“There is striking evidence that the company was at times more concerned with profit than with customer safety.” Representative Edolphus Downs (Democrat-New York, Chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee ) February 24, 2010.
“It is my understanding there are no Americans in the top leadership in Japan. It might be a good idea to put a couple Americans in the top leadership.” Representative John J. (Jimmy) Duncan Jr. (Republican-Tennessee and Member of the HOGRC) February 24, 2010 (maybe good idea brush up grammar, Jimmy).
“Toyota North America has some great people there, very professional, good people. we work with them. They make recommendations to Japan. The decisions are made in Japan.” Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood ( in testimony before the HOGRC) February 24, 2010 (a trifle racist, do you not think Mr. Lahood?)
“I said. Lookit: This is serious. Lives are being lost. Right after that, they started taking action.” Ray Lahood (the same meeting; the grammar problem appears to be catching at HOGRC).
“Toyota may be interested in trading dollars for lives, despite the likelihood of its products causing deaths and injuries, but its customers’ aren’t.” Joan Claybrook, Administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration under President Carter. Her chief claim to fame at NHTSA was forcing automakers to install air bags despite warnings that the technology needed further development to avoid killing infants and children. At least 65 deaths resulted, including infants and children who were decapitated by the exploding devices. (Source: The Washington Examiner, February 25 , 2010).
“All the Toyota vehicles bear my name. When the cars are damaged, it is as though I am, as well.” Akio Toyoda ( the grandson of the founder of the world’s largest automaker) Testifying before the HOGRC February 24, 2010.
“I am deeply sorry for any accidents Toyota drivers have experienced.” Akio Toyoda (once again).
“We will listen to customer complaints humbly.” Akio Toyoda (once again).
“We apologize for the embarrassing way some members of Congress treated you these past few days. If Bill Gates had been treated the way you were in your country, imagine what would happen. We sincerely apologize.” Paul Atkinson, who represents a Toyota council of dealers in the United States.
Well, Mr. Toyoda (like Mr. Smith before him) came to Washington. Like Mr. Smith, his welcoming hosts gripped him warmly by the throat. Like Mr. Smith, Mr. Toyoda brought civility, good manners, and good grammar to a place where those attributes do not appear to flourish; most especially when campaign funding is on the line and can be brazenly pursued before the entire nation’s television cameras. Oh, would it be impolite to mention that Mr. Toyoda incidentally brings a large number of well-paying blue-as well as white-collar jobs to the United States? I suppose that it would be, since these jobs are (gasp!) Japanese creations!
Readers of this column will know that the United States government is a not entirely disinterested party in this episode of Japanese assault and battery. The Obama administration currently owns Government Motors, the company that was driven into Chapter 11 bankruptcy while under Obama administration ownership and control in spring 2009, in large part, because it was outcompeted by Toyota. The Obama administration is also a significant minority shareholder in Chrysler, another failed automobile manufacturer that was placed into Chapter 11 bankruptcy while under the control of President Obama’s administration in April 2009.
Well, the situation is a little more sinister even that that, as the breakdown of ownership in Government Motors and Chrysler indicates. In the case of GM, the US government owns 61 per cent of company stock, the United Auto Workers Union (UAW) owns 17.5 per cent through its retirees’ health-care trust, the Canadian government owns 11.7 per cent, and the poor bondholders from the old GM, whose priority as preferred creditors was expropriated by the UAW, own the remaining 9.8 per cent.
In the case of Chrysler LLC, Fiat SpA owns 35 per cent of company stock, the US government holds 8 per cent of the company’s stock, while the old company’s largely expropriated secured lenders own a derisory residual 2 per cent. The United Auto Workers Union, an unsecured creditor of the old company, that should have received no stock in its successor, is the majority stockholder, with effective control over the company, owning 55 per cent of the company’s stock.
