Japan 4: A visit to Toyota City

Scan page 5

Previous articles have looke at the remilitarisation of

This article looks at how system operates in a Jap "They don't use work study. They simply increase the effort i I talked to a group of mili- Party, which has between tant Toyota workers who 50 and 100 members in were contacts of Rodo Joho. Toyota, has only a few posiThey gave me information tions, and only at the very about the yellow union lowest level. (This is affecstructure and the working ted a bit by the policy of the There are two federa- trate far more on parliations covering car workers' mentary than on industrial unions in Japan, the questions). 600,000 strong Jidosha The seniority wage Soren and the smaller, system (described, in detail 220.000-strong Jidosha in the second of these artese car plant.

TOYOTA City is about 200 miles from Tokyo, and an hour's ride on a modern subway train from Nagoya, one of Japan's major cities.

It is an old city, but has been completely taken over and re-named by the Toyota company, which dominates the city administration.

Four of Toyota's five assembly plants (in effect, stamping, body, paint and assembly complexes) are in Toyota City, as are three of its five supporting plants.

In addition to its Japanese plants, Toyota has 27 plants abroad - including assembly plants in 19 different countries. These range from plants in the USA to plants in Third World countries like the Philippines, where they take advantage of the conditions of dictatorship and the free trade zones.

Toyota was established in 1937. Since then its Japanese plants have produced 40 million cars.

No women At the end of last year I visited the Takaoka assembly plant in Toyota City, which assembles a range of passenger cars the Corolla, the Sprinter, the Corsa, the Corolla 2, the Tercel, and the Tercel four wheel drive.

To be more precise, 1 toured No.1 Final Assembly Shop of that plant, which assembles the Corolla, Tercel and Sprint.

No.1 Final Assembly employs 300 workers on each of two shifts. They are all men. No women work on production jobs.

The plant produces cars at 60 per hour day and night, with all three models as a mixed condition on a single track. This regularly means a monthly production figure of 20,000.

Staggering

Such production figures off a single track with mixed models, particularly a mixed condition, are staggering by European standards. Bu, for example, rarely runs a track at more than 30 per hour because of the formidable technical problems involved, particularly with a mixed condition.

Precise comparisons of productivity levels are difficult because there are so many variable factors, By conditions in Toyota.

Roren. The Toyota union, a yellow company union, is affiliated to Jidosha Soren.

The Toyota union, like all the yellow unions, has an extensive structure through which it controls the workers. There are committees at every level - corporate, plant and section. This structure corresponds to and is inte- carracnando to and ic intograted with the management structure.

The shop floor representative, or shop steward, each covering about ten workers, is invariably the section leader or subforeman. The representative on the committee above is normally the foreman, tendentve that the super encell It is so difficult for the left to penetrate the system that even the Japanese Commi JCP, which is to concenicles) is used to great effect in Toyota. A part of a worker's wage depends directly on the discretion of the foreman. Although theoretically it takes into account factors such as education and work performance, in reality the biggest factor is loyalty to the company. Management's intollicano corsica arrainet mulengence service ağaus both employees and potential employees is regarded by the workers as nearperfect from a management point of view.

A worker can therefore lose a lot of money if the foreman decides that he or she is in any way antimanagement. Standing as a representative against the section leader or the foreman would be regarded as absolutely anti-management, and would result. in the worker being witchI the worker cracks.. hunted as well as (Pay levels are difficult to translate into British terms, given their complicated structure, the rate of exchange,_ and the high prices in Japanese shops, but generally the standard of living of a Japanese car worker is a bit higher than his or her British counterpart).

Management control of the shop floor is absolute, and of course strikes are absolutely unknown. Militant workers wanting to make a protest have to find ways which in British terms seem small, but in Japanese terms. are very difficult.

Standing as a representative is one way. If that is not possible, and generally it is not, asking a critical question at the 'tool box meeting' in the morning is a way of protesting, but even that can have effects on the seniority part of a worker's wage.

(It should be said that the day in factory begins with exercises to music, and then the tool box meeting, at which the foreman gives a lecture on productivity levels for the day. All this is in the workers' own time).

The extraordinary management pressure exerted on workers through the yellow union is demonstrated by the situation with holidays. 1.

Personal holiday days are based on seniority. They start at eight days per year and rise to a maximum of 20.

Incredibly, none of Toyota's 54,000 workers takes more than half of his or her personal holiday entitlement. They are encouraged by the 'union' to donate holidays to the company, in order to improve productivity.

This extraordinary situation probably demonstrates more clearly than anything else the degree of control and commitment to the management which has been achieved through the techniques of the Japanese employers and the control of the yellow unions.

Such would he the pressure on any worker who wanted to take his or her full holiday entitlement, that none do. It would involve being seen as antimanagement.

After that, it is not surprising that Toyota has considerable control in other directions. Within a plant mobility and flexibility, fo example, is absolute. An worker can be moved any where at any time withou question. The agreemer gives management th right to move a worker t another location, possibl over long distances, for period of three months.

In addition, manage ment are now promotin what they call multi-skills For example, a worker wi be both maintenanc welder and also work on th track.

The entire workforce i organised into QC circle (the principle and signifi cance of these was detaile in the second article! These are groups of abou ten workers. Their job is t discuss and improve suc things as productivity quality and maintenance They are presented workers participation' an workers' self-manage ment'.

They used to be volu tary. Now they are compu sory (compulsory sell management?)

The requirements productivity, however restrict the activities of th QC circies in workin hours. They are now allo ated only two hours pe month, which is inadequat for their role.

It is therefore normal f the QC circle to take plac after working hours in th home of one of the worker in the group. There the discuss how they can wor harder when they get bac to work.

It is often not even poss ible for workers not com mitted to management t just go through th motions, since failure t produce positive result can be regarded as anti management:

The extent of this, an the pressure involved, ca be seen by a recent in crease in the suicide rate i Toyota. Workers have lel notes to the effect that the could not stand the pres sure and meet the require ments of the QC circles.

The high work effor contributes to this as wel of course. Relief times (of track relief during the shif is ten minutes morning an ten minutes afternoon -less than half the norma relief time in Britain.

Toyota have their owl ways of establishing wor effort. They don't use wor study. They simply in crease the effort until th worker cracks, then the decide if they will accep the cracking as genuine.

European managers ma go on their pilgrimages t Japan and return starry eyed and determined ti force such " conditions British car workers. The should remember, hower er, how far they have to g _ even after the attacks o1 the unions over the pas four years.

----- pull-quotes -----

Japan, under US auspices, after World War 2, and the growth and promotion of yellow company unions, which now dominate in cars steel, shipbuilding, etc.

1123456 2123456