Toyota sweats U.S. labor costs (INTERNAL REPORT: Slow the pay growth by 2011)

[Bozita]

This is today's Detroit Free Press headline article. Frontpage, above the fold.

A PDF of the internal Toyota memo is available at the link.


http://freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070208/BUSINESS01/702080429

Toyota sweats U.S. labor costs
INTERNAL REPORT: Slow the pay growth by 2011

February 8, 2007

BY JASON ROBERSON

FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER

Toyota Motor Corp. must hold down growth of its U.S. manufacturing wages and benefits, which are among the highest in the auto industry and are growing faster than the company's profit margin, according to a high-level company report obtained by the Free Press.

The report from Seiichi (Sean) Sudo, president of Toyota Engineering & Manufacturing in North America, said Toyota should strive to align hourly wages more closely with prevailing manufacturing pay in the state where each plant is located, "and not tie ourselves so closely to the U.S. auto industry, or other competitors."

Sudo's report to top managers said the Japan-based company projected a $900-million increase in U.S. manufacturing compensation by 2011, and human resources officials were working on trimming that by one-third.

The drive to hold down costs may boost UAW organizing efforts, if Toyota workers balk at the possibility of smaller raises, reduced benefits or greater demands for productivity gains. But the plan also illustrates that the world's most-profitable automaker is going to keep relentless pressure on Detroit and its signature industry.

more...



http://freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070208/BUSINESS01/702080430

Workers got report off computer

February 8, 2007

Toyota Motor Corp.'s Kentucky human resource department discovered Jan. 9 that hourly assembly workers were passing around and discussing confidential documents.

Apparently the classified presentation of Seiichi (Sean) Sudo, a Toyota managing officer and president of Toyota Engineering & Manufacturing North America, was left on a shared computer drive and later printed, Toyota spokesman Daniel Sieger said.

In response, Toyota's Kentucky management team posted a memo around the Georgetown plant asking employees to return the presentation.

"It addresses costs, including labor costs, production planning ... etc., and that is why it is so confidential," according to the memo the Free Press obtained with the report. "If you have an electronic copy of this document on your computer, delete it immediately."

more ...

[ohio2007]

1. They don't want their record qrtly profits going to the assy. line workers

[Robbien]

2. How is this confidential?

CNBC pundits keep shouting the meme every day "Cut labor costs. Keep wages low."

That is what is meant by our Shareholder Society.

[MissMillie]

3. pay and benefits already among the highest in the industry

that's an important element that needs to be considered when looking at this information.

Toyota is already paying high salaries and benefits, and their profits are STILL pretty good. I keep hearing they're about to pass GM as the #1 auto maker.

Goes to show you that you CAN pay your employees well and still make money.

[msongs]

6. passing general motors is hardly an accomplishment considering how poorly GM is run

by their overpaid underperforming multi-million dollar executives.

any business with half a brain would fire the entire tier of top management for incompetence.

Ford ought to be allowed to kill itself, maybe GM should follow. After all it should have the electric car market wrapped up tight by now and chose to ignore the future.

Msongs
www.msongs.com

[PassingFair]

4. Busting workers down to $10 - $14 per hour

You can't afford to buy the cars on those wages.

[pampango]

7. The OP didn't state that Toyota was attempting to

bust "workers down to $10 - $14 per hour". The document referenced says that Toyota "must hold down growth of its U.S. manufacturing wages and benefits, which are among the highest in the auto industry".

So we are not talking about some foreign company that is using "slave labor" or trying to slash workers' pay back to poverty wages, but one that where pay and benefits are among the best in the industry. In my dream world companies would compete with each other to pay their workers more and more and more (I am one of their employees in this dream), and then give their products away for free (I am a consumer in this part of the dream).

Until my dream world materialized, companies will pay what they think they should to retain and motivate good employees and not a penny more. They will sell their cars for as much as they think they can given the competition.

[PassingFair]

9. Read the article.

snip>"Toyota's strategy resembles what Hyundai Motor Co. uses at its plant in Montgomery, Ala. Assembly workers there make $14 an hour, about half the wages, bonuses and benefits of Toyota, Honda, Nissan and Detroit's automakers. But Hyundai's wages still are considerably higher than for comparable Alabama jobs, which pay $10.79 an hour."


"I am one of their employees in this dream), and then give their products away for free (I am a consumer in this part of the dream)."



You go ahead and keep dreaming.

I am in the WAKING nightmare that is the Michigan economy.

[madrchsod]

5. they are so much better than american companies...

well fella`s nothing like pissing off the workers is there? i guess you`ll be kissing their asses to keep out that big bad union won`t you...

[susanna]

10. My first thought too.

Wonder if the UAW gets a leg up organizing the southern plants now. Things could get interesting.

[Kagemusha]

8. Trying to keep pay down when it's already high isn't a crime.

Shouldn't be treated like one.

But it's all relative.