UAW, Toyota differ on Union Organization

Washington DC March 16, 2007; The AIADA newsletter reported that United Auto Workers leaders and Toyota Motor Co. officials differed Tuesday about whether the union is making progress in organizing workers at the Japanese automaker's Georgetown, Ky., plant.

The Detroit News reports that the union has seen "increased activity" by Georgetown employees seeking to organize plant workers. Toyota officials said they had seen no sign of increased organizing efforts and denied claims that it intends to lower wages for current workers, which was implied during the UAW online chat.

The back and forth comes at a tenuous time for both the surging Japanese automaker and the struggling union.

Twenty years ago, UAW membership was at 1.5 million; it now may have fallen to less than 500,000 members after the cutbacks. The UAW intends to focus on organizing workers at the U.S. operations of foreign auto companies and their suppliers.

Toyota gave Georgetown workers up to $8,000 bonuses last year, boosting the average pay to the equivalent of $30 an hour. That compares with a $27 hourly average for UAW workers at Big Three plants, most of whom did not receive profit-sharing checks.