[MSF BU]

There is some truth to that. I wonder how many nonunion manufacturers are having these problems. Nucor and Toyota US seem to be doing just fine.

[org.whodat]

TOKYO — The Toyota Motor Company booked its first annual net loss in six decades Friday and warned that it would plunge even deeper into the red this year, a stunning reversal for an automaker whose breakneck expansion and record profits seemed unstoppable just 12 months ago.

Katsuaki Watanabe, Toyota president, apologized to investors.

Go to your Portfolio » The automaker said it lost 765.8 billion yen, or $7.7 billion, in the first three months of the year — even more than the $5.9 billion lost by its American rival, General Motors, in the same period.

Reallyhttp://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/09/business/global/09toyota.html

[NVDave]

Plenty of non-union shops are having problems. You just don’t hear about them as loudly in the news, especially the smaller manufacturing companies that cost the economy 5 to 500 jobs when they go down for the count.

Toyota, BTW, is suffering greatly. They’ve having to lay off people in Japan. Exports from Japan to the US are way down in the last year+.