All Entries Tagged With: "autoworkers"

How Can Anyone Be Loyal To The “Domestics” When They’ve Laid Off Thousands?

As a long-time fan of the Toyota product, I’ve heard or read hundreds of comments about how Toyota isn’t an “American” company, that buying a Toyota product is hurting the American worker, etc.

I’ve always tried to educate the people who make these statements, explaining that 1) most “domestic” cars aren’t nearly as domestic as they think and that 2) some Toyotas (and Nissans and what have you) are designed, built, and sourced in the USA (like the Tundra).

Yet sometimes this info falls on deaf ears.

So, instead of detailed explanations about where Toyota’s profits go or numerous examples of supposedly imported products winning “most American” awards, I’m just going to talk about two numbers:

-266,536

and

+74,885

The first number? The number of workers fired or laid off by GM, Chrylser-Fiat, and Ford since the year 2000. The second? Workers hired by Toyota, Nissan, Daimler etc.*

Toyota Hiring More US Autoworkers, Yet Criticism Abounds

Yesterday, Toyota officially began hiring at their soon-to-open Blue Springs, Mississippi assembly plant. It is expected that Toyota will directly employ 2,000 workers, with thousands of other new jobs being created as a result of new investment. While this is great news for Mississippi – one of the poorest states in the US – this move is not without criticism.

Toyota's new plant will employ 2,000 directly and thousands more indirectly at suppliers co-located in Blue Ridge

Toyota critics argue that Toyota’s 2,000 new hires aren’t actually “new” at all – that they are just cheaper replacements for NUMMI workers who were let go earlier this year.