As the UAW pushes to organize Toyota's U.S. workers, a leaked memo from Toyota's head of North American engineering and manufacturing says Toyota's U.S. wages are growing faster than its profits and that $300 million in wage cuts are needed for fiscal 2011. Meanwhile, two fired Toyota workers have denied leaking the embarrassing memo.
It's easy to see why Toyota wanted the 2006 memo kept under wraps. UAW organizers have pounced on the memo — which was authored by Seiichi Sudo, president and CEO of Toyota Motor Engineering & Manufacturing North America — saying it means more temporary workers taking jobs from full-time $25-an-hour workers at Toyota's North American plants. Not that it needed to be said — it isn't hard to imagine the conversations on the shop floor at Toyota factories across the U.S.
Those conversations are also likely to touch on the treatment the two fired workers said they received from Toyota. Noel Riddell and Manuel Eade, who call themselves union supporters, were accused of leaking the memo (partly because they reportedly had shown it to management) and asked to resign. They refused and opted for a peer review, which they say cleared them. Nevertheless, the two Georgetown plant workers were sacked on 8 February.
It's hard to know for sure what effect all this will have on Toyota's efforts to quash UAW organizing efforts, but it's safe to say it won't help. And it sure does vaporize the warm and fuzzy "we're so American" glow being spun by Toyota marketers to dampen backlash over the company's dizzying rise in the U.S. auto market.
Fired Toyota workers: We didn't leak memo [Automotive News (subscription required)]
