Fed's to make your car payments

[justplugit]

Let them fail, go under, then restructure.

If Sweden,one of the most socialist countries in Europe,
won't bail out Saab, what makes us think a GM bailout
will work?

[TheSpecialist]

The Pontiac Aztek may not have been a great vehicle, but it came with the worlds best anti-theft sytem.

ugly car = excellent anti-theft...


Who says Toyota Auto workers don't want to unionize?

Toyota Powers Ahead at Kentucky Plant

by Frank Langfitt

Listen Now add to playlist

Frank Langfitt, NPR.
Leonard Habermehl is a skilled repairman who started at Toyota in 1990. He once thought unions weren't necessary. Now he'd like to see one at his Kentucky plant.


GM vs. Toyota

Top-seller in U.S. (2004)
GM: Chevrolet Silverado 680,768
Toyota: Toyota Camry 426,990

U.S. Sales (2004)
GM: 4,655,459
Toyota: 2,060,049

U.S. Market Share*
GM: 26.8%
Toyota: 13%

*Market share through the first nine months of 2005

More GM vs. Toyota comparisons

More Coverage

Dec. 19, 2005
Shrinking GM Means Pain for Factory Families

All Things Considered, December 20, 2005 · While General Motors and Ford are preparing to slash jobs and close plants, foreign carmakers like Toyota continue to build new facilities in the South.

Targeting rural areas, companies from Honda to Hyundai have tapped an eager labor force in a region where it's easier to keep costs down.

Toyota -- now nipping at the heels of the world's largest auto company, GM -- built one of its first U.S. plants in Kentucky, where it started producing cars in 1988.

Renee Brown works assembling the Camry -- the nation's best-selling car. She puts in seat belts and cup holders at Toyota's plant in Kentucky horse country.

Brown grew up in Beattyville, a tiny, struggling town in the state's Appalachian coalfields. The town doesn't have many good jobs today.

Brown previously worked as an assistant manager at Dairy Queen, where she made $20,000 annually. Six years ago, she got a job at Toyota.

Now, Brown makes $70,000 a year -- more than twice the average manufacturing wage in the area.

The United Auto Workers have tried to crack the Toyota plant since before it opened. Last spring, they opened their own organizing office just down the road.

But Brown says that Toyota's wages are so close to the union's, she doesn't see the advantage.

That workers like Brown aren't interested in unions is no accident. Manufacturers like Toyota locate their plants in regions hungry for jobs with good salaries. It's the result of a strategy foreign car companies have used for years to avoid unionization.

Gary Chaison, who teaches industrial relations at Clark University in Masachussetts, says Toyota and its peers also try to treat workers well, take their opinions into account and give them a stake in the plant's success.

Despite the wages, some Toyota workers say they need a union. They complain the company drives them so hard that people get injured, and when they can't work anymore, Toyota pays them off to leave

Leonard Habermehl is a skilled repairman and makes up to $85,000 per year. When he came to Toyota in 1990, he didn't see why he needed a union. But after years of service in which he says he has seen people injured and forced out of their jobs, he now believes the plant should unionize.

The plant employs 7,000 people and is slated to build 340,000 Camry's this year. Next year, it will produce the new Camry hybrid, a point of pride among all employees.

Pete Gritton oversees human resources at the plant. He says attrition among workers is below 3 percent. He estimates about 15 workers leave because of injuries each year.

Gritton says the company tries to find them other jobs, but can't always make a match.

If organizing workers was tough before, Habermehl says it's even harder now with the UAW under seige. Ford and GM are looking to cut tens of thousands of jobs. Delphi, the world's largest auto parts maker, only recently backed off demands for union wage cuts of more than 50 percent.

Habermehl says future wages at Toyota depend on the UAW, whether plant employees realize it or not. When wages rise at the Big Three, they're also likely to rise at Toyota. And when they fall in Detroit's plants, Toyota could reduce them as well.

Habermehl isn't optimistic about unionizing Toyota. Once an activist, he doesn't spend as much time around the organizing office these days. He says the UAW is so distracted by the U.S. automakers, it probably won't be able to make a serious run at Toyota.

[buckman]

Originally Posted by TheSpecialist

ugly car = excellent anti-theft...


