Toyota poisoning its own waterhole?

[bowtie_dude]

So I had to go to a group eligibility review for my UI benefits yesterday along with 6 other people. During the class, someone was asking about temp work and how it affected drawing unemployment etc.

To make a long story short, an older lady behind me (probably in her late 50s) was talking about people she knew that worked temp work for Toyota for up to 2-3 years and then being told that there were not being hired. The lady over the class said that its becoming a problem with the Georgetown plant, Toyota will hire a load of temp workers, telling them that they may get hired after the temp work is done, but really they just keep recycling temp workers.

People will work for Toyota for months or a couple years without benefits, including worker's comp. People are injured on the job and either have to stop working or work while injured since they aren't full-time benefited employees. She actually said she was disappointed in Toyota's hiring practices and mentioned the talk of the plant unionizing because of this mistreatment of workers.

Just a little anecdotal story from Camry land.

[FAPTurbo]

You are getting UI sorted out?... You were the dude who worked at Circuit City right?

If you are, I came across an article that's so sad it's kind of funny.

[bowtie_dude]

You are getting UI sorted out?... You were the dude who worked at Circuit City right?

If you are, I came across an article that's so sad it's kind of funny.

Not sorted out, everyone has to go to an eligibility review every 6 weeks when you draw UI. A special few have to go to the class I had to attend yesterday.

And I worked at CompUSA.

[Drew Dowdell]

Microsoft just got in big trouble for this a few years ago....and lost.

Toyota should watch out... all that needs to happen is for one of those temp workers to realize the similarity of the case and start a class action.

[Camino LS6]

Well at least Toyota will finally be giving something back to the American economy... via their lawyers' salaries.

[bowtie_dude]

Whats really funny about this story is that right off New Circle Road in Lexington Toyota has a billboard ad with the new Camry that says "Thank You, Kentucky" on it.

[Guest YellowJacket894]

Whats really funny about this story is that right off New Circle Road in Lexington Toyota has a billboard ad with the new Camry that says "Thank You, Kentucky" on it.

[bowtie_dude]

Have you seen it? Its right before N Broadway on the outer loop.

[mustang84]

This is all going to come back to bite Toyota in the ass one day, just wait.

[JT64]

Are you sure temp workers get no compensation at all for injuries on the job?

That sounds like the year 1870, American Industrial Revolution. AKA Modern China.

If it's true, that's like... ancient times.

An old lady isn't the most reliable source, but that's just wrong if it's true. There must be some stringent laws against that.

That is so 1870.

[91z4me]

By KY law any employer w/ a certain number of employees must have Worker's Compensation insurance, even small businesses. That is just how it works. So it sounds like at least part of the story is false. It could be that people got hurt and they couldn't prove they were hurt to the degree they claimed, it happens a lot w/ worker's comp situations. There have been factions of the population that have wanted to unionize the plant since it opened. The UAW is practically drooling to get into Toyota plants and it may happen. But Toyota could just let those workers walk out and hire all new workers. Eventually the some of the workers would come back. Sure Toyota might lose some production but lets face it there aren't a lot of job alternatives in KY for the kind of money they are making, for unskilled labor.

As for Toyota's billboard ads, try the ones around Evansville, IN. They have the 10 plants in the US and number of models built in the US ones up. GM has one of their response billboards right next to one. I laughed when I saw it.

BTW I worked at Circuit City, in Louisville, a few years ago. Was someone thinking of me?

[bowtie_dude]

Are you sure temp workers get no compensation at all for injuries on the job?

That sounds like the year 1870, American Industrial Revolution. AKA Modern China.

If it's true, that's like... ancient times.

An old lady isn't the most reliable source, but that's just wrong if it's true. There must be some stringent laws against that.

That is so 1870.

I'm just passing along what they were talking about.

[Z-06]

I agree with 91Z4me. If the law of Worker Comp is mandatory in KY, Toy will not get permit to work in the state. It is pretty strict when it comes to WC. In some ways it saves Toy (employer), rather than worsening it to make contributions to WC. Because if Toy does not agree with WC and if someone gets hurt while working there, lawsuits will be more exorbitant and thus making Toy loose money.

[bowtie_dude]

I agree with 91Z4me. If the law of Worker Comp is mandatory in KY, Toy will not get permit to work in the state. It is pretty strict when it comes to WC. In some ways it saves Toy (employer), rather than worsening it to make contributions to WC. Because if Toy does not agree with WC and if someone gets hurt while working there, lawsuits will be more exorbitant and thus making Toy loose money.

Well, Toyota wouldn't have to pay the worker's comp anyway. If they're temp, any benefits they may or may not get are paid by the temp agency Toyota uses.

But on that note, does that law apply to temp workers the same way as it does to regular full-time?

I'm not saying that everything they said was 100% accurate. The real point I was trying to make is that Toyota certainly isn't being fair to some of its workers, to the point that they have the attention of the Office of Employment and Training.

Edited May 4, 2007 by bowtie_dude

[Z-06]

But on that note, does that law apply to temp workers the same way as it does to regular full-time?

At least in FL if you have temp workers, like in construction industry, you need to have WC to cover their asses, regardless of how they are hired. In fact it is even the same in WI and IN. I do not know about KY.

[JT64]

Which makes this thread pretty much false.

The accusation here is for an extremely barbaric practice that wouldn't exist in modern society, unless you're in a third world country.

[bowtie_dude]

Which makes this thread pretty much false.

The accusation here is for an extremely barbaric practice that wouldn't exist in modern society, unless you're in a third world country.

The accusation about injured workers not being compensated is likely exaggerated. But I'm almost 100% positive Toyota recycles a lot of temp workers, with very few non-management positions being truly full-time.

But the fact that employees are disgruntled enough for stories like this to exist is more of a point than whether or not they get exaggerated (as things tend to do when transmitted by word of mouth).

[Z-06]

Which makes this thread pretty much false.

The accusation here is for an extremely barbaric practice that wouldn't exist in modern society, unless you're in a third world country.

You will be surprised. There are cases where WC carrier was shown by the contractor at the time of starting the job, but later when an accident took place, the poor worker was not given any benefit, because the contractor he worked for "stopped" carrying WC.

[fibenwatzler]

This thread got me interested so I did a little bit of searching on Google and came up with this:

http://www.arktimes.com/blogs/arkansasblog...yota_prize.aspx

It appears there's some truth to this.