Quote Of The Day: Organize This Edition

Edward Niedermeyer
by Edward Niedermeyer

I still don’t understand why they are picketing our dealerships when the dealerships have nothing to do with the workers. Our workers make the ultimate decision if they want to unionize or not and for the past 25 years they have said no… Our team members want to make cars for people to buy. They don’t like it when people try to stop you from buying.

Toyota North America’s Steve St. Angelo struggles to understand how the UAW’s tactic of picketing California Toyota dealerships will make Toyota workers anxious to join the union [via WSJ [sub]]. When asked if Toyota would allow the UAW into its US plants, St. Angelo replied in the negative, saying Toyota’s factories have a no-solicitation policy. But, as the photo above proves, this is the UAW we’re talking about, not the Mormons. With the future of the union effectively hanging on the UAW’s ability to make headway organizing the transplant factories, you’d better believe a fight is brewing.

Edward Niedermeyer
Edward Niedermeyer

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  • Mailbox20 Mailbox20 on Aug 05, 2010

    Anybody willing to guess the number of jobs lost at Toyota plants during the downturn? Bueller, Bueller? How about ZERO. Hard to believe that that was managed without the UAW forcing Toyota's hand.

  • Rcdickey Rcdickey on Aug 05, 2010

    Just my 02. I work in a non Japanese non union transplant. I've been here over 13 years. 7 years were spent working on the assembly line. I'm now in a skilled job. There is no way the majority of my coworkers would vote for a union. That includes myself. Most of us have been in union jobs and many have lost jobs partly due to unions. At one time unions were strong here in this state. When the cost of labor got too high the companies moved their production out of the country. The plants were shut with as little notice as allowed by law and there was nothing the unions could do. Oh yeah there were guarantees of rehire in the contracts if layoffs happened. However, any agreements about job security were out the window when the contracts expired and the companies closed the doors. My pay and benefits are so good that there is little a union could offer. Granted, the pay and benefits come because of unions. That isn't enough of a reason for me to consider paying dues that would provide little if any benefit to me between now and retirement. Job opportunities are posted for all in the plant to see. If it is a non skilled job seniority is the rule. If it requires certain skills or education the most qualified gets the job. All other things such as shifts, buyouts, special assignments and so forth are done by seniority. My particular shop lost a guy with great skills during the buyouts back in 2008 because he didn't have enough seniority. Though the leadership in my section tried to get around it the HR department wouldn't budge. No favoritism. The temporary workers went first then the lowest in seniority. Nobody left without some kind of severance pay including the temporaries. Our pay wasn't cut but hours went down till business went back up. We are actually back to working overtime. We haven't had raises in two years but I'm okay with that up to this point because of the economy and uncertainty of the current time. That is how dead set I am against unionization. Business has been so good we are already being told to expect a very good bonus this year. We are expecting a raise this fall. So what could a union offer me Mikey?

  • Dave M. Dave M. on Aug 06, 2010
    I don’t think unions are at fault for the quality decline of domestic automobiles If not mostly at fault, certainly lots of blood on their hands (along with the bean counters, executives, etc). Pretty incredible book..... http://www.amazon.com/Savage-Factory-Eyewitness-Industrys-Self-Destruction/dp/1438952945/ref=sr_1_29?s=STORE&ie=UTF8&qid=1281067269&sr=1-29
  • Rod Panhard Rod Panhard on Aug 06, 2010

    The union folks I know seem to rally around the principle that "rights for works = human rights." Well, China has workers. Those workers don't have anywhere near as much rights as our workers. It's an expanding business, and many more Chinese workers will be oppressed. The more you desperately try to organize non-auto workers, the more you'll infringe on the territories of SEIU, AFSCHME, AFL-CIO, Teamsters, NEA, etc. And once you do that, the canard of union solidarity will be even more obvious. You have one place to go UAW...To the Far East.

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