Toyota sweats U.S. labor costs (INTERNAL REPORT: Slow the pay growth by 2011)

[Bozita]

This is today's Detroit Free Press headline article. Frontpage, above the fold.

A PDF of the internal Toyota memo is available at the link.


http://freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070208/BUSINESS01/702080429

Toyota sweats U.S. labor costs
INTERNAL REPORT: Slow the pay growth by 2011

February 8, 2007

BY JASON ROBERSON

FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER

Toyota Motor Corp. must hold down growth of its U.S. manufacturing wages and benefits, which are among the highest in the auto industry and are growing faster than the company's profit margin, according to a high-level company report obtained by the Free Press.

The report from Seiichi (Sean) Sudo, president of Toyota Engineering & Manufacturing in North America, said Toyota should strive to align hourly wages more closely with prevailing manufacturing pay in the state where each plant is located, "and not tie ourselves so closely to the U.S. auto industry, or other competitors."

Sudo's report to top managers said the Japan-based company projected a $900-million increase in U.S. manufacturing compensation by 2011, and human resources officials were working on trimming that by one-third.

The drive to hold down costs may boost UAW organizing efforts, if Toyota workers balk at the possibility of smaller raises, reduced benefits or greater demands for productivity gains. But the plan also illustrates that the world's most-profitable automaker is going to keep relentless pressure on Detroit and its signature industry.

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http://freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070208/BUSINESS01/702080430

Workers got report off computer

February 8, 2007

Toyota Motor Corp.'s Kentucky human resource department discovered Jan. 9 that hourly assembly workers were passing around and discussing confidential documents.

Apparently the classified presentation of Seiichi (Sean) Sudo, a Toyota managing officer and president of Toyota Engineering & Manufacturing North America, was left on a shared computer drive and later printed, Toyota spokesman Daniel Sieger said.

In response, Toyota's Kentucky management team posted a memo around the Georgetown plant asking employees to return the presentation.

"It addresses costs, including labor costs, production planning ... etc., and that is why it is so confidential," according to the memo the Free Press obtained with the report. "If you have an electronic copy of this document on your computer, delete it immediately."

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