Toyota ends

Future in bus, trucks, trailers.

Roderick.

October 3 2017 'It's sunk in now': reality sets in for Toyota workers on the last day at Altona .
Hands in pockets, shoulders hunched against the biting cold, three colleagues stand outside during a break on their last shift after two decades together.
"When I was going through that turnstile for the last time this morning ... ," says Matthew Kinson, trailing off, shaking his head. "Reality has kicked in today, that's for sure."
Video duration01:39 Toyota workers sad but hopeful on last day
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This week more than two and a half thousand people will lose their jobs when Toyota closes its manufacturing plant in Melbourne.
His co-workers nod and agree. "It's sunk in now," says Michael Spiteri, an employee of 23 years. "I couldn't sleep last night. I've been up since 4am."
Nearly four years have passed since auto giant Toyota told them it was shutting down the Altona production plant, the last car-making factory in Victoria. The closure, made official at 11.30am, puts 2600 staff out of well-paid work, and will trigger even more job losses in the wider economy.
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"That four years, mate, it went pretty quick," Mr Spiteri remarks. "But it is what it is. And we can't change nothing now."
At 6am, as the sun rose over Altona, thousands began arriving to work their final shift here and celebrate the end of a "long, proud era" of car manufacturing in Melbourne.
"It's a terribly sad day for the whole country, and a tough blow for the thousands of affected workers and their families," said Dave Smith, of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union.
"This plant is more than just a car plant for them ... it's a passion, it's part of their lives."
Long term employees Damir Dakovic, Matthew Kinson and Michael Spiteri outside Toyota's plant on its final day. Photo: Darrian Traynor
The closure of Toyota - the last mass-production car manufacturer left in Victoria - is the latest in a long succession of auto manufacturing shutdowns across the country, including Ford's factories in Geelong and Broadmeadows, Holden in Port Melbourne, and Mitsubishi in Adelaide.
In less than two weeks, when Holden General Motors ends production in Adelaide, the industry will disappear from Australia entirely.
The sun rises on the last day at Toyota's Altona plant. Photo: Darrian Traynor
The impacts of the job losses are not confined to the factories themselves. More than 3000 Victorian supply-chain workers will be left unemployed from the many companies that make components for Toyota cars, according to the latest government modelling.
At least seven components manufacturers have recently closed, or are set to close in coming weeks, as a result of the Toyota shutdown, union officials said. These include businesses based in industrial areas of Melbourne's north, west and south-east.
“This plant is more than just a car plant for them ... it's a passion, it's part of their lives”
Dave Smith, Australian Manufacturing Workers Union
As of September, 84 component-making businesses across the state said they would be able stay open, while 25 would have to downsize, and at least 16 will close.
Toyota has been building cars in Australia for more than five decades, and, in recent years, has been the biggest local producer.
The final Toyota Camry will roll off the factory line on Tuesday afternoon. Photo: Supplied
"A generation of Victorian men and women have dedicated most of their professional lives to building iconic cars for Australian roads," state Industry Minister Wade Noonan said on Tuesday.
"Our thoughts are with every Toyota worker, supply chain business and family that is feeling the impacts of this closures."
Retrenched workers from Australia's car manufacturing sector have been the focus of significant government and industry assistance in retraining and finding new employment. Mr Kinson recently received a forklift licence and will start working in transport. Mr Spiteri recently completed a six-month course in aviation security, and has a job interview lined up for next week.
But in the blue-collar manufacturing industry, studies have shown the average worker is 50 years old and has spent two decades with the one company, meaning there are significant challenges for many in finding re-employment.
The Australian Manufacturing Workers Union said just 50 per cent of the Ford workers who lost their jobs last October had so far managed to find full-time work.
"At the Ford motor company, despite all the efforts to help people upskill and transition to new employment, that hasn't happened in being able to help people find full-time jobs," Mr Smith said on Tuesday, outside the Toyota factory.
"The loss of this plant, and 2600 well-paying, full-time jobs, is a tragedy."
The Victorian Automobile Chamber of Commerce urged local businesses to consider hiring the highly skilled manufacturing workers from Toyota and Ford, whose "skills can be applicable across a whole range of industries".
"Their approach to work, the methods they have learned ... can be applied from a bakery, to a warehouse to another manufacturing environment," VACC executive director Geoff Gwilym said.
According to industry research, the state's car components sector will continue to employ about 29,000 workers, even after the impact of the Toyota exit is fully felt.
"We have to remember that while the automotive manufacturing scene is dominated by passenger cars, it will now be buses, trucks, trailers, specialised vehicles," Mr Gwilym said.
Toyota's Altona plant is the first mass-production facility in the world that the Japanese company has closed.
Toyota's head office will remain in Port Melbourne, and all corporate functions will move from Sydney to Melbourne by January 1, 2018.
Toyota workers said there were mixed emotions on the factory floor, ahead of the official closure ceremony on Tuesday.
The final Toyota Camry built in Australia rolled off the Altona production line about midday.
Toyota Australia president Dave Buttner paid tribute to employees past and present for their commitment to ensuring their "last car" was their "best car".
"I would like to express my sincere appreciation again to you, our dedicated employees, our suppliers, our customers, the local community and government who have all supported Toyota's manufacturing development in Australia," he said.
The company on Tuesday also unveiled a $32 million endowment, the Toyota Community Trust, aimed at helping students in Melbourne's west overcome financial barriers to higher learning.
Workers at the plant have received generous redundancy payments and access to long-term career-transition planning, but many are worried about finding work again.
"I hope everyone finds work," Mr Spiteri says. "It's going to be different to the work and conditions here ... but like they say, one door closes and another one opens."
< www.theage.com.au/business/reality-sets-...20171002-gyt3ib.html >

