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 in “Toyota City,” outside of Nagoya, Japan — less than 200 miles southwest of Tokyo —… return to article
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Reader Comments (2)Page 1 of 1 pagesI 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.
Posted by chaoslegs on Jul 16, 2008 at 9:56 PM The workers used to produce there best selling of Prius hybrid cars and one third of Toyota’s Prius assembly in the Dark Side of the Toyota Prius.
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Connecticut Treatment Centers
Posted by jack.furnandess@gmail.com on Jul 31, 2008 at 8:34 AM Page 1 of 1 pages -
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Also by Paul Abowd
- Victory for Smithfield Workers
A 16-year unionization campaign gets a happy ending. - The Dark Side of the Toyota Prius
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