  Cambrian Member Username: Cambrian Post Number: 1092 Registered: 08-2006 |
I've been in many discussions on this forum where people have claimed the reason you see new plants getting built down south and not Detroit is because this would allow that company to avoid paying union wages. The article proves otherwise was the status quo for years. The statement at the end is a challenge to the UAW. Yes they are waning up here, but there's no reason disenfranchised workers facing lower wages from a HUGELY profitable company would not want to bring the UAW in as we have heard rumblings about in KY. From today's AutoBeat Daily: TOYOTA OFFERS LOWER WAGES AT NEW U.S. PLANTS. Toyota Motor Corp. is backing away from its long-standing practice of offering hourly wages in the U.S.that nearly match those paid by American domestic OEMs,according to Automotive News. The newspaper cites an internal memo, in which a Toyota executive says the company will base pay on local manufacturing wages rather than national unionized rates. Unskilled workers at Toyota’s new truck assembly plant in San Antonio, Tex., started at about $15.50 per hour last year, with pay rising to $21 after three years. At the Tupelo, Miss., plant to open in 2010, hourly wages will top out at about $20, AN says. That compares with peaks of about $25 per hour at Toyota’s Georgetown, Ky., plant and about $27 per hour for United Auto Workers union members at Big Three plants. Analysts say Toyota can get away with offering lower wages because of the UAW’s waning influence. | ||
Focusonthed Member Username: Focusonthed Post Number: 969 Registered: 02-2006 |
And you know what? There will still be lines around the block for those jobs. $40,000-$42,000 a year, without overtime, isn't something to laugh at. | ||
Jerome81 Member Username: Jerome81 Post Number: 1441 Registered: 11-2003 |
Yup. They will still take em, cause they pay better than anything else in town. It isn't that it is necessarily the south. They could put their plant anywhere in the USA (except maybe Michigan) where the going pay was very low, and people would line up. | ||
Spidergirl Member Username: Spidergirl Post Number: 268 Registered: 12-2004 |
You don't think people would line up for that job in Michigan? | ||
Jerome81 Member Username: Jerome81 Post Number: 1442 Registered: 11-2003 |
They would  But then they'd bring in the UAW to try to milk everything they could. | ||
Detroit_stylin Member Username: Detroit_stylin Post Number: 4098 Registered: 10-2003 |
Right now they may... | ||
Pffft Member Username: Pffft Post Number: 1278 Registered: 12-2003 |
The going rate happens to be the lowest in those Southern states they choose. One interesting splashback that Toyota and the others are discovering from chasing cheap labor in right to work states, according to a Toyota supplier I know, is that the workforce in the Southern plants is more casual, the work ethic is a little looser than in evil old Michigan. The workers often take off after just a few weeks' or months' work (enough money to get to Mardi Gras or pay off the ex) and they have to start training somebody else all over again. Plus the school systems down there are marginal, and the plant managers often have to teach workers the most basic skills. | ||
Alexei289 Member Username: Alexei289 Post Number: 1293 Registered: 11-2004 |
If they said they were opening up a plant in Michigan it would be more like a starwars movie... People camping out in front months in advance. | ||
Jt1 Member Username: Jt1 Post Number: 9168 Registered: 10-2003 |
There would be two groups: 1. One huge group of people hoping to get a job. 2. One hige group of people protesting that they aren't paying enough. Michigan needs to help group one but group two seems to be keeping companies and jobs away. | ||
Quozl Member Username: Quozl Post Number: 616 Registered: 07-2005 |
What the OP omits from the post is that Toyota offers fantastic benefits. They match all contributions up to $12,500 in their 401K plan, excellent AFFORDABLE Health Care benefits, 100% College Tuition reimbursement, inhouse Associates Degree program, FREE day care, FREE food in the galley, FREE employee wellness plan and equipment, etc. If you are going to be some lazy union mook lookin' for a free ride and not be productive and further develop yourself as an employee and human being, look elsewhere for work, Toyota does not need you. | ||
Lafayette Member Username: Lafayette Post Number: 7 Registered: 03-2007 |
Ah, another day of union bashing by the regulars on detroityes.com. Y'all take the bait every time and show your true colors. Carry on! | ||
Jt1 Member Username: Jt1 Post Number: 9169 Registered: 10-2003 |
Showing your true colors implies that we are trying to hide them. Those of us that do not support the unions have not tried to hide that fact. | ||
Romanized Member Username: Romanized Post Number: 222 Registered: 02-2005 |
I work in one of those dread southern plants for a supplier. The workers top out at $25/hr get full benefits and two bonuses a year. There is also plenty of vacation time and right now they have cut back hours so these folk have more time to go huntin/fishin or whatever they do in the summer. There are free classes going on most nights of the week at the local community college in computers and language, esp. Japanese. But of course this is an insult to the highly skilled, educated and motivated UAW worker. Leave that stuff to those bumpkins. Nope, no union down to muck things up, and none needed. These people don't want one stealing their money. For what? | ||
56packman Member Username: 56packman Post Number: 1299 Registered: 12-2005 |
So, if they are paid near comparable wages and there is no union (wanted or needed) what they save not paying union dues puts them that much further ahead. | ||
Track75 Member Username: Track75 Post Number: 2530 Registered: 10-2003 |
quote:I don't think the reason for locating in the South is avoiding union wages. The transplants have paid roughly the same wages and offered similar benefits (excluding the jobs bank "benefit"). They located in the South and paid above-market wages to avoid unionization. They saw the working relationship between the UAW and the US auto companies and wanted no part of that acrimony. The potential for stupid work rules and other restrictions that would interfere with their operating systems (think Toyota Production System) was another factor that attracted them to non-union states. | ||
Warrenite84 Member Username: Warrenite84 Post Number: 95 Registered: 01-2007 |
Don't think for one minute that Toyota would keep union rate wages if the UAW collapsed. It's happening now in KY. That is why they,(the workers there),are looking into possibly unionizing. It seems Toyota has a thing for dumping injured older workers for lower paid temp workers. | ||
Larryinflorida Member Username: Larryinflorida Post Number: 137 Registered: 02-2007 |
"It seems Toyota has a thing for dumping injured older workers for lower paid temp workers." "In Kentucky , break a leg and your career is over"... Has new meaning for people now. *shakes head* | ||
Ferntruth Member Username: Ferntruth Post Number: 26 Registered: 11-2006 |
quote: Don't think for one minute that Toyota would keep union rate wages if the UAW collapsed. It's happening now in KY Don't bother Warrennite84. You won't convince the anti-union folks here that the only reason manufacturing jobs pay as well as they do is BECAUSE of the unions. Have they gone too far at times, of course they have. But its become so easy for the anti-union folks to blame EVERY economic ill in the US on unions. I'm sure if the unions all disappeared now, that corporate America would greet us as liberators with flowers and candy.... | ||
Themax Member Username: Themax Post Number: 666 Registered: 09-2005 |
Anyone mention "Tax incentives"? http://www.reason.com/news/sho w/119238.html |
