UAW Committed to Organizing Toyota Workers

[engineer]

DETROIT, March 13 (Reuters) - The United Auto Workers union is committed to organizing workers at Toyota Motor Corp.'s (7203.T: Quote, NEWS , Research) U.S. plants, UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said on Tuesday.

"We remain committed to helping Toyota workers form their own union, win the protections of a union contract and continue to be a success," Gettelfinger said in an online dialogue with union members.

UAW, which has a stronghold among U.S. automakers and suppliers, has so far been unsuccessful in its efforts to organize workers at U.S. plants owned by Japanese automakers.
Gettelfinger said leaked documents from Toyota's Georgetown, Ky., plant have led to "increased activity" in organizing at the plant.

The leaked documents, according to newspaper reports, said Toyota is looking at decreasing its labor costs, including wages, to cut expenses.

Continued at link:
http://yahoo.reuters.com/news/articl...mktNews&rpc=44

[CDub LXi]

Unions kick ass.... for union workers. For no one else though.

[Bakemono]

The UAW ran Ford, GM and Dodge into the ground and now they are looking to do the same to Toyota. I hope they fail.
When you have a good company like Toyota who takes care of its employees, you dont need a union.
Heres another article on this subject: http://www.nyse.com/interface/jsp/NH...sdowjones=true

United Auto Workers President Ron Gettelfinger said Tuesday that the union remains interested in organizing workers at Toyota Motor Corp. (TM) facilities in the U.S. in an effort to help the Japanese auto maker "continue to be a success ."

HAHAHAH, gimmie a break. Just like they helped Ford and GM to continue to be a success, right?

Gettelfinger said the union has a limited relationship with Toyota through a GM/Toyota joint-venture plant operated in California. "The workers there build quality products and they are very productive," Gettelfinger said.
The UAW, which primarily has a presence among domestic auto makers and suppliers in the auto industry, has been unsuccessful in past years in efforts to make inroads at more Toyota plants beyond the GM joint-venture. The UAW has also failed to organize Nissan Motor Co. (NSANY) employees despite repeated efforts.

[nyscene911]

Originally Posted by Octane

The UAW ran Ford, GM and Dodge into the ground and now they are looking to do the same to Toyota. I hope they fail.
When you have a good company like Toyota who takes care of its employees, you dont need a union.
Heres another article on this subject: http://www.nyse.com/interface/jsp/NH...sdowjones=true
HAHAHAH, gimmie a break. Just like they helped Ford and GM to continue to be a success, right?

Well saying they were going to drive up wages and run the company down, forcing the closing of the plant wouldn't be great incentive for the employees to unionize, would it?

I come from a union(NYC Local 15-Operating Engineers) family, so I see the importance of unions. But the UAW takes it too far, imo.

[toyotaholic]

Unions kick ass.... for union workers. For no one else though.

i thot it only benefitted the head honchos, ie the supermarket strike in CA. they sugarcoated the fact that they didnt accomplish anything

[rolla-XRS]

Auto industry buzz is that Chrysler is about to be purchased by a consortium of big financial players. First thing they'll do is lock horns with the UAW to kill the unions. If they don't bend over, the plants will be closed. Watch for blood and gore during this phase.

If the unions fail to maintain their price levels, watch Ford to follow suit with a "if you don't take a cut, we're going Chapter 11"....leaving GM all by their lonesome to hemmorage further.

While it's too bad that big 'ol Magna isn't purchasing Chrysler, it sure will get interesting over the next 3 years!!

[CDub LXi]

Originally Posted by toyotaholic

i thot it only benefitted the head honchos, ie the supermarket strike in CA. they sugarcoated the fact that they didnt accomplish anything

That's not the UAW... UAW from my experience pays a line worker a lot of money for little work, with great benefits such as health insurance and retirement plans too. There are a lot of unions.. and some do more for the low level employee than others.

CWA is the union for Bellsouth employees. Those guys wouldn't know their head from their ass. Yeah the pay, contract term, and health insurance benefits are great, however, if one thing goes wrong, you lose your job and the union just shuts their door on you. Where's the protection then? They take 2hrs pay each paycheck for union dues and do nothing in return other than what you already get when you start. Mind you, you get paid the same as a non-union worker so what's the point of the union if you don't have a rep, that you're paying don't forget, to represent you in the event of a problem.....

[REN69]

They can't leach off the north americans auto makers anymore (you can't really leach anything off from bones) so now they have to find someone else to leach from.

[84Cressida]

They will not succeed.

[Bakemono]

Ive personally never worked for a company that had a union, but my parents both work union jobs for over 30 years.
For as long as I can remember they have had only one opinion on unions: all they do is keep the deadbeats around.

[ECHOKnight2000]

Originally Posted by Octane

Ive personally never worked for a company that had a union, but my parents both work union jobs for over 30 years.
For as long as I can remember they have had only one opinion on unions: all they do is keep the deadbeats around.

I couldn't agree more. Of course generally speaking deadbeats. I had a friend who worked for UPS and the people (most) he worked with were union, didn't really pull their weight as far as work and they slacked off...of course UPS couldn't fire them well at least not without bitching from the union. I hope the UAW doesn't get involved with Toyota, but I think Toyota knows better, the Big3 case in point. UAW is a desease, a cancer, keep it away!

[TacoSport05]

So true...You want to see someone get fired and re-hired multiple times?!?! This is what happens with a union in place. Talk about leaving a sour taste in the mouth of the rest of the hard working folks who see this and say, "hey, did you hear so-and-so is back, this is the 5th time they re-hired his sorry@ss back after firing him..."

Originally Posted by Octane

Ive personally never worked for a company that had a union, but my parents both work union jobs for over 30 years.
For as long as I can remember they have had only one opinion on unions: all they do is keep the deadbeats around.

[Z28Wilson]

Toyota won't really have any say if their workers decide to unionize. All they can do is try to keep their line workers healthy and happy.

The UAW may be looking to exploit the news that Toyota is looking to cut cost while they rake in nearly $1B profit every month. I can imagine that this kind of thing would make some workers angry, especially if they don't understand the reasons behind it.

[Toysrme]

fire them & hire non union workers.

[Bakemono]

Originally Posted by Z28Wilson

Toyota won't really have any say if their workers decide to unionize. All they can do is try to keep their line workers healthy and happy.

Not true. Toyota can say they dont want a union and fire anyone who tries to organize a union. Its not as if Toyota mistreats their employees.

The UAW may be looking to exploit the news that Toyota is looking to cut cost while they rake in nearly $1B profit every month. I can imagine that this kind of thing would make some workers angry, especially if they don't understand the reasons behind it.

I could see the UAW spreading all this BS and propaganda about how Toyota is going to cut jobs, cut pay and take away benefits and say, "you know, if you had a union you would be protected and would get so much more pay and benefits".