all Australians really need to hang our heads in shame at what we have done to this country in the last 30 or 40 years

shame on us

Paul

Yes Pauly its self inflected

Hi,

Follow the money

-b

..
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.Yep..... our free and easy life style is starting to catch us out.................
..........................Billy................................

BillyP wrote: ..
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.Yep..... our free and easy life style is starting to catch us out.................
..........................Billy................................

Grossly overpaid workers that are effectively unqualified process workers earning as much as or more than a tradesman or professional who has done the hard yards doing a trade or degree, spending half their day doing 3/5ths of stuff all is what did it. Priced themselves out of the market. Shame we have lost all the history of this industry but othewise no sympathy for them.

rockcrawler31 wrote:
Grossly overpaid workers that are effectively unqualified process workers earning as much as or more than a tradesman or professional who has done the hard yards doing a trade or degree, spending half their day doing 3/5ths of stuff all is what did it. Priced themselves out of the market. Shame we have lost all the history of this industry but othewise no sympathy for them.

Sorry Rockcrawler, I disagree. While I can not comment on their pay rates I think you are giving those people with "degrees" too much credit. Over the past twenty years the number of people with degrees has increased at a never before seen rate. At the same time the cost to do anything in this country has blown out of all proportions and productivity has collapsed. I read a report from a couple of years ago that one person in ten in Australia is employed solely in the regulatory and compliance sector. I believe a lot of those people with degrees are not worth even feeding let alone giving them credit for having a "degree". They are essentially people who would in days past been factory workers same as those car workers.

Australia today only exists due to a new underclass we can exploit. That being poor workers in far off countries. We will be in for a hell of a shock should some calamity befall us. Well those with now useless degrees will be.

Reminds me of the old saying

"Yesterday I couldn't even spell boss, and now I are one

And it is not just Australia.. The States are in the same boat.. All our manufacturing has gone to the Pacific Rim countries..

I don't know how it happened in other places but in Victoria, about 20 or more years ago, then Premier Joan Kirner closed all the Tech schools, saying that all students should go to University.

The truth is that 90 per cent of all students are not capable of taking a degree course, or do not want to. The Son of my Wife's friend lasted two weeks of his course.

The result is that we have a glut of graduates that have a piece of paper saying they are experts at something but they have no practical skills. In my last job before buying my business, a young man who had dual Accountancy and Law degrees telephoned me to ask how to get a lock in a door changed. When I told him to call a locksmith, he said "How do I find a Locksmith?" I advised him to look in the telephone book. (This was in the infancy of mobile phones, when everybody had a telephone directory)

Many people who have a University qualification, have now idea how to do their job. The Import and Customs authorities are cracking down on asbestos in used cars and trucks being imported. This is in response to imports of NEW vehicles from third world countries where asbestos is used in brake linings as well as in gaskets. A friend who has a large business importing used parts, reliably tells me that the people looking for asbestos would not recognise it if it jumped out and bit them on the bum. There is a report of a privately imported car having $11,000.00 worth of damage done to it by inspectors looking for asbestos. They even pulled the windscreen rubber out to check it. The vehicle is now not worth restoring, at a huge loss to the owner.

The other result of the lack of Trade - practical education is the dire shortage of tradesmen. There is a huge shortage of apprentices in virtually all trades. This is contributing to the throwaway society, when you cannot find anyone to repair something, so you have no option but to buy a new one. In my case, the timer in a clothes dryer the size of the ones used in Laundromats stopped working and I tried all the suppliers and repair places but no one could help. I had the option of buying a new timer from America at a cost of over $800.00 plus postage, with no guarantee that it would fit, or buying a new dryer at a cost of at least $1700.00. After a couple of years searching, I eventually got the phone number of a retired man who used to have a business interstate, repairing timers. He offered to try to fix it. The upshot was that it was repaired as good as new, with a total cost including interstate postage both ways, of under $100.00.

Morris.