<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=6 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD class=alt2 style="BORDER-RIGHT: 1px inset; BORDER-TOP: 1px inset; BORDER-LEFT: 1px inset; BORDER-BOTTOM: 1px inset">Today the National Labor Committee (NLC) is releasing a 65-page report, “The Toyota You Don’t Know” documenting serious human rights violations by the Toyota Motor Company, which will disturb most Americans.

“Celebrities like Julia Roberts, Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pit, Bill Maher and others have led the way in turning Toyota’s Prius into a symbol of concern for our environment,” said Charles Kernaghan, director of the NLC, “We hope that these same celebrities will now also challenge Toyota to improve its respect for human and worker rights. As a start, Toyota should cut its ties to the Burmese dictators and end the exploitation of foreign guest workers trafficked to Japan.”

* Toyota linked to human trafficking and sweatshop abuse: Toyota’s much admired “Just in Time” auto parts supply chain is riddled with sweatshop abuse, including the trafficking of foreign guest workers, mostly from China and Vietnam to Japan, who are stripped of their passports and often forced to work–including at subcontract plants supplying Toyota–16 hours a day, seven days a week, while being paid less than half the legal minimum wage. Guest workers who complain about abusive conditions are deported.

* Prius made by low-wage temps: Fully one-third–10,000–of all Toyota assembly line workers in Japan are low-wage temps who have few rights and earn less than 60% of what full time workers do.

* Unpaid overtime and “overworked” to death: Mr. Kenichi Uchino was just 30 years old when he died of overwork on an assembly line at Toyota’s Prius plant, leaving behind his young wife and two children. Mr. Uchino routinely worked 13 to 14 hours a day, putting in 106 1/2 to 155 hours of overtime–depending on whether work taken home was counted–in the 30 days leading up to his death. Toyota claimed that he had only worked 45 hours of overtime and that the other 61 1/2 to 110 hours were “voluntary” and unpaid. His wife had to go to court — which ruled that Mr. Uchino was overworked to death — to win a pension for their children.

* Ties to Burmese dictators: Toyota, through the Toyota Tsusho Corporation, which is part of the Toyota Group of Companies, is involved in several joint business ventures with the ruthless military regime in Burma. The dictators use these revenues to repress and torture the people of Burma.

* Toyota and the race to the bottom: Toyota is imposing its two-tier, low wage model at its non-union plants in the south of the United States, which will result in wages and benefits being slashed across the entire auto industry.

The National Labor Committee recently documented how the U.S.-Jordan Free Trade Agreement descended into human trafficking with tens of thousands of foreign guest workers held under conditions of involuntary servitude.


http://www.nlcnet.org/article.php?id=562


Maybe this will get the room a lil more action.

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I we wonder why Toyota makes a profit and ford doesn't........

 

I think it is propaganda trying to get people to quit buying non-union made cars.

 

In the 30 days leading up to his death, Kenichi Uchino had worked anywhere from 106 ½ to 155 hours of overtime—depending upon whether one counted the work he took home and offsite meetings with colleagues—most of it unpaid. “Uchino was engaged in voluntary quality control activities,”—quoting from a Nagoya newspaper article published December 1, 2007—“which Toyota argued were performed off the clock. But Judge Tamiya accepted the wife’s argument that those activities were effectively within the scope of Uchino’s work at Toyota.” Even leaving aside the home work and offsite meetings, the court ruled that Mr. Uchino had worked 61 ½ hours of unpaid overtime in the 30 days leading up to his sudden collapse and death at the Tsutsumi plant where the Prius is produced

This guy died. Thats some crazy propaganda.

 

walmart was bagged for the same thing a few years ago, along with having illegals working at there stores. look how thats turned out for them.


so what killed the guy? not getting his OT,working in VOLUNTARY QUALITY CONTROL ACTIVITIES, that sounds like a rough job.






you gotta remember this is america....where as majority of the drivers wont care whos building the car, whether or not the guy building the car is dead or alive. plus most people dont give a rats **** what julia,brad,leo and mr. maher have to say. further more, for every 1 business they catch violating this and that, theres a whole bunch more waiting to be caught.
do i think that toyotas sales will be affected by this? no, it will be forgotten very soon

 

OH MY! The evil Toyota empire rears it's ugly head again!

BTW, how many workplace deaths occur every year in the construction industry.

Just something to think about.....

 

We can always count on SMIGGS to provide damage control for the big T.

How much do they pay you?

 

Go easy on me there Big Bad. I know how I can rub you "haters" the wrong way sometimes....well most of the time. I would have thought seeing Toyota has been around awhile, you guys would have outgrown this by now.

BTW, what are you saying about the 5.7 in the 09 forum again?

 

Toyota is horrible according to NLC. I wouldn't trust the accuracy of anythig the NLC says. They seem to trash anyone and everybody that is not union affiliated.

PER NLC:

Toyota Tsusho--part of the Toyota Group of companies--is involved in a joint venture with the totalitarian Burmese military and the Suzuki Motor Corporation, manufacturing and supplying vehicles that may be used to repress and torture the Burmese people.

Look how horrible they are per the NLC: The National Labor Committee

"They often work with labor unions and other human rights groups" per the free dictionary (Labor unions are human rights groups?) and "The NLC has also worked with the United Steel Workers of America and Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND) to draft the "Decent Working Conditions and Fair Competition Act," which was introduced in both the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate in 2006.

 

They have a barrow to push thats for sure...

 

It is sad that more americans don't care where the car was made or where the profits go. I don't know if the story is true or not but if it is, you would think Toyota would be able to lower their prices some, I guess greed is an international word. I am not sure where both are assembled but on a recent vacation my brother rented a Toyota Sienna and I got a Dodge Grand Caravan, The toyota was quieter and faster, but the dodge did get slightly better mileage. Both served their purpose well carrying 6 people and luggage in the Arizona heat and high country with nothing more than refueling. Sorry to get off subject but I was talking about a Toyota.

 

I guess you do know exactly where the profits go. I keep hearing this, but have never seen any hard numbers. So until I see some #s, I'll just have to assume that Toyota's profits are distributed to shareholders and employees like the ones that work right up the road from me and Ford's are more and more given to folks in Mexico.

Mike

 

Please elaborate.

 

Buying petroleum supports terrorism, far worse than buying economical foreign vehicles to cut petrol use.

 

lol, imagine if toyota was owned by the chinese