Maybe ... Just Maybe
Toyota is seriously looking at Michigan as the site for a major automotive plant. Hallelujah!
However I share their concerns.
Will they be viewed as contributing to Michigan's decline? Yes by some, but others will recognize that Michigan's automotive problems are largely Michigan's own doing and the introduction of a Toyota plant will be a small, badly-needed improvement. Why shouldn't the world's richest automobile company have a presence in the world's historic automotive cradle?
As an aside, at this moment the Detroit News Cybersurvey says the plant would be welcome in Michigan by a 4 to 1 margin. (Of course, there is one idiot who says "Let Toyota move somewhere else, We are overindustrialized in Mich now and we have to (sic) much polution." I wonder where that person works.)
Will the UAW leave them alone? Probably not but if they treat their employees fairly it will become a moot point. The UAW is very unpopular with a lot of workers. (The UAW is in my plant but loyalty to it is at the vanishing point in all but a couple of diehards.) Most employees would prefer to work in a non-union shop as long as they are treated fairly. The day of the once mighty UAW is fading. (There will always be some who believe they are morally obligated to bring in the union, but in a good situation they will be the minority.)
I don't care who owns the plant, as long as they provide good jobs to the American people.
However I share their concerns.
Will they be viewed as contributing to Michigan's decline? Yes by some, but others will recognize that Michigan's automotive problems are largely Michigan's own doing and the introduction of a Toyota plant will be a small, badly-needed improvement. Why shouldn't the world's richest automobile company have a presence in the world's historic automotive cradle?
As an aside, at this moment the Detroit News Cybersurvey says the plant would be welcome in Michigan by a 4 to 1 margin. (Of course, there is one idiot who says "Let Toyota move somewhere else, We are overindustrialized in Mich now and we have to (sic) much polution." I wonder where that person works.)
Will the UAW leave them alone? Probably not but if they treat their employees fairly it will become a moot point. The UAW is very unpopular with a lot of workers. (The UAW is in my plant but loyalty to it is at the vanishing point in all but a couple of diehards.) Most employees would prefer to work in a non-union shop as long as they are treated fairly. The day of the once mighty UAW is fading. (There will always be some who believe they are morally obligated to bring in the union, but in a good situation they will be the minority.)
I don't care who owns the plant, as long as they provide good jobs to the American people.
posted by shoprat at 8:15 PM
2 Comments:
A&C you would be suprised at how many auto workers feel the same way. Loyalty to the UAW is very low in my shop.
I laughed at a laborer from Illinois one time, when he said the "scab bastards are idiots, they make $5/hr less than me".
I reminded him they also worked 12 months a year vice the 8 he averaged, so they generally took home about 15-20% more than him per year.
It pissed him off for weeks.
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