PWA "The Lounge"

[respect is earned]

68 fen has broken the trend

[68 Z/28]

Originally Posted by FenwickHockey65

Came back on here just to show you guys this...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/30/bu...yota.html?_r=4

Oh the irony.

thank you Fen , but I am not big on reading newspapers

[respect is earned]

Originally Posted by FenwickHockey65

Came back on here just to show you guys this...

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/30/bu...yota.html?_r=4

Oh the irony.

the link didnt work for me. whats it about

[68 Z/28]

Originally Posted by respect is earned

the link didnt work for me. whats it about

Free access to the New York Times

[FenwickHockey65]

Sorry, didn't know the link was dead...

TOYOTA CITY, Japan — For years, Toyota City prospered along with the giant carmaker that shares its name, growing into a global automotive manufacturing center as its official sister city, Detroit, slid into decline.
Now, the current economic crisis has halted the good times in Japan’s Motor City. Toyota Motor, the city’s largest employer and dominating presence, has idled factories and slashed production amid its first annual net loss in 59 years. This has pushed Toyota City into its worst slump in memory, as jobs have vanished, tax revenues have dried up and tidy downtown shopping streets have grown eerily empty. The reversal of fortune has turned both Toyotas, the city and the car company, into grim symbols of a global downturn that has spared few, including the once seemingly unstoppable Japanese auto industry.
“In the beginning, we used to aspire to be a second Detroit,” said Tatsuya Yoshimura, who owns a camera shop in downtown Toyota City. “Now, that is what we are afraid of becoming.”
Many in this proud company town of 423,000 are questioning their extreme economic dependence on a single corporation, even if it is the world’s largest automaker.
“When Toyota sneezed, we caught pneumonia,” said Shoji Sawahira, head of the finance section at Toyota City’s city hall. “We never imagined this would happen to the world’s No. 1 company.”
Fear of the future is palpable at the local unemployment office, the optimistically named Hello Work Toyota, which has suddenly found itself overrun by the newly jobless.
Until last summer, the office sat largely empty as the local auto industry faced a chronic labor shortage, drawing workers from across Japan and as far away as Brazil and Peru. Now, Hello Work is crowded with more than 1,000 job seekers a day who line up for hours to claim unemployment insurance or sit anxiously at computer terminals scouring a job database.
One of those who came to find work was Masahiro Tanaka, 30, who lost his job at an auto glass factory in February. He said it was the first time he or anyone he knew had been cut in 12 years of working at auto parts factories in Toyota City.
“The only places that are still busy are those producing for the Prius,” Mr. Tanaka said, referring to Toyota’s fuel-efficient hybrid sedan, which has remained popular despite the slump. “Everywhere else, jobs are just gone. Completely gone.”
Hello Work’s vice director, Masami Kawajiri, said 8,042 job seekers visited the office between January and March, up 133 percent from the same period a year ago. The sudden surge in job seekers has kept Hello Work’s staff working six-day weeks without breaks, Mr. Kawajiri said.
“We’ve never seen it this busy,” said Mr. Kawajiri, who explained that overwork had turned one of his eyes blood-red. “I don’t even want to think of what will happen if the economy gets even worse.”
He and others said jobs began disappearing after last summer, as collapsing global auto sales led Toyota Motor to cut its work force by 6,000 and slow production at its seven factories in Toyota City, where most of the company’s 72,000 Japan-based employees are. Toyota said it expected a $3.5 billion net loss in the last fiscal year, its first loss since 1950.
Many residents worry what could happen if the recession drags on. But they seem confident that Toyota City can weather the downturn in the long run. They point to a traditional ethic of thrifty self-reliance that led the city government to shun extravagant projects during the boom years, and instead set aside $719 million in emergency savings, exactly for such a rainy day.
The city retains its spotless streets, immaculate shops and nonexistent crime rate. Since the slowdown, only one manufacturing company has gone bankrupt, says the city’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry, because Toyota spread out orders among many of the more than 400 auto parts factories in the city, to keep them afloat through hard times.
Nonetheless, Toyota’s downturn has rippled through the city’s economy, idling many smaller auto-related suppliers, which also cut payrolls, mainly by refusing to renew the contracts of short-term workers. After losing their jobs, many of the city’s 16,400 foreign residents, mostly ethnic Japanese from Brazil and Latin America, packed up and left, residents and city officials said.

[respect is earned]

thanks fen your the man

[FenwickHockey65]

Sure thing.

It's a good read. I found the irony quite amusing.

Well, good night for reals now.

[respect is earned]

dude were u just perusing the new york times at 1 in the morning thats pretty interesting stuff

[respect is earned]

Originally Posted by FenwickHockey65

Sure thing.

It's a good read. I found the irony quite amusing.

Well, good night for reals now.

goodnight fen .... again

[68 Z/28]

Originally Posted by FenwickHockey65

Sorry, didn't know the link was dead...

[FenwickHockey65]

Originally Posted by respect is earned

dude were u just perusing the new york times at 1 in the morning thats pretty interesting stuff

Nah, I get my news articles at GMInsideNews.com. That's where most of the news stories I post here come from.

[68 Z/28]

Originally Posted by FenwickHockey65

Sure thing.

It's a good read. I found the irony quite amusing.

Well, good night for reals now.

Nite Fen

[respect is earned]

well 68, as much as i like these frequent late night chats we always seem to have, im tired and got work tomorrow. goodnight and goodluck with the seven hours left of the LeMans.

[68 Z/28]

Originally Posted by respect is earned

well 68, as much as i like these frequent late night chats we always seem to have, im tired and got work tomorrow. goodnight and goodluck with the seven hours left of the LeMans.

Nite rie , have a good 1