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

[LiberalFighter]

Source: National Labor Committee

Below is the Preface to the article. The full article is available in web and pdf form.

Preface

The American and Japanese people have a lot in common. In both countries, excessive corporate power and greed are destroying the middle class as income disparity soars, enriching the few while the vast majority of us are left behind. As the two largest economies in the world, the people of the U.S. and Japan should, and could, have a very powerful voice in helping to shape a global economy that fosters respect for human and worker rights, protects our environment and promotes social and economic equality. There needs to be more dialogue among labor, environmental, human and women’s rights organizations and students in the U.S. and Japan. If corporations are the only ones talking to one another, we will just get more of the same.

In the U.S., we produce too many gas guzzlers. But they are made by well-paid, middle class union workers who have a democratic voice on the shop floor. In Japan, companies like Toyota make some of the best hybrids. But their unions are weak and lack independence—allowing the widespread exploitation of cheap temporary workers in their plants, along with a parts supply chain that is riddled with sweatshop abuses, including human trafficking. We have a lot to learn from each other.

Right now, Toyota and the U.S. auto companies are locked in a race to the bottom, which will inevitably lead them to adopt each others worst practices.

If the middle class is going to survive, it is time for working people in the U.S. and Japan to begin speaking to one another.

[LisaM]

1. Thanks for the post - good luck getting through to some on DU

for whatever reason, there is a strong anti-UAW contingent here.

[PM Martin]

2. Too many around here are blinded by the Prius (which still uses gasoline)

and an inherent hatred of the UAW/CAW to consider what you have posted.

[madrchsod]

3. the du "toyota can do no wrong" folks should read this.

but...they will never accept the fact that gm has more fuel efficient vehicles than toyota. the malibu has a better quality rating than the camry. chevy has the volt waiting for customers and the usa made battery plant to go into production.
today gm has the largest fleet of fuel cell vehicles on the roads of america...

[liberal N proud]

4. They will not listen

[PM Martin]

5. Have you seen the new Ford Fusion/Mercury Milan hyrbrid?

40 mpg at $27,599 (USD), it's a reasonable deal.

http://www.fordvehicles.com/cars/fusion/gallery/index.asp

http://www.ford.ca/app/fo/en/cars/fusion.do

[kristopher]

6. That article is a crock of shit.

In Japan the income disparity between the highest paid person in a company (the Chairman of the Board) and the lowest paid employee is around 20:1. What is it here?

Yes the Japanese unions are, by US standards, weak. But given the job security and wage differential that Japanese employees and management have managed to maintain in the face of US competitive practices I have to ask if the standards we are using are, in fact, the best ones to employ? The Japanese understand that they are engaged in a cooperative effort and the results of their system reflect that. WE, on the other hand, are engaged in a battle between labor and management, and our system reflects that.

I think US workers are getting screwed, but if you are looking for Japanese workers to have anything like a sense of solidarity with us, you will be disappointed.

[LiberalFighter]

8. You didn't bother reading the article.

[kristopher]

9. Yes I did.

I also graduated from a Japanese university where I studied cultural anthropology with a focus on comparative analysis of the US and Japan. Additionally, I worked my way through school by teaching English at Japanese corporations, including 5 years as the primary contractor to Honda Research and Development Center and Honda's engine plant just outside Tokyo. My clients included a wide range of major Japanese corporations, so my experience is not only deep as it relates to the auto industry, but broad as it relates to workers and management across the employment spectrum. The method of teaching was centered around discussions of interest to the students, which very frequently included their perspective on management labor relations. In total I was there for 11 years.

When I tell you that article is crap, I have a basis for the claim. I'm not saying that the Japanese are all 100% happy with the demands of their employers, but the vast majority of them are aware of the tradeoffs they are making. To present their situation as analogous to what is happening here by distorting the prevalence of karoshi, the reasons and percentage of temp workers (very few non-Japanese workers are allowed in the country) and things like the meaning of dormitory life (it is considered a major benefit by the workers) is evidence that the authors of the piece either don't know what they are talking about at all, or are so set on a private agenda that they have no trouble stretching the truth so far it can only be called a lie.

There is both a minority hard left and hard right faction in Japan, and this might have had input from the far left (think real communists, not just socialist democrats), however the vast majority of the country does not share that perspective.

[AndyTiedye]

7. TIme for the Unions to Become the International Organizations They Claim to Be

[GeorgeGist]

10. Imagine: "Capitalism is Dead"