UAW, Toyota workers to hold town hall meeting Saturday in Kentucky

[ellives]

http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070329/UPDATE/703290459/1148/AUTO01

Some Toyota workers will speak about their jobs Saturday at a UAW-supported town hall meeting in Kentucky.

The topic of the meeting is "The Human Cost of Toyota's Success."

UAW Vice President Terry Thurman will be among those attending the event in Lexington, Ky. The union has struggled to organize employees at foreign-owned auto makers.

A news release about the meeting says workers will talk about on-the-job injuries, the use of temporary workers and other concerns about conditions at Toyota Motor Manufacturing of Kentucky.

Thurman, head of the union's National Organizing Department, said in a statement that "Our union is firmly and fully committed to helping these workers gain justice."

The meeting is scheduled for 2 p.m. at the Hunter Presbyterian Church in Lexington.

[ellives]

Apparently the leech is looking for another host.

[Dragon]

Thurman, head of the union's National Organizing Department, said in a statement that "Our union is firmly and fully committed to helping these workers gain justice."

oh many, just what i needed to start the day off, I good laugh

[mustang84]

We seriously need a Nelson smiley on this board.

[RJB]

Here is their justice, it is in the form of $$$$$$$$$$$ cha-ching!! Sign here, deposit here we want it all now. This is more desperation on their part for losing so many members, they are just trying to recoup.

[ellives]

Here is their justice, it is in the form of $$$$$$$$$$$ cha-ching!! Sign here, deposit here we want it all now. This is more desperation on their part for losing so many members, they are just trying to recoup.

I'm curious how many ToyMotor workers feel their employer has done them an injustice. I'm thinking the UAW is just blowing smoke up their collective asses.

[Northstar]

And yet another demonstration that the UAW if filled with idiots. I haven't heard Toyota's workers complaining about "injustice."

The only injustice done when it come to the UAW is the in justice they impose upon the Detroit automakers, and their blind stupidity that doesn't allow them to change their ways.

[bowtie_dude]

I think I should drive downtown just to flip off the UAW reps.

[BrewSwillis]

The UAW is already working for the Toyota employees, they might as well get their dues out of it.

Toyota is paying competitive wages right now due to the fact that they don't want the Union in their plants. The Toyota workers are benefiting from the UAW just because the UAW exists. They should be paying dues.

[BrewSwillis]

And yet another demonstration that the UAW if filled with idiots. I haven't heard Toyota's workers complaining about "injustice."

The only injustice done when it come to the UAW is the in justice they impose upon the Detroit automakers, and their blind stupidity that doesn't allow them to change their ways.

I guess that's because you are not looking for the stories of the people complaining about the "injustice."

That workers like Brown aren't interested in unions is no accident. Manufacturers like Toyota locate their plants in regions hungry for jobs with good salaries. It's the result of a strategy foreign car companies have used for years to avoid unionization.

Despite the wages, some Toyota workers say they need a union. They complain the company drives them so hard that people get injured, and when they can't work anymore, Toyota pays them off to leave.

Leonard Habermehl is a skilled repairman and makes up to $85,000 per year. When he came to Toyota in 1990, he didn't see why he needed a union. But after years of service in which he says he has seen people injured and forced out of their jobs, he now believes the plant should unionize.

Pete Gritton oversees human resources at the plant. He says attrition among workers is below 3 percent. He estimates about 15 workers leave because of injuries each year.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5062797

[ellives]

The UAW is already working for the Toyota employees, they might as well get their dues out of it.

Toyota is paying competitive wages right now due to the fact that they don't want the Union in their plants. The Toyota workers are benefiting from the UAW just because the UAW exists. They should be paying dues.

Ridiculous. You could make this argument, MAYBE, when GM had 50% market share. Now there's no basis at all.

Toyota is paying market wages. GM will need to do the same to remain competitive but needs a favorable deal to get back on par with the transplants.

We are not living in the 50's or 60's any more when management could collude to take advantage of labor. We live in the age of the internet where labor can actually communicate amongst themselves without a union. What a concept.

Give me a union that doesn't protect the weak underperformers and we can talk.

[AxelTheRed]

Give me a union that doesn't protect the weak underperformers and we can talk.

The problem with that is it turns into fraud if they don't

[ellives]

The problem with that is it turns into fraud if they don't

Huh?

[Sixty8panther]

Toyota has one of the highest rates of suicide of any major corporation amongst its workers.

XP gave me an intertesting book to read recently he ran into it by sheer coincidence... it's

called "On the Line at Subaru-Isuzu, The Japanese Model and the American Worker"

In a nutshell it opened up my eyes as to just how disturbing it is that we have any amount of

respect or admiration for the Japanese. They basically brainwash their workers and treat

them like cattle. People are hired based on their ability to be coerced and controled rather

than based on their ablility to perform any particular task.

Their whole Anti-union mentality and hypocritical method of worker control is disgusting.

Seriously, pick it up and read it, it was wrtitten by Laurie Graham.

[AxelTheRed]

Huh?

They pay dues for the union to protect them. What do you think would happen if the union didn't protect a member?

This is a big reason people hate the unions...they HAVE to protect anyone who is paying dues to them, even underperforming workers, or its fraud.

Edited March 31, 2007 by AxelTheRed