The move by Toyota should only provide fear for the remaining non-unionized Toyota plants in Alabama, Indiana, Kentucky, Texas and West Virginia.

The message was clear. Wherever Toyota can save a dime the will save a dime. Your job has no security if Toyota can make it cheaper in Mexico or China.

Whatever you do employees, do not ask to share in any future profits of the company, do not ask to spend more time with your family, do not ask to have good quality health insurance to keep you a healthy productive worker for the company.

Whenever you can take a pay cut to save your job - DO IT!. Whenever you can work more hours for no extra pay - DO IT! Whenever you can shed any of your benef...

The move by Toyota should only provide fear for the remaining non-unionized Toyota plants in Alabama, Indiana, Kentucky, Texas and West Virginia.

The message was clear. Wherever Toyota can save a dime the will save a dime. Your job has no security if Toyota can make it cheaper in Mexico or China.

Whatever you do employees, do not ask to share in any future profits of the company, do not ask to spend more time with your family, do not ask to have good quality health insurance to keep you a healthy productive worker for the company.

Whenever you can take a pay cut to save your job - DO IT!. Whenever you can work more hours for no extra pay - DO IT! Whenever you can shed any of your benefits to keep your job - DO IT!

Never, repeat never, stand up for yourself, whatever you do.

In the U.S., Toyota has set up non-union plants in the South – far from the unionized auto industry stronghold of the Midwest. Blunting support for unionization is Toyota’s practice of paying wages nearly on par with the U.S. auto companies (around $25 an hour in comparison with G.M.’s $26 to $28) – although with much lower benefits.

Meanwhile the Big Three’s falling sales and market share have forced the American companies to adopt, and their workers to accept, two-tier wage and temporary worker schemes eerily similar to those used for years by Toyota – just to compete. And the race to the bottom seems to be just warming up. In September 2008, an internal Toyota memo leaked from its George...

In the U.S., Toyota has set up non-union plants in the South – far from the unionized auto industry stronghold of the Midwest. Blunting support for unionization is Toyota’s practice of paying wages nearly on par with the U.S. auto companies (around $25 an hour in comparison with G.M.’s $26 to $28) – although with much lower benefits.

Meanwhile the Big Three’s falling sales and market share have forced the American companies to adopt, and their workers to accept, two-tier wage and temporary worker schemes eerily similar to those used for years by Toyota – just to compete. And the race to the bottom seems to be just warming up. In September 2008, an internal Toyota memo leaked from its Georgetown, Kentucky plant, laid out management’s plans to cut $300 million in labor costs in its U.S. operations.

In April 2008, the Wall Street Journal reported that Toyota plans to end its practice of pegging its hourly wages to UAW rates, and will now pay new hires only 50 percent above the local prevailing wage. In Kentucky, this would mean a savings of about 12 percent, or $3.00 per worker hour – which, of course, will put even more of a squeeze on the Big Three U.S. auto companies and their unionized workforce.

This Government Accountability Office (GAO) report was pretty interesting. Union and non-union apprentice programs studied for over ten years and reported on in 2004.

Union Apprentices are much more likely to finish training than are Open Shop apprentices.

The training completion rate for union plumber apprentices versus non-union was 70% higher.

The training completion rate for union pipefitter apprentices versus non-union was 83% higher.

The training completion rate for union sheetmetal apprentices versus non-union was 118% higher.

The training completion rate for union heating and air conditioning installation and service trainees versus non union was 102% higher.

The authors of the...

This Government Accountability Office (GAO) report was pretty interesting. Union and non-union apprentice programs studied for over ten years and reported on in 2004.

Union Apprentices are much more likely to finish training than are Open Shop apprentices.

The training completion rate for union plumber apprentices versus non-union was 70% higher.

The training completion rate for union pipefitter apprentices versus non-union was 83% higher.

The training completion rate for union sheetmetal apprentices versus non-union was 118% higher.

The training completion rate for union heating and air conditioning installation and service trainees versus non union was 102% higher.

