Toyota declares Americans too stupid for factory w

“Written by Mikhail Holberwitz

Toyota Corporation has recently announced that their next plant will not open in America, contrary Arnold Swarchenegger’s strong bid on behalf of California. Instead, Toyota will develop its monster 1,000-acre plant north of the border in Woodstock, Canada. The announcement, made last week, comes as a shocking blow to America’s already fragile economy as the plant is expected to create upward of 25,000 jobs by 2008.

The reason Toyota decided to set up shop in Canada, rather than use the cost-saving pre-built Fresno location? The American workforce is too stupid.

While Toyota spokesperson John Yarinoshi says ‘stupid’ may be too harsh a word, he claims it’s not too far off. “Nissan and Honda have encountered difficulties getting new plants up to full production in recent years in Mississippi and Alabama due to an untrained - and often illiterate – workforce,” explains Yarinoshi. “In Alabama, trainers had to use ‘pictorials’ to teach some illiterate workers how to use high-tech plant equipment. Can you imagine having to train 25% of your employees to read, let alone operate complicated multi-million dollar machinery? Why you think GM and Ford fail?”

American literacy rates are the lowest in the Western Hemisphere at 67%, not much better than Angola’s 63% literacy rate. But reading and writing ability are the least important of their concerns, according to Yarinoshi. “Yes, they are not the most efficient, productive workforce, but that alone I could live with. It’s the unions and the ludicrous demands from such a lazy lot that have really angered top execs in the company. How can someone demand $55,000 a year for putting bolts on wheels – and requiring 2.5 years (of company paid) training for the job at that!”

Toyota is expecting much better results from the Canadians, whom are known for their conservative, business-friendly policies, anti-unionist mentality, and their willingness to work for slave wages. “Canadians don’t care, they’re given a job and they do it. Pay is the least of their concern, as they’re happy to work, not like the socialist minded American workers.”

Toyota’s decision took the country by surprise, and even though it’s angered many Americans, Toyota expects to keep its market share. Ron Harding disagrees. “Here’s another example of corporate greed at it’s finest. They’re exploiting Canadians for their cheap labor, but who’s going to buy their product? Not me. I don’t have a job or a license, how can I afford it? And even if they did open up a plant here, I wouldn’t want to work for the fascist pricks anyway.”

Harding claims that it’s proof that the Bush administration is sleeping with the corporate enemy. “Here we have comparable literacy rates to Africa, and instead of educating our own people the government sends billions over to Live-8 and to Africa, to pay for their cell phones and Wal-Mart satellite stores. We’ve got to wake up, get off our fat asses and make these bastards hear us. We can’t idly sit by and watch Canadians and Africans steal our jobs and consumer products.”

But I guess sitting idly by watching Oprah, well, that’s a different story

http://www.thegreenrabbit.ca/content/view/279/50/


Flame on!”

“well he tries to set up shop in the arsehole of america (no offense, stovie) and wonders why nobody knows how to do diddly”

“hmmm, the Nissan plant in Tenn seems to be doing very well. They keep adding new cars to be built there. The latest is the hybrid car by Nissan.”

“NO child left behind?”

“mtnsteve - Are you an American?”

“Ummmm....Before you all get in a too tight a wad, how about looking at the source of the article?”

“let me guess, the onion?”

“be careful mtnsteve, sarge is setting you up for the big "YOU HATE AMERICA" finale”

“crash - Do you love me? I feel like you're following me around.”

“Not the Onion but a similar humor type site.”

“i was here first. youre following me”

“It's hard not to spot the satire by "Toyota is expecting much better results from the Canadians, whom are known for their conservative, business-friendly policies, anti-unionist mentality, and their willingness to work for slave wages."”

“hey ped, the Nissan plant in Tenn is non-union. Every yr the union keeps trying to get in the door. Each yr the employees vote and slam that door back in their face.”

“Nice to see some of you actually follow the links.”

“I have toured 3 GM plants, and all I can say is, that everytime we finished the tours, I ended up being so pissed off at the people who work there, that I can see exactly why Toyota would want to go somewhere else. It would take me a week just to share some of the things I saw, the people I met and the way things are done. Its our own fault. We did it to ourselves.
And by that I mean the unions.”

“~sigh~”

“lol@hpm”

“WHAT THE HELL!?

