CBS News story about workers at a Japanese car company in the US

[godai]

Among the points made...Workers do get laid off with pay but they work in community service (fixing up the city where they work) until they resume work; Top boss's salary is $1M (compared to $10M plus for the Big Three); workers shown were happy with their job, feeling fortunate to work there; there will be an electric car from Japan here in 2010, with large numbers available in 2012 (range 100 miles plus).

Seems like night and day compared to the situation at GM, Chrysler and Ford.

[Deja Q]

1. Damn commies.

:crazy:

[rockymountaindem]

2. The workers are also not unionized and make far less than workers at American firms

All that is fine if you're comfortable with the "best blue collar jobs in America" paying 15 bucks an hour.

[godai]

4. $47 average hourly salary and benefits working for a Japanese carmaker.

That's close to $100K a year and far from $15 an hour.

[emilyg]

5. I could live on that.

[Gman]

8. That's the loaded labor rate which includes everything

compare that to a company like AT&T that has a loaded labor rate of, around $98/hour. The management loaded labor rate at At&T is $125.

No, sorry... those are cheap ass exploitative jobs. Quit carrying the union buster's propaganda here to DU.

[slackmaster]

9. Crap, that's quite a bit more than I make as a systems admin

With better benefits.

I've never been represented by a union, or even had one available to me in any job I've ever had.

[godai]

14. GM average is $71 an hour. n/t

[Snotcicles]

15. Thats bullshit. nt

[godai]

17. No, mentioned this week in WP and in this link

"on the news tonight it was stated that GM union workers make $71 and hour while toyota union workers make $47 an hour. Now i’m a big supporter of unions, but shouldn’t there be some uniformity here?"



http://firedoglake.com/2008/11/17/powerline-proves-universal-health-care-makes-gm-and-chrysler-profitable/

[lumberjack_jeff]

21. Stop digging.

There's no uniformity because $71 includes the cost of pensions and healthcare for today's retirees. A cost that the Japanese carmaker has skillfully avoided by shifting that expense onto you.

[lumberjack_jeff]

20. It's bullshit because it includes the retirement benefits of those already retired.

The japanese carmaker? No retirement, therefore lower "labor" costs.

[madrchsod]

30. bullshit....

do a simple google search before you post this 71 bullshit...

[bluecollarcharlie]

31. They do not take home $47@hour

I don't know of any autoworker making 47@hour. Let alone this very mythical 70+. Again that's more msm brainwashing. What they did when they came up with that $70@hr figure was to throw in every cost they could find: active employees, retired employees, the pension obligations for both, payroll taxes, and overtime. GM, Ford and Chrysler did this at the time of the last contract negotiations in order to turn public opinion against the UAW. It worked then and it's backfiring now.They are getting splattered with the same smear they tried to use to break us. The transplants don't have a long history here so they don't have those costs.

The average take home pay for a UAW member is 28.00@hr. Please stop spreading republican lies.

[AndyTiedye]

11. Why Aren't They Unionized?

[rockymountaindem]

18. Right to work laws n.t.

[Freddie Stubbs]

33. Why weren't the paid staff on Obama's campaign unionized?

It is well known that employees who are satisfied with their jobs are much harder to unionize.

[doc03]

12. A friend of a friend of mine got on at the Marysville Ohio Honda

factory a few months ago and I believe he gets around $30 an hour. Maybe the workers in the Japanese auto factories are content with their pay and working conditions. The Honda plant is in Ohio and there is a Toyota plant in WV, neither state is a Right to Work state so apparently they don't want a Union. The Unions came about last century because workers got fed up with their working conditions. Could it be it's the American management style that makes people feel they need a Union?
My company owned a 50/50 joint venture with a Japanese steel company, they had to work harder and multitask, their wage scale was lower than ours but after their profit sharing checks they made more money than us. They also have an excellent Defined Contribution pension plan and we (had) a Defined Benefit Plan that we lost. So I am not going to condemn them or call them scabs, it seems like they are doing quite well without a Union.

[JJ]

24. The only reason those workers do well without a union

is because of the unions. If they succeed in destroying the UAW by letting the big 3 go under, then you will see the wages at all those non-union plants go down significantly.

[doc03]

25. Probably so n/t

[elleng]

35. Are they able to suggest

improvements to their 'bosses,' have them considered and maybe adopted?

[Hannah Bell]

22. average wage at us japanese plants = $22/hr

us: $25-$29.

new hires at gm, per their 2007 contract, start at $14.

truth is, us & japanese makers use each other to play off their workers.

[bertman]

29. I don't know where you're getting your info, rockymountaindem, but it is HIGHLY wrong.

I'm in the building business--that's about as blue-collar as it gets. Our laborers are making $15 per hour and they are unskilled, meaning they can haul materials, drive a dumptruck, clean a site, etc. Carpenters, depending on skill, experience, and tools make anywhere from $16 to $22 an hour. Lead carpenters can make as much as $28. Then you get into the project manager category and you're looking at $30 or more, and these folks still work with tools as well as do supervisory work. Plus, there are benefits like holiday pay, vacation pay, tool allowance, gas/mileage allowance, 401K (yeah, I know), medical allowance, bonuses.

