The Dark Side of the Toyota Prius

In These Times by Paul Abowd | Jul. 16, 2008 (News Report)

The report alleges that Toyota exploits guest workers, mostly shipped in from China and Vietnam. According to the NLC, these workers are "stripped of their passports and often forced to work -- including at subcontract plants supplying Toyota -- 16 hours a day, seven days a week, while being paid less than half the legal minimum wage." Workers are forced to live in company dormitories and deported for complaining about poor treatment, the report finds. ... Full Story »

Posted by Denise Clendening

More Info

Tags Help
Subjects: World, Business, Sci/Tech, Living
Topics: Environment, Global Economy, Human Rights, Cars
Editorial Help
Posted by: Posted by Denise Clendening - Jul 17, 2008 - 7:47 PM PDT
Reviewed by: Denise Clendening (review), Corbin Halliwill (review)
Edit Lock: This story can be edited
Related Comments: Global Economy (2)

Reviews

Show All Comments
Show All | Notes | Comments | Quotes | Links
Denise Clendening
4.0
 by Denise Clendening - Oct. 1, 2008

Story summarizes an investigative report published last month by The National Labor Committee (NLC) regarding the treatment of workers by Toyota in Japan. Workers are imported from Burma and China and passports are confiscated. A 30 year old employee died after working 85-hour work weeks prior to his death. The NLC published his time cards, which reveal that he had worked 106.5 to 155 hours of overtime in the 30 days prior up to his death. Toyota did not want to pay the overtime to his widow indicating that extra hours are “voluntary quality control activities”. http://www.nlcnet.org/article.php?id=562 to the NLC study and sources are listed at the end of the study. With this story and the NY Times last year reporting that ... More »

Denise posted this story.
See Full Review » (13 answers)
Corbin Halliwill
3.4
 by Corbin Halliwill - Apr. 21, 2010
See Full Review » (10 answers)

Comments on this story Help (BETA)

Sort by: Oldest | Newest Hide All Replies
NT Rating | My Rating

Ratings

3.8

not enough reviews
from 2 reviews (12% confidence)
Quality
3.8
Facts
4.0
Fairness
3.5
Information
5.0
Sourcing
3.5
Style
3.5
Accuracy
4.0
Balance
3.0
Context
3.0
Depth
4.0
Enterprise
3.0
Relevance
5.0
Popularity
3.8
Recommendation
4.5
Credibility
3.0
# Reviews
1.0
# Views
5.0
# Likes
1.0
# Emails
1.0
More
How our ratings work »
(See these related stories.)

Links Help

No links yet. Please review this story to add some!