I Am A Bad Consumer

Kenichi Uchino and Family

Here's I've been feeling so pleased with myself for buying an environmentally-friendly, non-gas-guzzling Toyota Prius. Turns out Toyota is a labor-exploiting employer that uses contract workers who get paid no benefits to pad its enormous corporate profits. Should have known better. Maybe my next car should be a horse.

The National Labor Committee: The Toyota You Don’t Know
The Race to the Bottom in the Auto Industry

How would [] celebrities—and the many Prius devotees across America—respond if they knew that a full one-third of Prius assembly line workers in Japan are hired as “temps,” with few rights, earning just 60 percent of what full time workers do, and even less when benefits are taken into account? Most Americans have never heard of Kenichi Uchino, who at 30 years of age died of overwork at the Prius plant, routinely working 14-hour shifts and putting in anywhere between 107 and 155 hours of overtime a month—at least 61 1/2 hours of which was unpaid. The Toyota Company said the 61 ½ hours were “voluntary” and therefore unpaid. Mr. Uchino left behind a young wife and two children—a one-year-old son and a three-year-old daughter. Neither Toyota management nor the “company” union at Toyota lifted a finger to help his family survive. The Japanese people even have a word for being overworked to death—“Karoshi.” Toyota’s parts supply chain is also riddled with sweatshop abuse, including the human trafficking of tens of thousands of foreign guest workers—mostly from China and Vietnam—to Japan, where they are stripped of their passports and forced to work grueling hours seven days a week, often earning less than half of the legal minimum wage. Sixteen-hour shifts, from 8:00 a.m. to midnight, would not be uncommon. Most people have no idea that Toyota—through the Toyota Tsusho Corporation which is a part of the Toyota Group—is involved in a joint venture with the ruthless military dictators in Burma, where nearly 50 million people live in fear and want. The United Nations/International Labor Organization points to Toyota’s repression of freedom of association at its plant in the Philippines as “an illustration of how a multinational company, apparently with little regard for corporate responsibility, has done everything in its power to prevent recognition and certification of the Toyota Motor Company Workers Association” (ILO Workers Group, December 2003). Once again, the “company” union at Toyota has refused to challenge Toyota management for its ties with the Burmese dictators or its repression of freedom of association with respect for worker rights in the Philippines.

This is not to say that Toyota is another Wal-Mart. If Toyota were not in some ways a decent and very effectively run company, it would not be the largest auto company in the world. A full-time assembly line worker at Toyota has a good paying middle class job, allowing them to raise their families in decency. (Still, Toyota wages in Japan are only about 50 percent of union wages and benefits in the U.S.) And if a full time worker stays “clean,” and does not get injured on the job or fall ill, they will have a job for life at Toyota. By “clean” the workers mean not doing anything to oppose Toyota management or the company union.

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[W]hat do [] celebrities and the rest of us know about the labor practices and working conditions under which the Prius and other Toyota cars are made in Japan? Really nothing. Why is the commitment to protect our environment so often divorced from a similar concern to protect human and worker rights?

* Low wage temps: a full one-third, or 10,000 Toyota assembly line workers, are low wage temp and subcontract workers who earn less than 60 percent of what full time workers do. Temps have few rights and are hired under contracts as short as four months.

* Overworked to death: Mr Kenichi Uchino died of overwork at Toyota’s Prius plant when he was just 30. He was routinely working 14-hour shifts and putting in anywhere from 107 to 155 hours of overtime a month—at least 61 ½ hours of which were unpaid. Toyota said the hours were “voluntary” and therefore not paid. Mr. Uchino left behind his young wife, a one-year-old son and a three-year-old daughter. The Japanese people even have a word for being overworked to death: “karoshi.” An estimated 200 to 300 workers a year suffer serious illness, depression and death due to overwork.

* Sweatshops and human trafficking: Toyota’s parts supply chain is riddled with sweatshop abuse, including the human trafficking of tens of thousands of foreign guest workers—mostly from China and Vietnam—to Japan, where they are stripped of their passports and forced to work grueling hours seven days a week, often earning less than half the legal minimum wage. Sixteen-hour shifts, from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 midnight are common.

* Linked to Burmese Dictators: Toyota—through the Toyota Tsusho Corporation which is part of the Toyota Group—is involved in several joint business ventures with the ruthless military dictators of Burma, which put revenues into the pockets of the dictators who use it to repress Burma’s 50 million people.