Who says Toyota Auto workers don't want to unionize?

Toyota Powers Ahead at Kentucky Plant

by Frank Langfitt

Listen Now add to playlist

Frank Langfitt, NPR.
Leonard Habermehl is a skilled repairman who started at Toyota in 1990. He once thought unions weren't necessary. Now he'd like to see one at his Kentucky plant.


GM vs. Toyota

Top-seller in U.S. (2004)
GM: Chevrolet Silverado 680,768
Toyota: Toyota Camry 426,990

U.S. Sales (2004)
GM: 4,655,459
Toyota: 2,060,049

U.S. Market Share*
GM: 26.8%
Toyota: 13%

*Market share through the first nine months of 2005

More GM vs. Toyota comparisons

More Coverage

Dec. 19, 2005
Shrinking GM Means Pain for Factory Families

All Things Considered, December 20, 2005 · While General Motors and Ford are preparing to slash jobs and close plants, foreign carmakers like Toyota continue to build new facilities in the South.

Targeting rural areas, companies from Honda to Hyundai have tapped an eager labor force in a region where it's easier to keep costs down.

Toyota -- now nipping at the heels of the world's largest auto company, GM -- built one of its first U.S. plants in Kentucky, where it started producing cars in 1988.

Renee Brown works assembling the Camry -- the nation's best-selling car. She puts in seat belts and cup holders at Toyota's plant in Kentucky horse country.

Brown grew up in Beattyville, a tiny, struggling town in the state's Appalachian coalfields. The town doesn't have many good jobs today.

Brown previously worked as an assistant manager at Dairy Queen, where she made $20,000 annually. Six years ago, she got a job at Toyota.

Now, Brown makes $70,000 a year -- more than twice the average manufacturing wage in the area.

The United Auto Workers have tried to crack the Toyota plant since before it opened. Last spring, they opened their own organizing office just down the road.

But Brown says that Toyota's wages are so close to the union's, she doesn't see the advantage.

That workers like Brown aren't interested in unions is no accident. Manufacturers like Toyota locate their plants in regions hungry for jobs with good salaries. It's the result of a strategy foreign car companies have used for years to avoid unionization.

Gary Chaison, who teaches industrial relations at Clark University in Masachussetts, says Toyota and its peers also try to treat workers well, take their opinions into account and give them a stake in the plant's success.

Despite the wages, some Toyota workers say they need a union. They complain the company drives them so hard that people get injured, and when they can't work anymore, Toyota pays them off to leave

Leonard Habermehl is a skilled repairman and makes up to $85,000 per year. When he came to Toyota in 1990, he didn't see why he needed a union. But after years of service in which he says he has seen people injured and forced out of their jobs, he now believes the plant should unionize.

The plant employs 7,000 people and is slated to build 340,000 Camry's this year. Next year, it will produce the new Camry hybrid, a point of pride among all employees.

Pete Gritton oversees human resources at the plant. He says attrition among workers is below 3 percent. He estimates about 15 workers leave because of injuries each year.

Gritton says the company tries to find them other jobs, but can't always make a match.

If organizing workers was tough before, Habermehl says it's even harder now with the UAW under seige. Ford and GM are looking to cut tens of thousands of jobs. Delphi, the world's largest auto parts maker, only recently backed off demands for union wage cuts of more than 50 percent.

Habermehl says future wages at Toyota depend on the UAW, whether plant employees realize it or not. When wages rise at the Big Three, they're also likely to rise at Toyota. And when they fall in Detroit's plants, Toyota could reduce them as well.

Habermehl isn't optimistic about unionizing Toyota. Once an activist, he doesn't spend as much time around the organizing office these days. He says the UAW is so distracted by the U.S. automakers, it probably won't be able to make a serious run at Toyota.

What's amazing is Toyota moves into a rural area and provides thousands of high paying jobs and some people that get those jobs still complain. They should quit and I'm sure someone else will fill there spot.

[JohnnyD]

Originally Posted by buckman

What's amazing is Toyota moves into a rural area and provides thousands of high paying jobs and some people that get those jobs still complain. They should quit and I'm sure someone else will fill there spot.

You could say that about almost any high paying job.