Well, Dear Readers, the plot against Toyota surely thickens. Not only is Mr. Toyoda berated, with poor grammar, by Ray Lahood, on behalf of the Obama administration, itself a significant shareholder in two of his company’s three major US rivals. He also suffers verbal abuse from members of two congressional committees that are largely bought and paid for by the UAW. Follow-the-money is always the safest guideline to understanding congressional posturing, especially when such posturing takes a threatening tone. Such is the humbling, but not not the humiliating experience of Mr. Toyoda during his time served on Capitol Hill. Such is the humbug that permeates the corridors of Capitol Hill.
Toyota has long been a thorn in the flesh of the UAW. For decades, Toyota has resisted attempts by the UAW to unionize its workforce. It has done so by locating its production plants in the ’right to work’ states of Alabama, Indiana, Kentucky and Mississippi, by creating excellent working conditions in its plants, and by offering job security through the satisfaction of consumer demands for safe, high-quality, and relatively inexpensive motor cars. By its example, it has demonstrated to those employed by GM, Chrysler and Ford, that job security does not spring from restrictive, productivity-lowering union practices, and that high wages are not secured by excessively high wage and benefits packages negotiated under the threat of disruptive strike action.
The UAW is a major player in congressional politics, a powerful special interest doling out campaign contributions to those who can deliver the Michigan bacon. UAW monies have bought out 19 of 36 Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee. UAW monies have bought out 12 of 25 Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee (The Washington Examiner, February 25, 2010). It is no wonder – no wonder at all- – that the gracious Mr. Toyoda was received with such an absence of grace by those two committees on Wednesday and Thursday of this week.
Letters of support for Toyota have been filed by the Governors of the States of Alabama, Indiana, Kentucky and Mississippi. Those letters do not demonstrate any hostility to the Rising Sun. But then, those letters were not written by Princes of Darkness. Those letters were written by far-sighted Governors, speaking out on behalf of the citizens of their States. They were not penned from inkpots stuffed with UAW dollars.
By the way, a recent Zogby poll found that 64 per cent of those surveyed considered Toyotas, on average, to be safer than (18 per cent) or equally safe as (47 per cent) other vehicles. One can only wonder how that poll data might change following the two days of congressional hearings. Interestingly, no such hearing has been called to deal with the many vehicle recalls by Ford, GM and Chrysler in recent years. Dear Readers, can you speculate why that dog has not barked in the darkness of the Washington night?
Tags: anti-Japanese rhetoric, corruption in Washington, right to work states, Toyota hearings, UAW funding of political campaigns
February 26, 2010 at 7:07 pm |
I have a tale to tell about cars. The first story happened when I was 4 years and a half years old. My father owned a Peugeot car and it turns out that this is a very safe car. We were involved in a near-fatal accident in 1959 (Jan 19 to be precise); the other car smashed into the side of our car. My only memory is that I moved into the back of the car from sitting on my mother’s knee and then there was blackness. I awoke in a small hospital surrounded by men in white coats. I got up and was escorted to the ambulance and we were taken to Melbourne. My sister nearly died. She was in a coma for two weeks. Nice to think that the car was safe though – if we had been in a Holden the car would have been split in two.
I drove a Toyota LiteAce (Happy Wheels) for something like 11 years (well actually we kept the car when we were in the USA). My husband made sure that it had a bull-bar for protection. My daughter-in-law was involved in a fatal car accident – not in my car, but similar to my car. The other driver had a heart attack at the wheel. The car plunged into the family car and Mary was driving. The vehicle burst into flames. Her father, even though he had a broken leg dragged her out of the car and saved her life – she had her leg amputated. Her sisters also had injuries, but they were minor injuries in comparison.
My friend in Sydney drives a Toyota and her car was always safe. Their last car was a Prius. I have heard no mention of any brake failure.
The fact is that most of the recalls that I have seen in the past have been for Holden, Mitsubishi (though it is rare) and Ford. It would be extremely rare for anyone to have problems with a Toyota vehicle. It is normally well made.
