Toyota to build 100,000 vehicles per year in Ontario (Americans too illiterate to train)

CBC ^ | July 3, 2005 | STEVE ERWIN

[Liberty Valance]

Canadian workers are also $4 to $5 cheaper to employ partly thanks to the taxpayer-funded health-care system in Canada

So the Canadian taxpayers pay for Toyota's benefit pkg.

[ScreamingFist]

Remember, these plants are opening up in the middle of *nowhere* in these states. The population is decidedly rural and many people in the area drop out at the 6th grade or earlier.

Bwhaahahaha. It's the cities where the schools have the largest dropout rates. Everyone and their brother are fleeing the large metroplexes and heading to suburbia and the country side.

[andyandval]

bookmarking for a fascinating discussion

[sgtbono2002]

Somehow I think this has more to do with not hiring blacks than illiterate rednecks. How many black workers are in Ontario, I bet not that many. As opposed to Mississippi and Alabama.

I know Toyota isnt opposed to blacks buying their cars, just building them.

[txhurl]

Yep. Depressing.

[mewzilla]

So the Canadian taxpayers pay for Toyota's benefit pkg.

One way or another....

[jocko12]

And the teachers want a raise?

[Publius6961]

He said Nissan and Honda have encountered difficulties getting new plants up to full production in recent years in Mississippi and Alabama due to an untrained - and often illiterate - workforce. In Alabama, trainers had to use "pictorials" to teach some illiterate workers how to use high-tech plant equipment.

"The educational level and the skill level of the people down there is so much lower than it is in Ontario," Fedchun said.

This should be embarrassing as well as sad.
If this doesn't conclusively illustrate a point, nothing will.

Substituting the intimidation and thuggery of "unionism" for the utility of a good education in the quest of a "living wage" is a strategically losing approach.

[anniegetyourgun]

Amen.

[Conservatrix]

I think that was the point of my question. I knew hte answer but wanted the rest of you to answer it.....

[Publius6961]

Nothing sheds more light than injecting "racism" into every discussion.

< /sarcasm >

[Hot Tabasco]

Or did Canada offer Toyota a bigger bribe?

Of Course! The trade agreement Canada has with the U.S. which I am sure goes along with Toyota is that if you want to sell your cars here, you got to build them here!

Interestingly enough, the article never mentions one word about the CAW (Canadian Auto Workers Union) which WILL get their slimy fingers into the pot!

While I have no info to dispute the article's claim about more intelligent workers, I can offer information relevant to the work ethic of Canadians based on the experiences of one of our stamping plants in Kitchener Ontario.

That plant has horrendous union problems, horrendous absentee problems and is faced with the possibility of being either sold or shut down.

Workers there are making top dollar for that geographic location and have no incentive whatsoever to put in a full 40 hour work week let alone expect them to work weekends. As a result of the chronic absenteeism and lack of employees willing to work the necessary weekends in order to meet production standards, they actually have a staff of part time people who they call to work the necessary jobs on the weekends.

Believe me, if Toyota is getting into Canada minus the auto union, you can bet your paycheck that the CAW is going to drop down like a 500 Lb. monkey on their back in the not too distant future.

[GOPologist]

Why did companies go to the South in the first place? To save money! Why didn't the companies stay in the North where they would have found adequate and competent workers.

So, let them reap what they sow--don't blame the so-called "too illiterate."

[Diddle E. Squat]

What the blowhard in the article didn't mention is that Toyota also just announced a few months ago that it will build a new plant in San Antonio, TX.

[Diddle E. Squat]

Who is illiterate in the South?

Perhaps the ones not replying?!

[Snowyman]

So the Canadian taxpayers pay for Toyota's benefit pkg.

Depends on how you look at it. Toyota will pay a 1.9% payroll tax. Employers pay that tax , employees don't . Personal incomes over $20k and up pay to a max. of $600 a year.

[Publius6961]

Well, you got one loser to take the bait.

[kanawa]

one of our stamping plants in Kitchener Ontario.

Budd Automotive?

[Moose4]

Then how has Toyota thrived in Kentucky, Saturn in Tennessee, and BMW in South Carolina?

}:-)4

[commish]

Let me get this straight -- these vastly more intelligent people live in god-awful weather, with a much higher cost of living and they work for up to $5 less an hour. Seeing as how Hyundai is paying $24 an hr here -- that mean these "superbly intelligent" people are working in high tech jobs for less than $20/hour.

Yep, they sure are smart.