The union talk is stirring again at Toyota's Georgetown, Kentucky plant, but management at the automaker has no intention of meeting with workers trying to unionize. A group of current and former employees at the plant called the Kentucky Workers' Rights Board have drawn up a laundry list of complaints, which include what they perceive to be unjustified firings, the use of too many temporary workers, and job-related injuries.The committee is putting together a recommendation which includes limiting low-paid temps to 90 day terms, and the establishment of a safety committee. Toyota's decision not to meet with the group came after the would-be organizers declared that they would hold a press release after a management meeting. Oops.

Toyota has no intention of meeting with union organizers originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 29 Aug 2007 09:03:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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]

UAW shacks up at Holiday Inn near Toyota's Georgetown, KY plant originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 29 May 2007 08:33:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Toyota planning new crossover for Kentucky plant originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 09 Apr 2007 15:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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)]

Pair of workers get caught in middle of Toyota vs. UAW originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 02 Apr 2007 10:04:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

UAW says union fever rising at Toyota's Kentucky plant originally appeared on Autoblog on Wed, 14 Mar 2007 15:28:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

While Toyota expects to see overall growth in the US market next year, the company is cutting production estimates for its new San Antonio full-size truck plant. Originally expected to start at its full capacity of 200,000 units per year, the automaker now expects to build 150,000 Tundra pickups there in 2007. To blame is a shrinking full-size truck market, led by high fuel prices and a decrease in housing starts (we've seen data that strongly correlates the housing market to pickup truck sales). Stealing sales away from the established leaders won't be easy, either, especially not with GM's new Silverado and Sierra hitting showrooms ahead of the redesigned Tundra.

Toyota has doubled its order for Camrys from Subaru's Indiana plant, however, and now expects 200,000 units/year to come online in October of 2007. Combined with the output of Toyota's Kentucky plant, this gives it a North American production capacity somewhere north of 500,000 units/year. The automaker has already stated that it expects to sell 450,000 Camrys here next year; just how many are they thinking of pushing in '08 and beyond?

[Source: Marketwatch]

Toyota ratchets down Tundra expectations; increases Camry production originally appeared on Autoblog on Thu, 14 Sep 2006 08:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.