Are those incentives from southern states worth it? Toyota, Nissan and Honda don't think so.

[LiberalFighter]

The Institute for Southern Studies
Toyota Reveals Limits of Great Southern Jobs Scam

Last month, Toyota made a decision that didn't get a lot of press, but sent ripples of concern through state houses across the South.

The Japanese auto giant announced that it was going to bypass offers of hundreds of millions of dollars in "recruitment incentives" (corporate subsidies) from several Southern states, and would instead set up shop in Ontario, Canada, which was offering much fewer give-aways.

The decision to head north was an embarassment for Southern states eagerly competing to lure Toyota, on several levels. Not only did they lose a trophy job-creator for their state. But the reason Toyota gave for the move was especially damning:

"The level of the workforce in general is so high that the training program you need for people, even for people who have not worked in a Toyota plant before, is minimal compared to what you have to go through in the southeastern United States," said Gerry Fedchun, president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers' Association, whose members will see increased business with the new plant <...>

He said Nissan and Honda have encountered difficulties getting new plants up to full production in recent years in Mississippi and Alabama due to an untrained - and often illiterate - workforce. In Alabama, trainers had to use "pictorials" to teach some illiterate workers how to use high-tech plant equipment.

[LiberalFighter]

1. Better Paid and Better Trained Workers Equals More Productivity

OPED News

Better Paid and Better Trained Workers Equals More Productivity

DUMMERSTON, Vt. — Republicans seem to love the slash-and-burn style of modern capitalism. However, it is not a economic model that is sustainable and there are a few smart business out there who reject it and profit from that decision.

Earlier this month, the Canadian Press reported that Toyota decided to build a new $800 million auto assembly plant in Woodstock, Ontario. It will employ 1,300 people.

Toyota passed up hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies and tax breaks from several American states to build in Canada.

Why? Toyota believes that workers in Ontario are easier and cheaper to train than their American counterparts. They also won't have to worry about health insurance costs because of Canada's taxpayer-funded single-payer health care system.

"The level of the workforce in general is so high that the training program you need for people, even for people who have not worked in a Toyota plant before, is minimal compared to what you have to go through in the southeastern United States," Gerry Fedchun, president of the Canadian Auto Parts Manufacturers' Association, told the CP.

"The educational level and skill level of people down there (Mississippi and Alabama, where Nissan and Honda have auto plants) is so much lower than it is in Ontario," he said, adding that in Alabama, trainers had to use pictures to train illiterate workers how to run high-tech plant equipment.

[Fresh_Start]

2. wow, thats not a pretty picture

but hey who needs competent public education

[firedupdem]

3. Damn...

Untrained and often illiterate workforce. :(

[Thrill]

4. 'and often illiterate' Is this why they're usually Republicans down there?

[firedupdem]

5. They celebrate poor education. They celebrated a stupid

President. I guess this is their example of "real America".

[rurallib]

6. Wasn't this about two years ago. Health care costs were a major

consideration also, IIRC. The reason I remember is one of our governor candidates asked me to send him an article on this.

[NashVegas]

7. I Can Testify

It's not so much that people here are stupid, but also that if you're coming in from the outside and trying to show them a more efficient way of doing something than what they think gives "good enough" results, you'll meet with resistance in a huge way.

[LiberalFighter]

8. I think that happens no matter where you go.

Provided the task is similar to other tasks they have performed before.

On the other hand when training is provided for a machine they have never operated before or special tools or assembly operation then that is a different kind of stupid.

Most of the employees hired at the plants were probably younger and should had been more malleable to new ways of doing things.

From past experience the best practice to starting up a plant is bring in employees from other plants with the same type of production. New hires can then be brought in as needed and require less training costs. The new hires would receive much of their needed training from fellow employees.

[NashVegas]

9. Yabbut

It's not just skilled workers we're talking about: it's people at desk jobs, too. When Nissan moved its HQ to Nashville it lost something like 50% of its corporate workforce. The other 50% found themselves living in an area where people in white collar jobs find it acceptable to turn in paperwork riddled with errors of just about every kind.

There is a current of hostility directed at visibly-educated people, in the South, that makes it *very* acceptable - preferable - for school children to put little effort into their education: they get *no* support, unless they're lucky enough to be born into a "better" family. Even in those cases, *demonstrations* of one's education aren't welcome once you get past, say, 7th grade.

[genna]

10. What part of the south are you in?

I'm in Georgia. There is an education deficit here, but the generalization you make is not warranted in all states or in all areas.

Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi is DEEP south. Suburban Atlanta does better than most of the state. The tax base is not on par as those areas in the northeast which have more top tier research colleges and universities than the southeast can shake a stick at.