* Toyota criticized by the ILO: The UN/International Labor Organization points to Toyota’s suppression of freedom of association at its plant in the Philippines as “an illustration of how a multinational company, apparently with little regard for corporate responsibility, has done everything in its power to prevent recognition and certification of the Toyota Motor Company Workers Association.” (ILO Working Group, December 2003.)

* Toyota leads the Race to the Bottom: Toyota, now the largest auto company in the world, is using its size and success to impose its two-tier, low-wage model at its non-union plants across America, which will result in a race to the bottom with wages and benefits being slashed throughout the entire auto industry.

Toyota’s Profit Reaches $16.7 Billion
The American People Purchase
56,923 Toyota Vehicles Each Week
Toyota reached record profits of $16.7 billion in its fiscal year ending March 31, 2008. Toyota is earning $45.8 million a day, every day of the year.

Toyota sells more vehicles in the U.S. (2.92 million cars, vans and trucks) than in Japan (2.19 million) where its sales are falling.

One third of Toyota’s worldwide sales are in the U.S. The American people purchase 56,923 Toyota vehicles each week.

Hat tip to Laura Flanders of firedoglake.

Today's News

Flickr: Brooklyn Museum
Greek Religion--sculptor, Daniel Chester French

McCain's national security adviser, John Lehman, told the New York Times that he offered to make John McCain a one-star admiral in 1980, but McCain declined. The New York Times put the claim on the front page. Problem? It's probably not true, as McCain never mentioned it before, and the story of his leaving the Navy has been told many times. Hard to check up on McCain's military service, tho, as he has never released his full military records. Read this extensive article by Jeffrey Klein for the details.

The torture regime came from the top of the Bush Administration. We already knew that, but there is proof now.

The senior civilian managing the contract of Halliburton subsidiary KBR in 2004 was fired when he refused to pay bogus billing records for Dick Cheney's favorite special interest. The amount in question that taxpayers ponied up for despite shoddy record-keeping and questionable bills? $1,000,000,000. That's one billion dollars to CheneyFraud. Heckuva job, Dickhead.

Gay marriage is now legal in California as of yesterday. The march of progress continues. It hasn't changed life here in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts one iota, except for allowing some of our fellow citizens legal rights, joy and peace of mind. All good things.

Gas prices have sent Prius sales soaring. Even in Billings, Montana, home of the pickup truck. Honda is now making a hydrogen-fuel-cell car. I want one:

The FCX Clarity, which runs on hydrogen and electricity, emits only water and none of the noxious fumes believed to induce global warming. It is also two times more energy efficient than a gas-electric hybrid and three times that of a standard gasoline-powered car, the company says.

Honda expects to lease a few dozen cars this year and 200 within three years. In California, a three-year lease will run $600 a month, which includes maintenance and collision coverage.

The Mets fire Willie Randolph in the middle of the night. Disgraceful end to a class act. The Mets are finding that stocking a team with mid-30s free agents may have worked in the steroid era, but now they're just injury prone. Jill at Brilliant at Breakfast sez, hire Ron Darling.

Another Prius Owner

Mother Jones: James Woolsey, Hybrid Hawk
NEWS: The former CIA director turned clean-energy enthusiast is part geek, part zealot—and all iconoclast.

Like many clean-energy enthusiasts, Woolsey is part geek, part zealot. He's happy to spend a Saturday morning showing off the three rows of photovoltaic panels on his roof, the meter in his basement that displays when his house is feeding electricity back to the grid, and his white hybrid with a "Bin Laden Hates This Car" bumper sticker. "In two weeks," he boasts of his next oil-saving upgrade, "my Prius is going to become a plug-in." He wrote the foreword to 50 Simple Steps to Save the Earth From Global Warming, appeared in Who Killed the Electric Car? and Leonardo DiCaprio's The 11th Hour, and cofounded a group to wean Americans from foreign oil.

As Woolsey explains it, there is a seamless connection between his strategic worldview and energy-independence convictions. In an op-ed he coauthored for National Review last September, he wrote of ending our reliance "on the whims of opec's despots, the substantial instabilities of the Middle East, and the indignity of paying for both sides in the War on Terror." He still thinks the United States should continue its global military role even as it untangles itself from the Middle East, standing by the decision to depose Saddam Hussein. "I'd support his ouster again if there weren't a drop of oil in Iraq," he explains. "If all that had been at issue was the oil, the simple thing to do would have been to just buy it."