[TheSpecialist]

What's amazing is Toyota moves into a rural area and provides thousands of high paying jobs and some people that get those jobs still complain. They should quit and I'm sure someone else will fill there spot.

Buckman why do you think Toyota pays those wages, are they really generous? They paid them to keep near the UAW wages, but pay crappier beni's all to keep a tight hold on their employees. If it wasn't for the UAW, the people at TOYOTA would be making 10 bucks an hour.
There is alot on the internet about Toyota and how they treat their employees. They have a high rate of heart, and stress related deaths in Japan. What the workers in Kentucky are complaining about are instances where someone got injured at work, and because of it they were demoted, given a crappy job on a crappy shift, lost income etc. Are these not legitimate gripes? I am sure if this happened to you , you would be pissed.

[JohnnyD]

Originally Posted by TheSpecialist

What the workers in Kentucky are complaining about are instances where someone got injured at work, and because of it they were demoted, given a crappy job on a crappy shift, lost income etc. Are these not legitimate gripes? I am sure if this happened to you , you would be pissed.

If they were injured due to their own negligence, then I'd demote them too.

[Cool Beans]

Originally Posted by JohnnyD

If they were injured due to their own negligence, then I'd demote them too.

Exactly!! Don't promote mediocre or piss poor performers. But if they are union workers, as long as they can barley do the job, you can't fire them. So instead of 5 super star workers needed to get the job done, you've got 10 semi-skilled slackers, s#^&#^&#^&#^&#^&g all the profits. Untie their hands let them keep the best and fire the rest. If you don't perform, you shouldn't have the damn job. Work needs more motivation on the workers part, so don't pay the the same standard to all workers, but of course then you'd have you'd have Sharpton and Farakan protesting you for discrimination.... If people would think that maybe it's not discrimination, its people not performing at their job..... But God forbid you fire a minority, woman, or gay person for not doing their job........

[Cool Beans]

Originally Posted by TheSpecialist

Buckman why do you think Toyota pays those wages, are they really generous? They paid them to keep near the UAW wages, but pay crappier beni's all to keep a tight hold on their employees. If it wasn't for the UAW, the people at TOYOTA would be making 10 bucks an hour.
There is alot on the internet about Toyota and how they treat their employees. They have a high rate of heart, and stress related deaths in Japan. What the workers in Kentucky are complaining about are instances where someone got injured at work, and because of it they were demoted, given a crappy job on a crappy shift, lost income etc. Are these not legitimate gripes? I am sure if this happened to you , you would be pissed.

It's kinda funny that they treat their employees the same in Japan, where they don't have these unions. And many of the problems associated with overwork are on the part of the employee, trying to succeed and maybe advance as they advance because of success and not by seniority like union systems. "Well, you are more qualified for the job, but retard Sam (sorry if your name is Sam) is basically qualified and he's been here longer than you, or he's a minority or woman, so we have to promote him."

If you have to do more work to compete with the next guy, who then does more work to beat you.....kind of a vicious circle of guys trying to outdo each other. And not to mention the 3 seasonal bonus's employees get in Japan (the new years bonus is a month to 3 months pay) Almost all employers give great bonus's and they all pay for employee health care.

I lived in Japan for 8 yrs and wife is Japanese, just so you know where I get this info from.

If you don't perform in this type of workplace, you won't succeed. That's the big difference with the unions, If you are the best guy, your benefits or bonus's can't increase any more than the lowest guy (your job level) that can barely do the job. It greatly benefits the non performers (barley working enough not to get fired) while holding back the super stars. If everyone one gets the same benefits and same pay, why work harder than the next guy?

[justplugit]

Originally Posted by Cool Beans

That's the big difference with the unions, If you are the best guy, your benefits or bonus's can't increase any more than the lowest guy (your job level) that can barely do the job. It greatly benefits the non performers (barley working enough not to get fired) while holding back the super stars. If everyone one gets the same benefits and same pay, why work harder than the next guy?

Sounds kinda like a good defenition of socialism.

[JohnnyD]

Originally Posted by Cool Beans

I lived in Japan for 8 yrs and wife is Japanese, just so you know where I get this info from.

Lucky bastage.