Washington had no right to grill Mr Toyoda in that manner. The Japanese have a good reputation in regard to the manufacture of their products. They have used some of the best management techniques in the world. The unionized firms cannot say the same. We have the same problems with cars manufactured with union labour. At the moment we drive a Ford and a Nissan.
February 26, 2010 at 10:31 pm |
What a bulls___ comment about UAW. I am NOT a member but if a union like UAW had been in Toyota, there is a good chance these “defects” would have been found earlier and reported! They’ve been lying for years. They have known about these many different defects for years and now it takes death and lawsuits for them to fess up?? We have great workers here in America but the Japanese in Japan designed the cars and picked the suppliers after giving them the specs.
In unionized firms, there have been whistle blowers who have made a difference. When was the last time 8,000,000 of anything made in America by union workers have been recalled? Ford was from tires, not from union workers who made the rubber.
February 26, 2010 at 11:55 pm |
Tires in the US are made by union workers…mostly steelworkers.
February 28, 2010 at 1:55 am |
Anyone consider the idea that all of these problems between the government and Toyota happened after the federal government took a controlling interest in GM?
February 28, 2010 at 1:59 am |
@David Rose,
first of all you lie about not being in the UAW. Second, you also lie about whether or not the UAW members would have found the defects.
Here in Australia we have Ford and Holden that are unionized. We have plenty of recalls.
Perhaps I can extend my tale about cars to talk about the current Ford that I drive. This is a car with a computer on board. This tale is one that starts just on when it is due to run out of warranty. Yes…. get that point…. the warranty was due to run out a few days after the problem occurred. The car was 3 years old. We drove the car from Sydney to Melbourne without any trouble. The following morning at our Melbourne destination the car refused to start. The local motoring organization got it started for us. The next morning at our destination it refused to start again. This time we had to take it to the nearest Ford dealer. After it was checked, we took off to return to Sydney. We had to overnight in the town of Gundagai on the way home. The next morning the car refused to start…. and from Gundagai we ended up on a slight detour with about $100 less in our budget, to the nearest Ford dealer. After reaching that destination via a tow truck, the car started…. hmmm… what could it be? Well it turned out that the problem was the onboard computer.
Now here is the next part of this particular sage. I then took the car to the local dealer near home. They got permission to provide the part under warranty since by this time both the roadside assist and warranty had run out. I got the car back, drove to the local shopping centre… and the next thing that happened is that the air conditioning was on super hot……. I was lucky that Ford agreed to pick this up as a warranty job as well.
This was a car built by union labour. It was flawed. It was not a lemon like some of the cars that are built with union labour, but that is beside the point.
It is very rare to get a Toyota or Nissan that is a lemon. Most of these cars are fully imported from Japan, where the standards are extremely high.
There are other cars that do not have the same reputation, such as Kia…. and there are other examples where the cars have been lemons. Most of these cars are made in Russia, South Korea and Malaysia.
The fact is that over the years the deaths caused by defects in Toyotas are far less than those caused by Holdens, Fords and Chrysler.
Whilst there might be good reasons for some unionization there are lots of reasons why people see the union movement as worthless today. I could start with the fact that in some cases the deals made between unions and potential employers have in fact harmed the potential employees by taking away their rights with limited compensation for what was taken away. Unions engage in closed shop agreements and a whole host of other activities. On the other hand, I believe that sometimes unions can prevent the use of cheap labour such as that provided by illegal immigrants – except I fear that is not the case.
February 28, 2010 at 2:01 am |
@Brian Baugus,
yes that has been considered, at least by me, and by a whole lot of other folk. It is one of the points being made by Prof Rowley.
The recent Congressional meeting was a real joke when you take into consideration that the blowhards who were making such noises about Toyota are in fact a part of Govt. Motors.
May 13, 2010 at 10:32 am |
Super information,I have Digged your post, Thank you
July 5, 2010 at 1:18 am |
The information is most useful. It is sometimes hard to keep up with all the recalls out there. Your site is another good source that I will add and check from now on for updates. Keep up the hard work.