I need a "Bin Laden Hates This Car" bumper sticker.

Toyota Prius Sales Top Ford Explorer Sales

Financial Times: Toyota Prius sales pass Ford Explorer
The icon of America's SUV passion falls victim to stubbornly high gas prices and an increasingly stringent regulatory climate

Americans bought more Toyota Prius hybrid gas-electric hatchbacks last year than Ford Explorer sport-utility vehicles, the top-selling SUV for more than a decade.

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While Prius sales soared 69% last year, demand for the Explorer was less than a third of its 2000 peak.

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The Explorer led the SUV charge in the 1990s to replace the minivan as the family car. Baby boomers craving space, a protective cocoon high above the ground and the power of a V-8 engine have driven about 6 million Explorers out of showrooms over the past 18 years. But filling an Explorer fuel tank now costs $70 or more, up from $30 five years ago. The traditional SUV "is a dead market," Magliano says.

It costs about $30 to fill the tank of the Prius at $3 a gallon, if the tank is completely empty.

Coach Mom drives an Explorer and can't wait to get rid of it. The car, only two years old, is already on the Consumer Reports list of cars not to buy used.

The Prius is not without its problems -- the terrible handling on snow and ice, poor sight lines -- but the gas efficiency can't be beat. And for a small car it's quite comfortable.

Hybrid Sales Up 82%

High gasoline prices are probably behind the increase in sales, as well as the fact that Toyota actually has enough Priuses available (last year I had to wait up to 10 weeks for one.) Half of the hybrids sold in America are Toyota Priuses. It was named the "most satisfying" vehicle to own in Consumer Reports Car Satisfaction Survey.

My Prius experience has been good overall. My summer mileage is 48.5 MPG and my winter mileage last year was 43.6 (mileage is lower in cold weather). Now that gasoline is at $3 a gallon again those high numbers are even more significant.

The car is roomy and comfortable for its small size. Downsides are the huge blind spot caused by the sporty styling and the horrible traction on snow and ice. I need to get snow tires.

Green Car Congress: Hybrids Post Strong US Sales in November; Up 82% Year-on-Year

Reported sales of hybrids in the US in November rose 82% year-on-year to reach 33,233 total units, representing 2.8% of all light-duty vehicles sold during the month. GM does not break out its hybrid sales separately, and so is not reflected in the hybrid number—thus, the actual hybrid total and new market share will slightly higher.

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Toyota posted a strong month, with Prius sales hitting 16,737 units, up 109% from the year before. Camry Hybrid turned in 5,118 units, up 65% from the year before and representing 14.5% of all Camry models sold. Sales of the Highlander Hybrid were back up after a slump for several months to 2,577 units—an increase of 55% from November 2006 and representing 20.9% of all Highlander models sold.

They Hate Us For Our High MPG

I'm proud to say I drive a Prius. What does Robert Samuelson drive? He's not telling.
I want to know what Robert Samuelson drives. He insults me and all other Prius owners with his column today, calling us "show-offs" who aren't serious about cutting greenhouse gas emissions. Hey, message to you, moron, I can't change the government's CAFE standards. I can only change my own, and now I get 48 MPG instead of 28 MPG. That's not some theoretical goal. That's my mileage today.

He also derides Prius owners for buying the Prius instead of Honda's Civic hybrid, which gets 10 miles per gallon less for the same price. That's not style, bonehead, that's performance. Why pay the same for less?

I bet he drives some big gas-guzzling SUV.

Robert Samuelson, WaPo: Prius Politics

My younger son calls the Toyota Prius a "hippie car," and he has a point. Not that Prius drivers are hippies. Toyota says that typical buyers are 54 and have incomes of $99,800; 81 percent are college graduates. But, like hippies, they're making a loud lifestyle statement: We're saving the planet; what are you doing?

