Nov 2, 2023
Toyota Is Raising NONUNION Wages After Successful UAW Strike
Detroit Three automakers workers aren't the only ones benefitting from the UAW union. Toyota is now increasing the pay of its workers to remain "competitive."
- 6 minutes
The day after the United Auto Workers
announced a tentative contract agreement
with GM, which was the last of the
Big three to reach a deal with the union.
Labor notes,
which is a wonderful publication.
Please check it out if you want to get
good information about what's happening
[00:00:16]
with workers in the country.
Well, labor Notes received reports
from Toyota workers stating that they
were given pay raises out of the blue.
Now, it wasn't really out of the blue.
Keep in mind that Toyota employees are
not unionized, and I would venture to say
[00:00:33]
was that the executives at Toyota
do not want the workers to unionize.
And so this was a bit, in my opinion,
of a preemptive effort
to prevent the workers from unionizing.
So I'll make my case
after I give you the details
[00:00:49]
about how they've been given pay raises.
And apparently they're going
to get some better benefits as well.
So Toyota, whose US factories again, are
not unionized, will increase pay for most
assembly plant workers from $31.86 an hour
to $34.80 an hour starting January 1st,
[00:01:08]
according to a spokesperson for Toyota.
Now, as for the benefits, Toyota also said
that it is cutting the amount
of time needed for US production workers
to reach top pay to four years from eight
years and increasing paid time off.
[00:01:25]
In a statement regarding the wage hikes,
Toyota North America's executive
vice president said this, quote, we value
our employees and their contributions,
and we show it by offering robust
compensation packages that we continually
[00:01:42]
review to ensure that we remain
competitive within the auto industry.
The UAW has declined to comment.
This is great news.
We're very happy for the Toyota workers.
But was I do think that, again,
after you see the massive win
[00:01:59]
that the United Auto Workers were
able to get as a result of their strike,
as a result of being part of a union
with an incredible leader like Shawn Fein.
I think Toyota was a little worried
that our employees might get some ideas,
and we don't like ideas.
- So what do you think?
- It's this is not even arguable.
[00:02:18]
It's obvious.
These are gains that were made by the UAW.
They took their, you know,
instead of eight years
to get to top pay, it's now three.
They've gotten rid of the tier system
where all employees are now, a part
of the, the company in the same way.
[00:02:36]
And that and that helps
with worker solidarity.
Nobody feels like, oh, this guy across
from me has a way better job than I do
for doing the exact same work.
And so Toyota understands
they see the writing on the wall.
And also, and the UAW is coming for them.
[00:02:54]
They've mentioned that one of their goals
within the next five years is to go
unionize the shops at Volkswagen, Toyota.
ET cetera.
Places like Tesla,
they're coming for those places.
And what would again, what I try to say
every single time we talk about this,
[00:03:10]
Anna, those those, those bosses at Toyota
would never have done this on their own.
Ever.
True. Ever, ever, ever, ever, ever.
They never they wouldn't have just been
like, oh, let's let's pay these guys more.
Let's decrease the amount of time
it takes to get to top pay.
[00:03:28]
Let's increase the benefits.
It's not true.
It's always got to be worker militancy.
In fact, why don't we go
to the Sean Fein video?
Because I believe this is what Toyota
was actually concerned about.
We demanded a longer contract because one
of our biggest goals coming out of this
[00:03:44]
historic contract victory is to organize
like we've never organized before.
When we return to the bargaining table in
2028, it won't just be with the big three,
but with the big five or big six.
[00:04:00]
God damn it! What a stud.
Like, seriously, man,
I just love the strength like we need.
We need a president like that again.
As I try to tell everybody
whenever we talk about this.
And Joe Biden didn't do this for anybody,
Gavin Newsom didn't do this
[00:04:17]
for anybody here in California.
As a matter of fact, he put a provision
that would have made it easier
for striking workers
to get unemployment benefits.
He said, oh, let me veto that. That passed.
And like, these politicians
are not getting these gains for us.
[00:04:34]
They're just not they never will.
They're too bought and paid for.
So it's got to be worker militancy
via organizing and threatening
to withhold your services, man.
Withhold your labor
striking these guys at their bottom line.
That's that's how these things get done.
[00:04:49]
Joe Biden, Sleepy Joe not gonna do it for,
you know, crying about this on Twitter,
getting mad that somebody might one day
vote Republican and blah, blah blah.
It don't matter. It doesn't matter.
These parties are not gonna
get these gains for us.
[00:05:05]
When you look at the Scandinavian model,
they don't have a federal minimum wage.
They don't sit around waiting
for their lawmakers or their government
to set what their what the bottom
pay needs to be in the country.
[00:05:21]
They have their unions
fight on their behalf.
And because of that, wages, you know,
relative to the United States
are higher there.
And so I just I love this
because it shows you the kind of fear that
[00:05:37]
non-unionized companies have in regard to
seeing these wins that, like the UAW has,
they don't want their workers to unionize.
But the other thing that I want to mention
is, once you have this bifurcated system
where some of the workers in the auto
industry are unionized and they're getting
[00:05:54]
paid more as a result of that, what ends
up happening is the non unionized company
has to compete for workers,
so they have no choice but to increase the
wages as well in order to be appealing to
workers who might consider working there.
[00:06:09]
But study after study shows unionized
workers make more money, have better
benefits than non unionized workers.
So for the Toyota folks, you should still
consider it, especially when you have
someone like Sean Fein leading the UAW.
[00:06:25]
He's not playing around,
he's playing hardball.
And obviously he yields results.
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