Banzai! Toyota in North America

Automotive News - May 14, 2007
http://autonews.com

Economic development leaders in several states say Toyota officials
have signaled privately that more investment is coming...

Since it opened its first auto assembly line in Fremont, Calif., in
1987, Toyota's pattern in North America has been to go back and double
its investment. The Georgetown, Ky., plant opened in 1988 to produce
200,000 cars a year. It now builds 500,000 a year as well as engines.

Future expansions probably will mean more investment in the $1.28
billion San Antonio plant, where Toyota began making Tundra pickups in
November. Toyota also has a small assembly plant in Baja, Mexico, where
it makes Tacoma pickups http://snipurl.com/Tacoma_07 - Nissan Motor Co.
is investing heavily in Mexican production.

A more pressing concern for Toyota is to create more production
capacity for engines and transmissions. The company has capacity to
build about 1.45 million engines and 600,000 automatic transmissions in
North America annually, while it is increasing vehicle capacity to 2.2
million a year.

Ray Tanguay, the Toyota executive vice president responsible for
strategic needs, says the company plans to add a line at its Kentucky
engine plant. Toyota declined to reveal details, but the plans are
emerging as it launches production of Camry sedans at Subaru of Indiana
Automotive Inc. outside Indianapolis.

The company also will need engines to power the Highlander SUVs it will
start building in Tupelo, Miss., in early 2010. That project is
relatively close to Toyota's truck engine plant in Huntsville, Ala.,
but the company has not revealed its sourcing plan.

Woodstock, Ontario - RAV4 assembly is to start this year near Toyota's
Cambridge, Ontario, plant, which has expanded repeatedly.

 

The US automobile market is going the way of consumer electronics,
unless US manufacturers can reverse the trend.

Yes, RCA, Zenith and a few well known American names are still used,
but they are no longer assembled here. Most come from China, Korea, or
Singapore.

Unless things change, there will be some vehicles carrying American
name plates, but they won't be assembled here.

I am curious, what is the benefits package like for an American
working at a U.S. Toyota, Nissan, or Honda plant like? Are the
benefits anything like what UAW workers have?

-KM

 

The US Toyota workers just get 401k's, I think with a company match. The
health care is more expensive.

So the wages are similar, but the benefits are less.

Jeff

 

It will be American cars from Korea (now!) and China.
With German and Japanese cars built in the USA.

So we buy those that are built in the USA, who cares about the company
name anyway.

 

Better, actually. As Detroit Free Press has observed in a recent
article, Toyota is now at parity or slightly better than UAW wages.
A lot of this is an effort by Toyota to stave off unionization efforts.

Ted

 

True!

 

Yeah, they're not stupid. The adversarial relationship that the union likes
would cost Toyota a lot of productivity, and they'd rather pay extra to the
people they have that work. Anybody would.

 

The question is, if the UAW disappears, would they still continue to pay
those higher wages? Over time, I would bet that the wages would start
falling after inflation adjustment.

Ted

 

But quality is better at non UAW plants. Union workers are lazy and
overpaid. The bloated benefits package forces car makers to skimp on
components and quality suffers. God help Toyota if they build in
Mexico. Chhhrysler build sthere and there quality is spotty

 

Do you know _anything_ about business? Have you ever made a payroll?

Do you think the airlines, city and state governments, railroads,
utilities, etc... would continue to pay what they pay if all union
representation disappeared? <G>

Any properly run business pays what it costs to attract and retain
properly qualified, dependable employees. Anything more is a waste of
resources and a dereliction of management duties.

 

Right. A powerful union that you're not a member of gives you the best of
both worlds. With the union broken, they'll pay whatever the market
requires.