This helps explain why the Prius so outsells the rival Honda Civic Hybrid. Both have similar base prices, about $22,000, and fuel economy (Prius, 60 miles per gallon city/51 highway; Civic, 49 mpg city/51 highway). But Prius sales in the first half of 2007 totaled 94,503, nearly equal to all of 2006. Civic sales were only 17,141, up 7.4 percent from 2006. The Prius's advantage is its distinct design, which announces its owners as environmentally virtuous. It's a fashion statement. Meanwhile, the Civic hybrid can't be distinguished by appearance from the polluting, gas-guzzling mob.

The Prius is, I think, a parable for the broader politics of global warming. Prius politics is mostly about showing off, not curbing greenhouse gas emissions. Politicians pander to "green" constituents who want to feel good about themselves. Grandiose goals are declared. But measures to achieve them are deferred -- or don't exist.

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Deep reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases might someday occur if both plug-in hybrid vehicles and underground storage of carbon dioxide from coal-fired power plants become commercially viable. Meanwhile, Prius politics is a delusional exercise in public relations that, while not helping the environment, might hurt the economy.

Hybrids Are Economical

ELECTRIC PIGGY BANK: Detail shot of the engine of the 2007 Toyota Camry hybrid, a popular new hybrid model.
(Beatrice de Gea / LAT)
Despite previous studies to the contrary, a new study reported in today's LATimes says hybrid cars save their owners significant amounts of money over five years. Here's my favorite part of the article:

There is no better example, the study says, than Toyota Motor Corp.'s Prius. The study concludes that a Prius owner over five years will save $13,408 over a similar-size sedan that is not a hybrid.

This makes sense to me, especially when you factor in resale value. I saw a 2005 Prius with 39,000 miles advertised in the local paper this weekend for $20,000, which is pretty much the price of a brand new 2006 Prius if you got the $3,150 tax credit.

Operation Save-The-Planet News

Logo of Stopglobalwarming.org (underneath it says, All 10 of the hottest years on record, globally, have occurred in the last fifteen years.)

Residents of the EU can now have their cars scrapped, for free; carmakers are responsible, and the goal is to have 80% of the vehicle reused. I'm shooting off an email to my congressman, Jim McGovern, to advocate that the US adopt a similar law.

In the US, Walmart, of all companies, is pushing energy-saving fluorescent light bulbs and hopes to sell 100 million by the end of 2008.

On Grist, an interview with Ed Begley, Jr., green-living celebrity.

My personal green news is a 6-month update on my Toyota Prius. My mileage has dropped to between 44 and 45 miles per gallon (44.6 exactly, today) due to the temperature drop and, according to my mechanic friend Mark, the reformulation of winter gasoline. I was getting 49 to 52 MPG during the summer. I can't tell you how the car drives in the snow, because we haven't had any. Today it was 46 degrees as I returned a few errant Christmas gifts, and I heard on the radio that it is supposed to be in the 50s on Thursday. I saw on Suburban Guerrilla that it was 57 degrees in Vienna, Austria today, their warmest temperature ever recorded on this date in over 150 years.

Here's what the National Weather Service is reporting about our freakily warm winter:

RECORD EVENT REPORT
NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE TAUNTON MA
600 AM EST MON JAN 01 2007

...WARMEST FINISH OF ANY YEAR IN BOSTON...

...WARMEST DECEMBER AND WARMEST NOVEMBER-DECEMBER COMBINATION
RECORDED AT BOSTON/S LOGAN INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT...

THE AVERAGE TEMPERATURE FOR DECEMBER 2006 WAS 41.1 DEGREES IN
BOSTON. THIS BEATS THE PREVIOUS RECORD OF 40.7 DEGREES SET IN 1990.
THE NORMAL DECEMBER MONTHLY AVERAGE TEMPERATURE IS 34.8 DEGREES
WITH A DECEMBER 2006 DEPARTURE OF +6.3 DEGREES.

IN ADDITION...THE COMBINED AVERAGE TEMPERATURE FOR NOVEMBER AND
DECEMBER 2006 WAS APPROXIMATELY 45.1 DEGREES. THIS BEATS THE
PREVIOUS RECORD OF 44.6 DEGREES SET DURING THE COMBINED MONTHS
OF NOVEMBER AND DECEMBER 1990.

THERE WERE 19 CONSECUTIVE DAYS WITH ABOVE NORMAL AVERAGE
TEMPERATURES FROM DECEMBER 10TH THROUGH DECEMBER 28TH AND
24 DAYS ABOVE NORMAL AVERAGE TEMPERATURES IN DECEMBER 2006.

