Union Drops Bid to Organize Canadian Toyota Plant

Reuters reported that The Canadian Auto Workers union has called off its bid to organize a Toyota Motor Corp. plant outside Toronto because it failed to garner enough support from workers, a Toyota official said on Friday. Greig Mordue, a spokesman for Toyota at the Cambridge, Ontario, plant, said the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW) union withdrew its application, acknowledging it didn't have the 40 percent support needed from its bargaining unit. A union statement said the CAW "did not have the required 40 percent membership evidence in order to count the ballots cast." The union said it would continue to support efforts of Toyota workers to have a union in the future, but Toyota said an application cannot be filed before next year. A "yes" vote by a large enough number of voters could have made the Cambridge plant, about 90 km (55 miles) west of Toronto, the first unionized Japanese-owned car plant in North America.