WERE WE TOO STUPID TO BOMB THEM?


/sarcasm”

“If the Japanese are so good on the production line, why don't they just build them there? Toyota is supposed to be all about quality from what I've been told. Well, I bought one and it had more defects than my last two Chevy's combined and it was built in Japan at a so called "award winning factory". Their customer service stinks too and every time my vehicle needed a part it took a week to get it and another week just to make an appointment to get the thing into the shop. I'd hate to break down out of town with it because with service like that who knows when I'd get home. They may have made bulletproof cars at one time, but their latest models are heaps of plastic and cheap metal as far as I can see.”

“If the Japanese are so good on the production line, why don't they just build them there?

Have you ever seen a globe and compared the size of Japan to.... any other country? And you want to throw in a 200 acre plant in the middle of it. You can set a $10,000 dollar bill down on the ground anywhere in Japan and that $10,000 bill would not buy the land that it's on top of.”

““well he tries to set up shop in the arsehole of america (no offense, stovie) and wonders why nobody knows how to do diddly”
Crash Bang
9:54:56 AM
7/08/05

Why do you hate Black people so, C!B!?
(no offense, C!B!)

Damn, you people fall for the dumbest fake 'news'. There must be some truth to at least TTers being stupid. LOL



“~sigh~”
humanpackmule
11:58:36 AM
7/08/05

Indeed, hpm.
last edited: 7/08/05 2:09:11 PM”

“Ewker - Interesting. Usually well treated employees aren't eager for a union.”

“boycott toyota--”

“BWM builds the X5, the X3, and the Z4 fourteen miles from my house. The quality is as good as anything BMW makes in Germany. It's a non-union plant but the wages are competitive with the wages paid in the manufacturiing plant I work at. I'm not sure what our Class A production workers are making but our Class A mechanics and electricians are making between $24 and $25 an hour w/o benefits. I would think our production workers are making from $16 to $19 an hour w/o benefits. We make flexible packaging for the food industry (think ButterBall turkey bag). BMWs pay has got to be that good and they pay for 100 percent of all insurance premiums.

If I was Toyota I wouldn't put a plant in Miss, Alabama, Michigan, California, Illinois, Ohio or any of the other rust belt states. I'm not against unions but I want to tell you unions have ruined GM, Ford, and Chrysler. The UAW has basically pissed in their own cornflakes.

And the format of public education in conjunction with the NEA (teachers union) has ruined education in the US. You should read some books by John Holt and John Taylor Gatto to get a feel for just how bad public schools are.”

“I can see that subtle humor may not be some folks strong point ;-)

I'm sorry for any confusion or anti Toyota or Canadian feelings this may have caused.



snicker


then again, perhaps it's all true!

Do not touch your set, we are in control...........
last edited: 7/08/05 7:04:47 PM”

“mtnsteve, you didnt use the sarcasm font I think.”

“Business 101: If I were opening a plant in North America, where would I open it?

Mexico? Canada? U.S.?

Economically, there's no question whatsoever, and you all know the answer ISN'T the U.S!

So now the question is... Are we driving jobs AWAY from the U.S. with our demands?

This is how businesses make their decisions: what will be our operating costs? I'm a senior manager at a company which is legally based here in CA, and I can tell you we're in the process of re-incorporating in another state due to the costs of operating a California-based business. (I voted for the move). That move will definitely cost this state some jobs, and affect some people here locally, but for the overall good of the company it was a decision we had to make.

People can demand things forever... but should realize that, at some point, the conmpany will simply pick-up & move to an environment which is more positive for them. In Toyota's situation, I don't blame them for bypassing the U.S. and moving their next plant to Canada.. it makes good business sense. AND, if they are more successful, all the stockholders downstream benefit, whether they be direct investors or simply invested via their 401K / retirement plans.





Toyota's newest North American plant will be in Woodstock, Ontario, the Globe and Mail newspaper in Toronto reported last week. Toyota's president, Katsuaki Watanabe, said on June 27 that the company was making final preparations for its second Canadian plant.

Woodstock is 53 kilometers from Toyota's other Canadian plant, which opened in Cambridge, Ontario, in 1988.

"They're certainly going to need additional capacity," said Catherine Madden, an auto analyst at Global Insight. "The way they're growing, they can't import enough vehicles."