And this is in the South.

Other tradespeople like plumbers, electricians, heating and air, etc. often make more than the carpenters.

$47 and hour with benefits is a good wage for a worker in a factory, IMHO.

[Name removed]

32. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[spoony]

3. Must be a theme for MSM today

Push these stories of the happy foreign-plant workers to drive home their distaste for helping unionised domestic companies.

[Gman]

6. Yeah, and they make $10 - $15/hour

with minimal healthcare benefits. They are happy to work, especially in this economy. In essence, these people are being exploited by the Japanese. They can't get someone to work for as cheap in Japan as they do here. It's unadulterated exploitation and don't confuse it with anything else.

[anonymous171]

7. lol corporate media.

[WolverineDG]

10. The Big 3 screwed themselves

& my brothers & sisters in the UAW (who didn't have a say in what was being manufactured) by lobbying Congress to help them churn out huge, expensive, gas-guzzling vehicles when we've known since the 70's that we need to become more energy-efficient. The Big 3 can turn out vehicles in Europe & abroad that get 50+ mph, why not here? No need for more R&D money, asshats, when you're already making the car elsewhere.

So, the Big 3 want my tax dollars? Here's the deal I'll strike with them: in exchange for my tax dollars today, work starts TOMORROW to re-tool, re-align or whatever the f--- they need to do to get the assembly lines ready to roll out that same 50+ mph vehicle they sell abroad. And as a reward for the first one who does that, I will be banging on the door of the closest dealership to get my name on the wait list.

dg

[Kalyke]

16. I guess you're getting a Ford...

Since they're already doing this:

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080611/AUTO01/806110388/1001/rss21

In what would be one of the most dramatic manufacturing transformations in Detroit's history, Ford would retool some of its North American plants to produce vehicles being built in Europe, where it is a leader in the small-car segment. Ford also is conducting a thorough review of its entire product pipeline in North America, hoping to accelerate the introduction of new, more fuel-efficient cars and to build more vehicles on fewer platforms.

"The best place to look is Europe," CEO Alan Mulally said recently, acknowledging that it would be too costly for Ford to import cars from across the Atlantic because of unfavorable exchange rates. "We can tailor the production to where we sell them."

Details of the plan are expected to be announced in July. They will likely include major moves like converting Ford's Avon Lake, Ohio, assembly plant from production of the older E-series van to the more modern and fuel-efficient Transit van Ford builds in Europe. But sources familiar with the situation say the company will not reveal the full scope of its manufacturing realignment for several months.

[jpljr77]

37. Any update on their plans?

Details of the plan are expected to be announced in July.

So did they announce the details of their plan? Or was this, like most things coming out of Detroit this year, just a PR stunt?

[ogneopasno]

13. Community service? WTF?

[lumberjack_jeff]

19. Yay! Stinkin unions!

Uh, sorry. Not buying it.

[muntrv]

23. Most of the Japanese car plants are in the South, where unions are viewed

with suspicion, if not contempt. Right to work states, they are.

[doc03]

26. Honda has a plant in Ohio, Toyota has one in

WV and Toyota has a plant in California none of those are right-to-work states.

[Touchdown]

34. The one in California is union.

It's co-owned with GM, and builds Toyota's trucks.

[doc03]

38. That's where my Tacoma was made in Fremont CA, the

salesperson said that plant was Union. The salesperson has a son and a daughter that work in a plant in either Kentucky or Tennessee and she said Toyota is a great employer. Before I catch hell for buying a Toyota I wanted a smaller more fuel efficient pickup and I tried all the Big 3 vehicles and they just couldn't compare to either the Nissan Frontier or the Tacoma. It has been my first new foreign named vehicle and after three years I still think I made the right decision. I tried to buy American but it's my money and if the Big 3 can't make a competitive vehicle it's not my fault.

[doc03]

27. The Toyota plant in WV announced today

it will be laying off 120 workers due to business conditions. I think the American Auto industry is getting kind of a bad rap, the whole industry is hurting this time.

[Gregorian]

28. Our manufacturing base has been dissolving since Reagan hit office.

I got one of the last machine tool degrees in the country. And that was back in 1984. Shortly thereafter the machines were sold and the school closed down. Just like many all over the country.

Manufacturing is how you make money.

I remember from way back then how the Japanese were running dark facilities. They had robots just pumping out parts, with the lights out. An alarm would go off, and someone would come and fix the issue.

We let this happen. Most people didn't know it was happening. All one had to do is look at the tag or sticker to see where something was made. In the mid 80's I was already freaking out. Everything was made in China. That was a quarter century ago. I was calling this the US of China back then. So where was everyone else? Asleep?

The dumbing down of America is going to have very harsh consequences. Like trying to kick nicotine, this is going to be a hard uphill road.

[NNN0LHI]

36. Doesn't doing community service just take a job from someone else who probably needs one?

We have a few full time city workers in my small town. If laid off autoworkers (and there is no shortage of laid off autoworkers around here) began coming into our town and to do their work they would be laid off.

I don't see the gain here.

You like this idea?

Don