More Skeletons in the Closet for "Friendly" Toyota

[GotAWD]

http://www.theautochannel.com/news/2...18/090268.html


Toyota Linked to Human Trafficking and Sweatshop Abuses
Toyota May Be a Shade Greener Environmentally but has badly stumbled with Human Rights Abuses

NEW YORK, June 18 -- Today the National Labor Committee (NLC) is releasing a 65-page report, "The Toyota You Don't Know" documenting serious human rights violations by the Toyota Motor Company, which will disturb most Americans.

"Celebrities like Julia Roberts, Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pit, Bill Maher and others have led the way in turning Toyota's Prius into a symbol of concern for our environment," said Charles Kernaghan, director of the NLC, "We hope that these same celebrities will now also challenge Toyota to improve its respect for human and worker rights. As a start, Toyota should cut its ties to the Burmese dictators and end the exploitation of foreign guest workers trafficked to Japan."

* Toyota linked to human trafficking and sweatshop abuse: Toyota's much admired "Just in Time" auto parts supply chain is riddled with sweatshop abuse, including the trafficking of foreign guest workers, mostly from China and Vietnam to Japan, who are stripped of their passports and often forced to work--including at subcontract plants supplying Toyota--16 hours a day, seven days a week, while being paid less than half the legal minimum wage. Guest workers who complain about abusive conditions are deported.

* Prius made by low-wage temps: Fully one-third--10,000--of all Toyota assembly line workers in Japan are low-wage temps who have few rights and earn less than 60% of what full time workers do.

* Unpaid overtime and "overworked" to death: Mr. Kenichi Uchino was just 30 years old when he died of overwork on an assembly line at Toyota's Prius plant, leaving behind his young wife and two children. Mr. Uchino routinely worked 13 to 14 hours a day, putting in 106 1/2 to 155 hours of overtime--depending on whether work taken home was counted--in the 30 days leading up to his death. Toyota claimed that he had only worked 45 hours of overtime and that the other 61 1/2 to 110 hours were "voluntary" and unpaid. His wife had to go to court -- which ruled that Mr. Uchino was overworked to death -- to win a pension for their children.

* Ties to Burmese dictators: Toyota, through the Toyota Tsusho Corporation, which is part of the Toyota Group of Companies, is involved in several joint business ventures with the ruthless military regime in Burma. The dictators use these revenues to repress and torture the people of Burma.

* Toyota and the race to the bottom: Toyota is imposing its two-tier, low wage model at its non-union plants in the south of the United States, which will result in wages and benefits being slashed across the entire auto industry.

The National Labor Committee recently documented how the U.S.-Jordan Free Trade Agreement descended into human trafficking with tens of thousands of foreign guest workers held under conditions of involuntary servitude.

[FenwickHockey65]

Some parts of this are reposts...

[KAD]

I knew Toyota was bad news from the start...

[osv_alero]

I think 90% of us here could have guessed toyota ran their business this way.

And for all those that will say otherwise; This report is not by a group that is anti foreign or anti-Japanese cars, they just want to stop bad employment practices around the globe.

[I-Love-Pontiac]

How much you want to bet the media wont pick up on this? But at the same time they will all jump on the fact that stupid GM's sales are down because they only make gas guzzlers.

[SpaceCowboy]

Not to justify or condone this kind of corporate attitude in any way, but it's funny how Toyota will only do this where they can get away with it. I know quite a few Toyota employees and their families who say Toyota Australia are one of the better companies to work for, but here there is quite a lot of attention paid to shonky employers so they just couln't get away with it, yet obviously where ever they can make this type of situation work, they will.

It sounds rather horrific, and while I don't particularly have a problem with the products they offer, I couldn't ever purchase one knowing the greater corporation endorses these kinds of practices. I certainly hope the mainstream media does all it can to expose this story.

I wonder how the spin doctors at Toyota will deal with this?

[ronald mcretard]

http://www.gminsidenews.com/forums/f...0/#post1429462

[1G6]

Toyota City lol

[Nasty_SS]

Hey Motor Trend .....you Going To To Do A Story On This?????
Your Buddies Arent As Great As U Like To Print.....

[Nasty_SS]

Lets See This Get Printed In Major Newspapers In The Usa And Let The Toyota Buyers See What They Support......
Slave Labor Over Seas.

[GM-Joe]

I hate toyoda more and more everyday; which doesn't seem possible, but it's true! I purposely have banned Nike for the same reasons.

[texassierradude]

Originally Posted by I-Love-Pontiac

How much you want to bet the media wont pick up on this? But at the same time they will all jump on the fact that stupid GM's sales are down because they only make gas guzzlers.

I have heard or seen nothing in the national news regarding this. Like thats a big surprise, right?

[Robert Ryan]

This raises a whole lot of issues about expolitation by multinational corporations of the labour of third world countries. Nike; Adidas ; Nestle , Shell , Wal-Mart , Jc Penny, Kmart , Sears to name a few have been involved in abuses that have been exposed.

[mbukukanyau]

moving you foward ---->>> or else... ----->>

[eaton53]

Originally Posted by Robert Ryan

This raises a whole lot of issues about expolitation by multinational corporations of the labour of third world countries. Nike; Adidas ; Nestle , Shell , Wal-Mart , Jc Penny, Kmart , Sears to name a few have been involved in abuses that have been exposed.

You can probably say this about just about any company that manufactures in the third world.
They wouldn't be there if there wasn't labor to exploit.