Toyota: Auto Industry Race to the Bottom

[Joanne98]

Beneath Toyota’s buffed shine lies a dark undercoat. The Toyota Corporation enjoys a fine reputation for well-built cars, environmental innovation, flexible production lines and effective management practices. But in its quest for ever-increasing efficiency, profitability and growth, the world’s largest auto manufacturer has sparked a race to the bottom that, like its car sales, is global in scope.

Around the world, the company has been complicit in union busting in the Philippines, and engages in cozy relationships with Burma/Myanmar’s military dictatorship.

In the U.S. – where Toyota has 13 facilities employing some 36,000 people, and sells an average of 56,923 vehicles each week – the need of the Big Three (General Motors, Ford and Daimler Chrysler) auto companies to compete is causing profound changes in the industry.

And in Japan, at its flagship operation in Toyota City, some 30 percent of the workforce is temporary workers who earn as little as half what permanent employees do. In the surrounding area, a network of closely-related supplier companies utilizes thousands of foreign guest workers under conditions that, by many definitions, qualify as human trafficking.

Toyota Japan has also created a work environment so stressful that, each year, an estimated 200 to 300 employees are incapacitated or killed from overwork and stress related illness.

Continued>>>
http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=15182

[Blue_Tires]

1. rec'd

[Sherman A1]

2. Seconded

Thanks for posting and the link.:hi:

[Joanne98]

4. You're very welcome Sherman!

:hi:

[lapfog_1]

3. Oh, what a feeling... - n/t

[LiberalFighter]

5. Don't forget this article

The Toyota You Don’t Know: The Race to the Bottom in the Auto Industry

Will Celebrities Also Care About Worker Rights?

What do Julia Roberts, Jennifer Lopez, Brad Pitt, Leonardo DiCaprio, Billy Joel, Bill Maher, Cameron Diaz, Jackson Browne, Arianna Huffington and Jessica Alba all have in common? They all drive a Toyota Prius.

These famous celebrities—and others—drive a Prius because they are concerned and have made a commitment to help protect our environment.

With celebrities leading the way, New York Times correspondent Micheline Maynard wrote: “The Prius has become, in a sense, the four-wheel equivalent of those popular rubber issue bracelets in yellow and other colors—it shows the world that its owner cares.” (New York Times, July 4, 2007). In fact, more American people—57 percent—say they purchased a Prius because it “makes a statement about me” than do so because of “higher fuel economy”—which 36 percent cited as their main reason for driving a Prius. (Poll done by CNW Marketing Research.)

Toyota’s Prius is now the fastest selling hybrid in the U.S. and in the world, for good reason, as it gets 48 miles to the gallon even in city driving. (To date, one million Priuses have been sold worldwide.)

But what do these celebrities know about Toyota’s labor practices and the conditions under which the Prius and other Toyota vehicles are made in Japan? Like the rest of us, when it comes to the human and labor rights of Toyota workers, the celebrities know very little or really, next to nothing.

[Kablooie]

6. Does anyone here work for Toyota? I'd like to hear an opinion from actual workers.

Do you feel opressed?
Would you really prefer to work for a different car company?

[slackmaster]

7. I'd like to see a comparison between the standard of living for a US union auto worker vs. Japanese

Japanese non-union auto worker.