The authors of the GAO report mentioned anecdotal evidence that union apprentices are more likely to stay on because the union provides mentoring and other social support and that networks of local unions can find enough work to keep apprentices on the job.

Mike Arndt, director of training for the United Association, said he believes that the UA shows apprentices that it's building a future for them.

"They see that we are serious," Arndt said. "We're not building just for a job but for a future. We're offering a way of life, a way to raise a family, to have a decent salary and decent benefits. To a certain extent, we are more successful keeping them working because of the product we're offering. We research not only what is the best way to get people to join the apprenticeship program, but how to offer the right kinds of things to keep them in the program."

Facts like these tend not to support any claims that Open Shop work is superior.

http://contractormag.com/plumbing/cm_newsarticle_714/

Not at all, the last time I mentioned it I believe I said something like "You have a revolving policy these days depending on how bad your rash is that day."

Adding to their physical and mental strain, Toyota workers alternate weekly between day and night shifts. On the day shift, Uchino routinely worked 13 to 15 hours a day, often six days a week, from 5:40 a.m. to 8:00 or 9:00 p.m. The week before he died, he put in 85 hours counting the three hours he worked at home on Sunday. The week he died, he was on the night shift, normally 70 hours a week, from 3:20 p.m. to 5:20 a.m. He typically got home around 7:00, just as his wife Hiroko was getting up to make breakfast. But on the morn...

Not at all, the last time I mentioned it I believe I said something like "You have a revolving policy these days depending on how bad your rash is that day."

Adding to their physical and mental strain, Toyota workers alternate weekly between day and night shifts. On the day shift, Uchino routinely worked 13 to 15 hours a day, often six days a week, from 5:40 a.m. to 8:00 or 9:00 p.m. The week before he died, he put in 85 hours counting the three hours he worked at home on Sunday. The week he died, he was on the night shift, normally 70 hours a week, from 3:20 p.m. to 5:20 a.m. He typically got home around 7:00, just as his wife Hiroko was getting up to make breakfast. But on the morning of February 9, 2002, he never came home. At 4:20 a.m., 13 hours into what would have been his regular 14-hour shift, he collapsed in his office. Twenty minutes later he was pronounced dead from a heart attack. But the real cause of death, was a condition so common that a word was created to describe it: “karoshi,” literally death from overwork.

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

I worked as a Freight Conductor on the Pennsylvania RR for 10 years until I graduated from college. I was a union worker, Brotherhood of RR Trainmen, Lodge #949.

All of my uncles and cousins were railroaders, Engineers, Firemen, Brakemen; I was the youngest Conductor, in age, in the history of the PRR.

It was a very dangerous job. Many lost fingers, limbs, some died. During that time, the Unions and Management were locked in what seemed eternal conflict, the workers always the losers, as pay, benefits, and, most importantly, safety rules eroded and death and injuries increased for lack of track maintenance.

My last 4 years on the RR, I attended college, because I saw the handwriting on ...

I worked as a Freight Conductor on the Pennsylvania RR for 10 years until I graduated from college. I was a union worker, Brotherhood of RR Trainmen, Lodge #949.

All of my uncles and cousins were railroaders, Engineers, Firemen, Brakemen; I was the youngest Conductor, in age, in the history of the PRR.

It was a very dangerous job. Many lost fingers, limbs, some died. During that time, the Unions and Management were locked in what seemed eternal conflict, the workers always the losers, as pay, benefits, and, most importantly, safety rules eroded and death and injuries increased for lack of track maintenance.

My last 4 years on the RR, I attended college, because I saw the handwriting on the wall. Not everyone had that option available to them and were unable to escape the inevitable as the tides of change came in and took them down.

Now there is no Pennsylvania Railroad, no Stiles Street, Linden, General Motors Plant, and no Brotherhood of Railroad Trainmen, no 1,000s of jobs.

"JB" by Steve Savage
http://sskotb.blogspot.com/2007/01/jb-by-steve-savage.html