They ruined GM. Now it's Toyota's time to suffer

[Bob Campbell]

I don't know, and I didn't say they did. I did say that corporations would prefer to do so.
And yet Toyota is in dire financial straits with no unions.
Whom do you blame for their predicament?

[cgarison]

Does Toyota treat it's employees as feudal serfs?

Only if you are lucky enough to be an employee of Toyota Motor Manufacturing and work on the assembly. Over 50% of the workers in Georgetown are permanent contractors getting paid less than $15.00 per hour to assemble Camrys and Avalons.

[genlock]

Could be bad timing of some debt issue during the financial near collapse.
Perhaps so many GM and Chrysler union guys were laid off that they
could not buy as many quality Toyota Camry's and such.

Where are you going to work, Bob?
In radio? In your home area?

[AmpedNow]

Unions aren't perfect, but are a necessary fact of life in a corporate environment that would prefer to treat all employees as feudal serfs.

Are you kidding me? Are you saying that every company must be unionized because all companies are inherently evil?

How about this? Instead of financially strangling every company and stagnating employment for "the greater good", why not create an environment where there are plenty of jobs and companies, creating more competition among employers? This way, if a company treats you as a "feudal serf", go across the street and get you a another job. In this environment, there is no need to go whining to a union. In fact, there is no need for unions, because people have more choice of jobs and employers compete by offering better benefit packages to quality candidates.

Whether its unions or RTW environment, the worst thing for everyone is high unemployment, because when it's an employer's market, they can get away with offering crappy pay and benefits and have a "take it or leave it" attitude, because there are no jobs across the street to go to.

Toyota will shut down the Buffalo plant and leave WV before they accept unionization. Voting in a union is usually the equivalent of voting yourself out of a job in the long run. Toyota is under no obligation to stay here. Conversely, the employees are under no obligation to keep working for them either, if things are so bad. Of course, in WV, there usually are not too many jobs across the street to go to, either.

It would be a shame if the UAW hoodwinks the Buffalo employees into thinking they actually have a chance to unionize, because not only would hundreds of jobs and millions in tax revenue be lost, but it will also solidify the often-correct impression that WV is hostile to big business. If they choose to do business here, they better prepare for an eventual unionization fight.

This is why I generally support RTW. If this would ever happen in WV, the governor responsible would probably get his brake lines cut, but the people here would be much better off for it.

[CoolBreeze]

Ever so slightly off topic, but the "Chicken Tax" is an interesting read because it ties-in to this thread:

The Chicken Tax — actually a 25% tax on potato starch, dextrin, brandy, and light trucks — was a 1963 response by the United States under President Lyndon B. Johnson to tariffs placed by France and West Germany on importation of U.S. chicken. The period from 1961-1964 of tensions and negotiations surrounding the issue, which took place at the height of Cold War politics, was known as the "Chicken War".

Eventually, the tariffs on potato starch, dextrin, and brandy were lifted, but over the next 46 years the light truck tax ossified, remaining in place to protect U.S. domestic automakers from foreign light truck production (e.g., from Japan, Thailand). As an unintended consequence, several importers of light trucks have circumvented the tariff via loopholes .

As of 2009, the 1964 tariff of 25% still affects importation of light trucks. Robert Z. Lawrence, professor of International Trade and Investment at Harvard University, contends the Chicken Tax crippled the U.S. automobile industry, by insulating it from real competition in light trucks for 40 years.



As a consequences of protecting the Union, here's what one American automaker must do....

Ford currently imports all of its Transit Connect models as passenger vehicles by including very specific items, e.g., rear windows, rear seats and rear seatbelts. The vehicles are exported from Turkey on cargo ships owned by Wallenius Wilhelmsen Logistics, arrive in Baltimore, and are converted back into light trucks at WWL's Vehicle Services Americas Inc. facility simply by replacing rear windows with metal panels and removing the rear seats and seatbelts. The removed parts are not shipped back to Turkey for reuse, but shredded and recycled in Ohio. The process exploits the loophole in the customs definition of a light truck: as cargo doesn't need seats with seat belts or rear windows, presence of those items automatically qualifies the vehicle as a passenger vehicle and exempts the vehicle from light truck status. The process costs Ford hundreds of dollars per van, but saves thousands in taxes.

In 2009, Mahindra & Mahindra Limited announced it will import pickup trucks from India in complete knock-down (CKD) kit form, again to circumvent the Chicken Tax. CKDs are complete vehicles that can be assembled in the U.S. from kits of parts shipped in crates.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_tax