17 hours ago
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Jess Lee, ivanandersson, Leslie Poston and 3 other people liked this
The answer: Toyota has a special culture, deep-rooted values, and respect for their workforce. Toyota’s tradition is to NOT lay off employees during hard times. This tradition hasn’t really been put to the test until now. And Toyota has stuck to its guns and its values.
“This was the first chance we’ve really had to live out our values,” says Latondra Newton, general manager of Toyota’s Team Member Development Center in Erlanger, Ky. “We’re not just keeping people on the payroll because we’re nice. At the end of all this, our hope is that we’ll end up with a more skilled North American workforce.” - Michael J. Cohen (mjc)
I heard a very interesting analysis that talked about a deeper systemic problem, that of this quarters profits. The argument was that the big 3 have to sacrifice most future plans to satisfy Wall Street or else suffer severe punishment. Short term profits trumping longer term vision is not just inherent in the companies but is also enforced by external forces. I don't buy it as the sole factor, but I'm sure it does contribute. - mikepk
The current quarter's profits focus goes a long way to explain the seeming total lack of forward looking car designs, and the focus on the current highest profit lines. I can't believe that management in the auto-makers didn't foresee this shift in buying patterns, or at least the possibility of this shift. - mikepk
Toyota builds nice cars, but so does GM. What Toyota knows that Gm doesn't is you can abuse the crap out of your labor force overseas. Fully a third of Toyota's line workers are low-paid temps. Unpaid overtime is common (note the famous case of Kenichi Uchino, who worked himself to death on the Prius project). Toyota has been accused of widespread sweatshop abuse through its part chain. They do business with the Burmese junta. One could go on and on. Yeah. Toyota knows a lot of stuff GM doesn't. - Chris Baskind
In Japan, Toyota slashed its temporary force so bad in Nagoya that Nagoya's economy is wrecked. They use a lot of temporary contract workers so they do not have to layoff the regular "shine" employees. - Igor The Troll
firing temps is normal in a recession. the economy was wrecked before that. - Michael J. Cohen (mjc)
