Posted on 07/03/2005 3:25:54 PM PDT by ItsJeff
WOODSTOCK, Ont. (CP) - Ontario workers are well-trained.
That simple explanation was cited as a main reason why Toyota turned its back on hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies offered from several American states in favour of building a second Ontario plant.
Industry experts say Ontarians are easier and cheaper to train - helping make it more cost-efficient to train workers when the new Woodstock plant opens in 2008, 40 kilometres away from its skilled workforce in Cambridge.
"The level of the workforce in general is so high that the training program you need for people, even for people who have not worked in a Toyota plant before, is minimal compared to what you have to go through in the southeastern United States," said Gerry Fedchun, president of the Automotive Parts Manufacturers' Association, whose members will see increased business with the new plant.
Acknowledging it was the "worst-kept secret" throughout Ontario's automotive industry, Toyota confirmed months of speculation Thursday by announcing plans to build a 1,300-worker factory in the southwestern Ontario city.
"Welcome to Woodstock - that's something I've been waiting a long time to say," Ray Tanguay, president of Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada, told hundreds gathered at a high school gymnasium.
The plant will produce the RAV-4, dubbed by some as a "mini sport-utility vehicle" that Toyota currently makes only in Japan. It plans to build 100,000 vehicles annually.
The factory will cost $800 million to build, with the federal and provincial governments kicking in $125 million of that to help cover research, training and infrastructure costs.
Several U.S. states were reportedly prepared to offer more than double that amount of subsidy. But Fedchun said much of that extra money would have been eaten away by higher training costs than are necessary for the Woodstock project.
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.
In addition to lower training costs, Canadian workers are also $4 to $5 cheaper to employ partly thanks to the taxpayer-funded health-care system in Canada, said federal Industry Minister David Emmerson.
"Most people don't think of our health-care system as being a competitive advantage," he said.
Tanguay said Toyota's decision on where to build its seventh North American plant was "not only about money."
"It's about being in the right place," he said, noting the company can rely on the expertise of experienced Cambridge workers to help get Woodstock up and running.
Premier Dalton McGuinty said the money the province and Ottawa are pledging for the project is well-spent. His government has committed $400 million, including the latest Toyota package, to the province's auto sector, which helped finance $5-billion worth of industry projects.
"I think that's a great investment that will more than pay for itself in terms of new jobs and new economic returns," McGuinty said.
The provincial funds for the auto sector were drawn from a fund set up to attract investments specifically in that industry. McGuinty said no similar industry funds are being planned for other sectors, but added the province wants to attract biotechnology companies - those working on multibillion-dollar advanced medical research.
"What we have done for auto we would like to be able to do for biotech," he said. "That's where we're lending some real focus to at the present time."
Similarly, Emmerson said Ottawa is looking to help out industries that create "clusters" of jobs around them - such as in aerospace, shipbuilding, telecommunications and forestry - where supply bases build around a large manufacturer.
© The Canadian Press, 2005
Or did Canada offer Toyota a bigger bribe?
More like Toyota is getting fed up with the UAW screwing with their NUMMI plant in California.
It's not really that surpising.
I'm sure that didn't help. But I'm still betting on the bigger bribe :)
Oh, Lord.
The unions sent another plant packing.
Who is illiterate in the South?
I hope that the "too illiterate" Americans have enough sense NOT to buy a Toyota vehicle.
...and on another thread; American teachers are mewling for a generous salary increase.
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.
They would have the same difficulty if they set up in downtown Detroit. The local workforce *is* illiterate.
From my limited experience with our Canadian operations – Canada has *much* more liberal labor laws than the U.S. I personally wouldn’t think you’d run to Canada for that reason.
Too illiterate? Canada must have more literate illegal aliens.
" I hope that the "too illiterate" Americans have enough sense NOT to buy a Toyota vehicle."
How the hell can you blame Toyota ? These " illiterate " Americans could get their shi- together if they had the desire/ambition . Even dyslexics can get help for chrissakes .
someone ought to send a copy of that to every union school in the u.s.
The will find out the CAW (Canadian Auto Workers Union) is more corrupt and thug filled than the UAW.
Your average red neck, hip-hop, Latino American worker.
"I hope that the "too illiterate" Americans have enough sense NOT to buy a Toyota vehicle."
Conversely, as a literate American I have no problem with buying a Toyota.
Toyota doesn't hire 'illiterate' workers. They are very demanding and selective. I imagine the same is true for Honda. What a load of Canadian crap.
Yes, but when Toyota got the NUMMI plant from GM, the UAW was already there. Want to bet that the CAW isn't in this plant? (Yet.)
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.
bookmarking for a fascinating discussion
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.
Yep. Depressing.
One way or another....
And the teachers want a raise?
"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.
Amen.
I think that was the point of my question. I knew hte answer but wanted the rest of you to answer it.....
< /sarcasm >
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.
So, let them reap what they sow--don't blame the so-called "too illiterate."
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.
Perhaps the ones not replying?!
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.
Well, you got one loser to take the bait.
Budd Automotive?
Then how has Toyota thrived in Kentucky, Saturn in Tennessee, and BMW in South Carolina?
}:-)4
Yep, they sure are smart.
Are you illiterate if you fail to use spell check?
If the racism is there why try to avoid it by hinting they dont want to hire illiterate rednecks.
I think it is Toyota doing the injecting If you dont , thats fine., But lets shed that light. lets get down to the real nitty gritty.If they claim Canadians are smarter , why is it they make such a claim? I think its bullshit.
BMW's been having problems, Saturn's, well, Saturn, and Toyota's KY plant hasn't been trouble-free either.
thank you!!
Coming from a poster that postulates that rural school children drop out of school in the 6th grade....no doubt to go pick cotton.
Boy, more American arrogance!!!!! Someday we might wake up and discover the rest of the world has left us behind.......
At least Canada has an understandable organizing principle, it is called socialism. In America, we have no such organizing principle other than those in power selling out to the highest bidder. Which is to say the Japanese would rather invest in the certain path which Canada is heading down rather than the uncertain path which these two corrupt parties here in this country have chosen. At the rate that our federal government, our state governments, our local governments, as well as the American consumer is accumulating debt, who is to say who will own us in twenty years. My feeling is that the Japanese would rather invest capital in the certainty created by a conservative government and a conservative populace, but hey that ain't the US of A in the 21st century.
I don't know what they do, but the DOE stats prove me out.
By the way, that's not all rural schoolchildren, that's just AL, GA, MS, and LA.
All you have to do to prove that is drive into the backwoods bayou country of Louisiana.... [shudder]
Apparently Honda, Mercedes and Hyundai don’t think Alabama workers are illiterate.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.