For many years, Asian car makers, who have operated manufacturing plants in the US, were able to be highly competitive by operating in right-to-work states, thus controlling their labor costs.
Now, however, workers at such plants are grumbling about salaries and benefits and are calling for unions to represent them in collective bargaining. One such case is occurring in Georgetown, Kentucky, where Toyota workers want to be represented by the United Auto Workers. The workers are being supported in their demands by a coalition of religious and civic leaders, including Democratic State Representatives Reginald Meeks and Jim Glenn as well as Reverend John Rausch, coordinator of Peace and Justice at the Catholic Diocese of Lexington. The group calls itself the Kentucky Workers Rights Board.
In response to worker complaints, the UAW has now launched an aggressive campaign to organize the 7,000 workers at the 1,300-acre Georgetown Toyota factory.
Toyota workers at Georgetown receive about $75,000 a year in wages and benefits, including pensions, 401Ks, health care, on-site day care, access to a gymnasium, and a pharmacy.
If this is the beginning of a trend, which I believe it is, then Asian auto companies will find more congenial places to build manufacturing facilities, and the U.S. economy will suffer along with thousands of workers.
