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BOSSHOG Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Feb-28-07 08:36 AM
Original message
Mississippi all shook up about Toyota
Toyota will soon open an SUV plant in Tupelo, Mississippi. They picked the site over others in Arkansas and Tennessee. So the Japanese auto giant will have a cheap labor pool to build their gas guzzlers in the town which gave the world Elvis.

http://www.courant.com/business/hc-toyota0228.artfeb28,0,7620627.story?coll=hc-headlines-business

haley bar-bore was all beside his big ole self in making the announcement.
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PVnRT Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Feb-28-07 08:39 AM
Response to Original message
1. I guess it's horrible that Mississippeans have 2,000 more jobs...
n/t
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BOSSHOG Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Feb-28-07 08:43 AM
Response to Reply #1
2. I think its great there are more jobs
I'm at the opposite end of the state and there is, for some reason, an intense rivalry between north and south Mississippi. This will just intensify the rivalry and it will manifest itself in the state congress.
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trumad Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Feb-28-07 08:51 AM
Response to Reply #1
3. snarf...
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pampango Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Feb-28-07 09:09 AM
Response to Original message
4. You would think Toyota had decided to build their new plant in
Mexico or China. "So the Japanese auto giant will have a cheap labor pool to build their gas guzzlers..."

Is it considered outsourcing when a foreign company decides to locate a factory in Mississippi?
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PLF Donating Member (414 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Feb-28-07 09:14 AM
Response to Reply #4
5. Well it is a third world country, last I checked.
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DrRang Donating Member (415 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Feb-28-07 09:18 AM
Response to Reply #4
7. Tupelo's pretty impressive.
I grew up about forty miles from there. Tupelo was was where you went for things you couldn't get in a small town. The local paper and the leadership are very progressive for Mississippi. It's the commercial center of northeast MS and has terrific medical facilities.
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pampango Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Feb-28-07 10:13 AM
Response to Reply #7
8. Mississippi probably needs the jobs and incomes as much or
more than other states. Last I checked it still had the lowest state per capita income. It also has the highest percentage of minorities, so hopefully this will result in a lot of minority hiring.
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treestar Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Feb-28-07 10:17 AM
Response to Reply #4
9. Exactly, American labor is NOT cheap
The restrictions and requirments and the paperwork and the legal liability - they need a lot of American lawyers to make sure they understand it all.
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rox63 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Feb-28-07 09:16 AM
Response to Original message
6. Toyota wouldn't build gas-guzzlers if there wasn't a demand for them
Getting rid of the demand for them is the key to getting rid of the gas-guzzlers.
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madokie Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Feb-28-07 10:17 AM
Response to Original message
10. I live by a large industrial park and the scuttlebutt for the last couple years
has been Toyota was going to locate a manufacturing plant here. Oh Well.
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mitchleary Donating Member (271 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Feb-28-07 10:18 AM
Response to Original message
11. Didn't
Mudbone come from Tupelo, MS? Drove 1379 miles... on a tractor. Richard Pryor, RIP.
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Bake Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Feb-28-07 10:52 AM
Response to Reply #11
13. Yeah, just south of one-below!
Richard was just the BEST.

Bake
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Elwood P Dowd Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Feb-28-07 11:21 AM
Response to Reply #11
18. Drove a tractor all the way to Peoria
on half a tank of gas!

Mudbone would stand around the barbecue pit and spit. That was his job.

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Little Wing Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Feb-28-07 10:19 AM
Response to Original message
12. Oh the confusion this must be creating for F.A.R.T.
http://fansagainstracingtoyotas.com/
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Bake Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Feb-28-07 10:56 AM
Response to Original message
14. Good for Tupelo, good for Mississippi.
Mississippi desperately needs industry to come in. People need work, and in a lot of the towns I've been to, all the industry has gone away. This is a good thing, just like the Nissan plant in Canton (which is the area's only major industrial installation).

I heard the plant will assemble the Highlander (?) which is a smaller SUV. That's not exactly a gas-guzzler.

By the way, Haley Barbour ran for gov. on the promise of getting bidness into the state, saying "I have the connections to make it happen." I wonder what his role in this deal was.

Bake
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Democrat 4 Ever Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Feb-28-07 11:03 AM
Response to Reply #14
16. Well Toyota built a plant in Georgetown, KY and it has been
a huge economic boom for them. The pay scale and benefits are second to none. I would say congratulations to Mississippi and wish it had happened here in my hometown. We desperately need good paying jobs with bennies. All that is available here are stockers and door greeters at Wally World.

I wish it weren't gas guzzlers, I truly do, but people need to live, eat, raise their families etc. and those vehicles ARE going to be built somewhere, I say enjoy the economic benefits while you can.
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Bake Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Feb-28-07 11:33 AM
Response to Reply #16
19. I have KY relatives who work or have worked at the Georgetown plant
You're right, it has been a HUUUUUGE boost for the KY economy. The governor at the time (Martha Lane Collins, if I recall) frankly gave away a lot of incentives/concessions to get it, but it has likely been well worth it.

Bake
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bullwinkle428 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Feb-28-07 10:58 AM
Response to Original message
15. They could have opened the plant in Canada as many
manufacturers are doing now, as their universal health care eliminates one big concern for any corporation considering relocation - I don't really see this as something to whine about...
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RebelOne Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Feb-28-07 11:08 AM
Response to Original message
17. My son and his wife lived in Iuka, Mississippi for a few
years until I convinced him to move to the Atlanta area. While he was in Mississippi, he had to drive every day to Alabama to earn a decent salary.
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itsmesgd Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Feb-28-07 11:37 AM
Response to Original message
20. Damn foreign car companies with their job creation and fuel efficient cars, Damn you
First Hyundai moved to Alabama, then BMW to South Carolina, and now Toyota in Mississippi.
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merh Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Feb-28-07 11:37 AM
Response to Original message
21. Did you see the promised/proposed economic incentive package?
Edited on Wed Feb-28-07 11:37 AM by merh
I'd build a plant here too!

Mississippi is spending $296 million in incentives to convince Toyota to locate there, largely by making improvements to the 1,700-acre site north of Tupelo and improving roadways near the site. Much of the rest of the money is for job retraining. http://www.detnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070227/UPDATE/702270445/1148
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Fierce Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Feb-28-07 11:53 AM
Response to Original message
22. Toyota is not the savior here:
http://tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070208/BUSINESS01/70208019
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Selatius Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Feb-28-07 11:57 AM
Response to Original message
23. Better to build in a "right to work" state than a state like Michigan with "forced unionization"
Edited on Wed Feb-28-07 12:02 PM by Selatius
Isn't that right?

One of the big reasons they came to Mississippi instead of to a place with heavy manufacturing experience like Ohio or Michigan is because it is relatively easy to crush labor unions. The state helps them do so by passing "right-to-work" laws. They only pay so well because they want to discourage unionization.

To be sure, this is an economic boom for Tupelo, but if you want to thank anybody for ensuring workers are paid well, thank the unionized workers up there in the "Rust Belt" for ensuring pay isn't any lower than it is.
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