The Dark Side of the Toyota Prius

By Paul Abowd

The National Labor Committee (NLC), a New York-based human rights group, has been investigating working conditions at Toyota Motor Corp., and the labor used to produce its best-selling Prius hybrid cars. In its 65-page report released in June, NLC includes first-hand testimony of factory conditions [RETURN TO ARTICLE]

  • Reader Comments

     Page 1 of 1 pages

    I am glad that the author is highlighting the seedy underbelly of corporate operations to maximize profits.

    While I don’t understand the car industry, or how it works, I was confused by a few things.  These guest workers make up a third of the assembly line, but are in the parts supply chain which is run by subcontractors.  So are they direct employees of Toyota, or of their subcontractor?

    We know in the US auto industry that some of the big 3 spun off their parts supply chain, and they have been unionized, although under attack.  Is this the same sort of arrangement that Toyota has?  It just wasn’t that clear to me .

    Besides those questions, I do agree, that the parent company of Toyota would be able to apply pressure to end the questionable practices either of the parts suppliers, or ties of their subsidiary to Burma.  Typically these layers provide the parent company some deniability and so they only encourage practice change when consumers shame them.  We know that Wal-Mart will apply pressure to cut unit costs to their suppliers, but that is about their profit, not about worker conditions.

    United States Posted by chaoslegs on Jul 16, 2008 at 2:56 PM

    The workers used to produce there best selling of Prius hybrid cars and one third of Toyota

    India Posted by jack.furnandess@gmail.com on Jul 31, 2008 at 1:34 AM

    tiffany co
    Tiffany Rings
    Tiffany Bracelets
    Tiffany Necklaces swww

    China Posted by tiffany on Jun 27, 2010 at 10:29 AM

    Thanks for this post!  It was extremely informative and helpful!  I just learned everything I need to know today.louis vuitton Christmas Gifts Monogram CanvasLouis VuittonDamier Canvas louis vuitton timberlands

    United States Posted by dixon lei on Aug 26, 2010 at 12:00 AM

    The article touches some important issues, but does not give enough back ground information as “cahoslegs” question makes clear.

    The chinese workers mentioned come with the visa status “Trainee”, which excludes them form workers rights, freedom of movement and choice of occupation. This is called “Industrial Training and Technical Internship Programm”. It is officially designed as knowledge transfer, but is almost openly acknowledged as import program for cheap labor.

    For more information click here:
    Kenri-Net, an NGO-supporting foreign trainees (in Japanese and chinese only): http://k-kenri.net/
    JITCO, a governmentally sponsored public interest foundation that promotes the “training prorgamm”.

    Trainees indeed work mostly in subcontracting companies. Of the 200,000 who were in Japan in 2008, 75 % worked in companies with less then 200 employees and 50 % in companies with less then 100 employees.

    Learn more about all this in the documentary movie “SOUR STRAWBERRIES – Japan’s hidden »guest workers«”.
    http://www.cinemabstruso.de/strawberries/main.html
    http://www.myspace.com/sour.strawberries

    Germany Posted by Sour Strawberries on Sep 11, 2010 at 4:35 PM

    gucci shoes
    cheap gucci shoes
    gucci shoes for men
    gucci outlet

    China Posted by krister1 on Sep 25, 2010 at 2:19 AM
     Page 1 of 1 pages

  • register a new account »Posting Security

    To participate in our forums, please register for a free account.
     

    Retreive lost password »