OFFICIAL RECORDS HAVE BEEN KEPT SINCE 1872.

Love My Prius

I am now the proud owner of a 2006 Toyota Prius, and have been for two weeks. It's a cute little car. Twice people have seen it for the first time and said "The Jetsons". If the roof was clear, I would look like Judy Jetson. But it's silver, and sleek.

The car has lots of bells and whistles, starting out with the dashboard TV screen. This is the most dangerous feature on the car, because it's very distracting. I have now learned to ignore it most of the time, and to be judicious in my use of it. The first time I drove the car I almost drove off the road because I got mesmerized. As an average American woman (not short!) it's just a few inches too far to my right. I really have to reach for the buttons on the right side of the screen.

When you put the car in reverse, the picture of what's behind you pops up, because there's a camera in the hatchback. The rest of the time, the screen controls the audio, climate, and what information you are getting. I like to leave the screen on Trip Information, which tells me what mileage I am getting, second by second, the average mileage, and whether the car is operating on the gas motor or on the electric battery.

Speed, gear, lights and odomoter are digital, on a screen deep under the recessed dash. At night, you have to turn down the color on the dash, or you get a green reflection on the windshield.

The seats are very comfortable, both front and back. I've had three people in the back without any complaints. The only downside compared to my Camry is the trunk space. It's a small car and a hatchback, so the trunk area is correspondingly smaller.

I'm averaging 49.2 miles per gallon, and that included two highway trips back and forth to the Catskills via the Berkshires. The car gets lousy mileage going up hills, but on the other side coasting down the mileage goes up again. Having that little screen in front of you with average miles per gallon makes me very competitive. I want to get my average up! So the car makes me a more careful and fuel efficient driver. I start more slowly, because on slow starts, the car stays on the electric battery. Stomp on the accelerator and you go directly to gas engine.

Ideally, if I am going 35 to 40 MPH on a level straightaway, the car would get over 80 miles per gallon, but as I live in the Worcester hills, that doesn't happen too often. The EPA mileage rating is 51 highway, 60 city; those are my goals!

All in all, I am pleased with the car and would recommend it to others. Plus it makes me feel like I am doing something, even if it's only a little, to reduce global warming. Or as Dick Cheney would say, conservation is a sign of personal virtue, and I feel virtuous.

Quick Hits

I filled up my tank on Monday afternoon for $2.69 a gallon. Yesterday (Wednesday) gas was $2.83 at the same station. $3.00 by the weekend at this rate. I've ordered my Prius, should have it in a few weeks. 60 MPG, here I come! Boy, that war in Iraq is paying for itself, and lowering gas prices to boot. Thanks, Decider-in-Chimp.

Yesterday morning I turned on the TV to hear Diane Sawyer say to another talking head, "Did she have an epidural?" I finally figured out they were talking about poor Katie Holmes of TomKat, and turned off the TV. Diane Sawyer once wrote speeches for President Richard Nixon, and now she is talking about epidurals on TV. Like Pink says, where did all the smart girls go?

This morning I had CNN on in the background. They were covering the visit of the Chinese leader Hu to the White House. A lone voice began shouting. I immediately thought of that guy who halted the tanks in Tiananmen Square in 1989. But CNN showed the cops hustling this woman away, and all the anchors and talking heads were unanimous that this small problem had been dealt with, it was unusual, but now the event would proceed as planned. The protestor was saying something about the suppression of the Falun Gong movement. The talking heads weren't very interested in that. They were interested in the disruption of the state event. I thought of Jesse Owens in Berlin in 1936. How would German CNN have covered that? As dissent to be quickly squelched.

Attytood noticed, too.

Why I Want a Hybrid

From the Houston Chronicle's Hurricane Rita blog:

Why you want a hybrid

Here's why you want to buy a hybrid electric/gas-powered automobile.

Mike Matthews, the Chronicle employee whose evacuation journey was blogged here and here, finally made to his destination of Palestine -- 30 hours after leaving Clear Lake.

Via instant message, he followed up:

FYI, Renee and I finally got to Palestine, TX at about 5:45 AM -- 30 hours after leaving our house in Clear Lake. The Prius still has about 1/4 tank of gas...