Toyota facing workers rights abuse charges
The Toyota Prius has long been the darling of Hollywood celebrities, though it seems its good reputation is being besmirched just a bit. We can't say whether the allegations are true or not, but The National Labor Committee (NLC) has published a report highlighting such offenses against Toyota as operating sweat shops, working with dictators and human trafficking. Also under fire are supposedly low wages for workers in Japan and long hours without overtime pay. You may remember from some time back reports regarding at least one Toyota worker who died from overwork. This case is brought up again by the NLC along with a few examples of workers who committed suicide allegedly because they were put under too much pressure to perform. Toyota's lack of an American union is also drawing ire from the NLC, as are the lower wages the company pays its U.S. employees. Again, we're not able to comment on the validity of the NLC's report, however these are serious allegations which could potentially tarnish the squeaky-clean reputation that the automaker currently holds.
[Source: The National Labor Committee via World Car Fans]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Wildgoosechase73 7:18PM (6/18/2008)
Sounds like slave labor to me.
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s10 8:26PM (6/18/2008)
The big 3 gave the go-ahead for the smear campaign it seems.
Honestly, you really think Toyota could afford such a thing? NO WAY!
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Luke 12:17AM (6/19/2008)
No way. Toyota can do no wrong. They simply can't afford it, so the big 3 had to have planned this, along with O. J. Simpson (or Bart Simpson). Who ever says otherwise is a big dufus-liar and a stinky-winky dumb-dumb doodie pants.
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Randy 12:57AM (6/19/2008)
Ah, becoming more American everyday.
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Luke 5:35AM (6/19/2008)
The Japanese working long hours without overtime pay is *new*? I must have gotten this news 30 years before the rest of you.
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GoodCheer 9:29AM (6/19/2008)
I also heard that they eat babies.
Are we comparing working conditions at Toyota to UAW plants in Michigan or to the ever increasing number of Big-3 plants oversees?
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oldraven 12:34PM (6/19/2008)
What does GM or the Big Three have to do with this? Toyota is an incredibly fallible company. It's time people finally admitted it.
Wasn't it found recently that the process of building a Prius is exponentially more harmful to the environment than it is to build an F-150 in their respective plants?
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MarcT 12:36PM (6/19/2008)
ABG readers are generally a bright lot, so I presume they will take this report for the media smnear campaign that it is. Toyota is a corporation. There was a great doc a couple years ago that really broke down the evils of what it means to be a corp. They are mandated by their charters to be as ruthless as possible, to make the most profit for their shareholders. And our entire legal system and infrastucture is set up to make them thrive.
Now that being said Toyota should neither be let off the hook for any alleged abuses, nor vilified for doing what every other corporation is doing. NLC is just singling them out with vagaries, anecdotes and half-truths because they are such an easy target. They can especially attack Toyota above all other companies because right now there is probably no other company with more celebrity cache. It's all about publicity for NLC's cause. And they are good cause in general. NLC promotes workers' rights, which is, on the whole, a good thing. This attack, however, is quite disingenuous, and maybe even libelous. I eagerly await Toyota's response.
Here's a couple little gems about the Myanmar relationships, which are some of the more damning charges. Maersk, which is involved in shipping jst about every Japanese and American brand, has business in Myanmar. Siemens, which supplies MBZ, Porsche and BMW, has business in Myanmar.
So, again, I'm not saying let Toyota off the hook. But let's have a little perspective here.
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MarcT 12:48PM (6/19/2008)
I hope this doesnt post twice, I seem to be having issues.....
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brn 3:20PM (6/19/2008)
"potentially tarnish the squeaky-clean reputation that the automaker currently holds"
I'm not going to take advantage of this news to smear Toyota (I'll do that elsewhere), but since when did they have a "squeaky-clean reputation"? That's just nuts.
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