Toyota opened its fifth North American assembly plant in Tijuana, Mexico, in February. A pickup truck factory in San Antonio, Texas, is to start production next year. The company this month set a goal of selling 2.5 million autos by 2008 in the United States, which contributes about 70 percent of annual global operating profit. The goal was raised from 2.06 million in 2004.”

“black people? who said anything about black people? youre confusing me, mr smith”

“Don't worry about Toyota building one little plant in Cananda. In short time they will have plenty of plants in the USA. Right after Toyota buys General Motors. Then they'll start the process of slowly closing the inefficient (read union) ones down as they bring newer, more modern plants on-line. Here in South Carolina they're gearing up for the transition. They've already started breaking ground on a big automotive design and engineering center here in Greenville. We're losing thousands of textile manufacturing jobs to the Chinese. We want those manufacturing jobs back and we're going to take them from the damn yankees who never appreciated them in the first place! Hell yeah ...take that UAW!!
last edited: 7/09/05 6:58:06 AM”

“I read more about this on Autoweek's website and they said the national health care in Canada results in $4 to $5 lower costs Toyota won't have to pay since it's taxpayer funded. The new plant will build 100,000 per year of the redesigned RAV4 which are now being made in Japan. Hopefully, they can do a better job in Canada, but since Toyota outsources 70% of its parts anyway it may not have much control if a bad part makes its way to the assembly line.”

“So does having the Canadian taxpayers fund all healthcare costs make Toyota the Wall-Mart of car manufacturers?”

“Maybe is does, but from what I read the RAV4 is made in the same plant that makes the Lexus brand in Toyota City, Japan. I'm not sure how labor costs in Japan compare to Canada and what the reason is for the switch. Maybe they want to ramp up the supply of Lexus and keep making them in Japan since people perceive a Japanese built vehicle to be of better quality.

I think when they do build the RAV in Canada and with the redesign it would be bad year to buy a RAV4. Totally new design and new production facility will probably add up to some first year bugs. It happened with the redesign of the Toyota Sienna Van from what I read.”

“Toyota, Moving Northward

By PAUL KRUGMAN
Published: July 25, 2005

Modern American politics is dominated by the doctrine that government is the problem, not the solution. In practice, this doctrine translates into policies that make low taxes on the rich the highest priority, even if lack of revenue undermines basic public services. You don't have to be a liberal to realize that this is wrong-headed. Corporate leaders understand quite well that good public services are also good for business. But the political environment is so polarized these days that top executives are often afraid to speak up against conservative dogma.

Instead, they vote with their feet. Which brings us to the story of Toyota's choice.

There has been fierce competition among states hoping to attract a new Toyota assembly plant. Several Southern states reportedly offered financial incentives worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

But last month Toyota decided to put the new plant, which will produce RAV4 mini-S.U.V.'s, in Ontario. Explaining why it passed up financial incentives to choose a U.S. location, the company cited the quality of Ontario's work force.

What made Toyota so sensitive to labor quality issues? Maybe we should discount remarks from the president of the Toronto-based Automotive Parts Manufacturers' Association, who claimed that the educational level in the Southern United States was so low that trainers for Japanese plants in Alabama had to use "pictorials" to teach some illiterate workers how to use high-tech equipment.

But there are other reports, some coming from state officials, that confirm his basic point: Japanese auto companies opening plants in the Southern U.S. have been unfavorably surprised by the work force's poor level of training.

There's some bitter irony here for Alabama's governor. Just two years ago voters overwhelmingly rejected his plea for an increase in the state's rock-bottom taxes on the affluent, so that he could afford to improve the state's low-quality education system. Opponents of the tax hike convinced voters that it would cost the state jobs.

But education is only one reason Toyota chose Ontario. Canada's other big selling point is its national health insurance system, which saves auto manufacturers large sums in benefit payments compared with their costs in the United States.

You might be tempted to say that Canadian taxpayers are, in effect, subsidizing Toyota's move by paying for health coverage. But that's not right, even aside from the fact that Canada's health care system has far lower costs per person than the American system, with its huge administrative expenses. In fact, U.S. taxpayers, not Canadians, will be hurt by the northward movement of auto jobs.

