auto company in the world that produces some of the best quality products in the world . And, hey , take a look at the products coming from the Korean Montgomery, AL plant and another soon to be opening in GA on the AL border...the Koreans are fast approaching Japanese quality and they sell for a lot less with a lot longer warranty.
So go ahead , heed that UAW siren call and we may be saying , ADIOS, or goodbye in some other language besides the American goodbuy that it isnow .
PBCrunch @ May 29th 2007 10:18AM
So you all think that someone deserves a pay cut when they are hurt on the job?
Kumar @ May 29th 2007 11:59AM
they need supplemental insurance...quack quack!
Barney @ May 29th 2007 8:09PM
"So you all think that someone deserves a pay cut when they are hurt on the job?"
How much would WCB pay them? Is it fair to get paid as if you are producing 100% when you do less? If I injure myself, I work or get no pay as I'm self-employed. Would you pay me to do a job if I couldn't?.
Stratojet @ May 29th 2007 10:21AM
Everytime a corporation makes huge profits, union will rear it's ugly head; it is called redistributiion of wealth. The only problem is that the unions are not prone to give anything back when times are not so good. So the distribution works only one way, which is up.
Where I live, bus drivers gets paid around $30.00 an hour and they still want to strike. Even if people are taxed to death, it is more more more. So government is now talking about privatization.
UAW starts to understand that if they can't get new members, to ask more more more to another manufacturer, they will slowly but surely vanish.
The 07 negociation will mark a landmark in the unionized movement, one way or the other. The sad part of this story is this: most of their members do not have all the necessary academic background to grasp all the implications of their cosmic and out of touch demands....
Aaron @ May 29th 2007 10:30AM
looks great on the douche nozzles.
they are inviting the UAW in with things like their memo re labour costs and porly handling injuries at work.
Companies usually get the unions they deserve and a happy workforce won't unionize.
Jeff the Baptist @ May 29th 2007 10:32AM
Considering these guys are already making more than UAW workers, what exactly do they have to complain about?