No community is getting hit harder than African-Americans by the loss of union auto jobs.
The dwindling number of high-paying factory jobs is chipping away at the middle-class lifestyle that auto factory work has provided for generations of black families, many of whom left their native South years ago to pursue opportunity up north.
A group representing Japanese automakers says that country’s production of cars, trucks and buses marked its steepest drop in at least four decades in November.
The Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association says vehicle production in Japan, home to Toyota Motor Corp. and other major automakers, totaled 854,171 vehicles in November. That’s a 20.4-percent in November compared to the same month a year ago.
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Toyota has declared itself resolutely committed to continuing in formula one despite what promises to be its first operating loss for 70 years as the depression in the global car industry worsens.
“We have absolutely no plans to withdraw from formula one,” a spokeswoman, Yoshie Matsuura, told the Guardian. Matsuura said Toyota had embarked on a major cost-cutting study but could not specify what measures were under consideration. “We know that [F1] is very expensive and that cost-cutting is the key to survival,” she said.
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