To see why, bear in mind that in the long run decisions like Toyota's probably won't affect the overall number of jobs in either the United States or Canada. But the result of international competition will be to give Canada more jobs in industries like autos, which pay health benefits to their U.S. workers, and fewer jobs in industries that don't provide those benefits. In the U.S. the effect will be just the reverse: fewer jobs with benefits, more jobs without.

So what's the impact on taxpayers? In Canada, there's no impact at all: since all Canadians get government-provided health insurance in any case, the additional auto jobs won't increase government spending.

But U.S. taxpayers will suffer, because the general public ends up picking up much of the cost of health care for workers who don't get insurance through their jobs. Some uninsured workers and their families end up on Medicaid. Others end up depending on emergency rooms, which are heavily subsidized by taxpayers.

Funny, isn't it? Pundits tell us that the welfare state is doomed by globalization, that programs like national health insurance have become unsustainable. But Canada's universal health insurance system is handling international competition just fine. It's our own system, which penalizes companies that treat their workers well, that's in trouble.

<snip>”

“pictorals! hahahahaha Why would they use muscles to teach those southern folk?”

“V- the governor they refer to happens to be a Republican. The previous one banked on passing a lottery and it failed miserably. When the new guy came in the state was basically bankrupt so he tried to get sweeping changes made to the tax system. It got voted down as well. It's a shame too. I voted for the tax increase.”

“I'll bet the canadian workers are union workers too. :)”

“The Honda Odyssey plant is about 15 minutes from me. Which van is it that is considered the best mini-van in the world? Oh yeah, it's the Odyssey.

(small voice font) - my wife drives a Toyota though.”

“According to JD Powers, the 2005 Chrysler Town and Country and the 2005 Dodge Grand Caravan blow the crap out of the Honda Odyssey.”

“Maintenance tends to be an important feature in a vehicle. Dodge and Chrysler have one thing in common, other than being owned by the same folks, and that's horrible maintence records. Consumer reports maintenance records are more important to me, and to lots of folks, than what JD Powers rates.”

“According to JD Powers, the Grand Caravan and Oddysey rate the same, 4 stars, on mechanical quaility, the Town & Country got 3 stars. The Odessy got whipped in the rest of the categories.”

“American cars are crap.
I think I'm on alternator number five and the just A/C went out in my Chev truck.

I'm loving my brand new Toyota.”

“And 2005 vehicles are rated for reliability based on what track record?

Try strapping kids in a car and reliability in a vehicle takes on a new meaning.”

“My Ford Ranger is at 182k and all I've had to do was change out a tranny, clutch, and some other odds and ends. Watch it break down next week now that I've bragged.”

““American cars are crap.
I think I'm on alternator number five and the just A/C went out in my Chev truck.

I'm loving my brand new Toyota.”
StoveStomper
9:31:47 AM
7/28/05
ignore this user

It must vary from vehicle to vehicle. I only had to have my old GMC Sierra in for none routine maintenance once. The only reason I got rid of it was because I wanted something that got better gas mileage and had four-wheel drive.”

“I'd buy American over Japan any day. I've got 65,000 HARD miles on the Jeep and haven't had to do a thing to it. Not even the front brakes. However I won't buy another Chrysler car because they don't give two shlts about milage.

I think the Big 3 are really dragging their feet and losing out on the hybrid market though.”

“SS, the car manufaturer you love just more or less said your neighbors are too stupid to build your car.

Have a nice day!”

“I'd like my next car to be a hybrid. They'll have to come down a bit for me though. Next year I want to get about a '02 or so Accord with a V6. I've been averaging about 1000 work miles a month in addition to my usual driving. At least I'm getting .40 per mile for it, but I'd also like to get about 10 mpg more. I get 20 now.”

“Nigal, I really like my Jeep also but tend to have brake problems more with it than any other car.
I have heard the Jeep Liberty sucks at gas mileage which falls into what you said about Chrysler but since Jeep is mfg by Chrysler it fits”

“I swore off Chrysler products years ago.
Complete pieces of crap and even worse dealers and service.

The last good American car I owned was a ten year old used 1963 Ford Fairlane 500. Replaced it with a Mazda GLC. That was a Great Little Car.”

“Only 165,000 miles on my Toyota LandCruiser & I had to replace the fan belts last week, that piece of crap car!

(first thing I've ever done to it besides brakes & fluids)”