Makes me wonder how many American Toyota plants have UAW presence (only one, in California as I recall). And outside the Camry, Matrix, Sienna and Tundra, the remainder are still mostly made abroad (I think only one Lexus-branded vehicle is made outside Japan). Go figure.
Besides, Toyota’s been in the US for maybe 20 years, and has perhaps one or two thousand retirees (at most?). GM alone has over half a million that it’s covering for pensions, etc. I’d say that’s a pretty big handicap (IIRC, over $1400 in every new GM car goes to these “legacy” costs…)
I’m with you on this one. How many people here besides thee and me would pay a little more for something made in the US? But they are quick to bitch about the state of the economy, why they can’t get a good job, etc.
When I left American Axle 3 years ago they were removing the extruders. To my knowledge the tonawanda plant doesn’t extrude these anymore. The AAM plant in ohio does though.
The axles were upset (process that makes the flange, before extruding) at tonawanda though. But not many, most were shipped in.
There are many other things affecting american axle with products that are being sourced to companies WITHIN the U.S, but with non- UAW unions. AAM’s biggest money makers are Ring Gears, Net Shaped Gears, Hubs, and Stabilizer Arms.
I’m telling you, it all boiles down to the greedy,lazy unions. And i don’t feel bad for them one bit. They (90% of them) do as little work possible throughout the day, the union backs them up, and come contract time they demand more money.
i was slacking off a couple weeks back (its ok, im not a union worker) and was having lunch at a local watering hole… anywho, there were 2 scumbags sitting a few seats away bragging about how they were pulling a fast one, and getting payed to suck down gennys while they were supposed to be on the line. these are the same people that cash their paychecks at the bar… they’re a real class act.
Ya know though… being in the industry, some people have no clue as to how many parts of their all american/german/japanese/ect cars are made in mexico/korea/china/and so on. Even if it was “made” in [insert said country], probably 70% of it’s components were made else where
Speaking of which… after re-desining/reverse engineering a Korean “part” we’ve been working on… I’d never buy anything from them. As a safty and duribility standard, we use a minimum of 3.5-4mm wall thickness, especially in high pressure areas… on the production korean part, I found areas as thin as .9 mm :eek:
oh, and I agree with josh 100%… unions are useless this day and age and are only fucking themselfs and the rest of us/the industry. You can’t expect a full pension, plus full benefits and 60K a year doing blue collar labor with only a HS diploma (if that)
all i stated that the toyotas have more american MADE parts in them than the GM/fords do
its not hard to figure out, just look at the certificat of origin on each new car, they all have them by law
GM might have more jobs here, but they outsource to other contries more than toyota does
while toyota is opening up new plants in the US and creating more jobs here, paying more AMERICANS to build their cars, GM is cutting tons of jobs and outsourcing even more
way to back the company that is screwing the country
only the govt can stop the outsorcing trend…
its the american way… decrease cost, increase margin.
i was in the engine plant last week, and they have come a long way in the past few years. the new HV V6 line is mostly automated, all people are for it to bolt up parts
that have been shipped in from mexico. they can now trace the major components back to the day it was machined, assembled, and even settings on the machines.
american car companies can build cars at comparable costs to the foreigners except
for the baggage, over head and red tape.
Don’t feel bad either when they[UAW union workers] get ‘laid off’, they still get 95% of their pay from NYS unemployment + Union compensation (why they have union dues). When NYS unemployment runs out after 6 months, the union then pays the full 95% pay.
When i was working at AAM, some people had been laid off for over 2 years, making $50K+ a year while fishing. You’re crazy if you don’t think all this money gets put into your new vehicle invoice.
on the flip side of that… to stay competative, GM must find ways to cut costs which ultimately comes down to reducing product quality, including engineering.
Now just imagine how many jobs that extra model turnover would create (or keep) in the US - even with the ballyhooed “outsourcing”. So you could argue that the unions are counterproductive on a level - driving jobs out of the country.
