WCA September 2009

Toronto Star business reporter Brett Popplewell noted that in many cases the Canadian unions have been offering workweek concessions to management. Wayne Fraser, Ontario director of the United Steel- workers union, estimates that thousands of workers in Canada’s steel industry are voluntarily working reduced hours, just as they did during the last recession. Mr Fraser told the Star , “We’ve got a lot of our plants on job sharing right across Ontario.” The announcement by US Steel Serbia of a cutback ❖ ❖ in working hours provides an instance of American influence on European practice. As reported in the International Herald Tribune , company spokesman Nemanja Brkovic said that workers at the plant in Smederevo, some 20 miles northeast of Belgrade, are working a four-day week. For putting in 32 hours instead of 40, the 9,000 employees are paid 60% of their usual wages. No layoffs have been announced at the plant, which accounted for about 15% of total Serbian exports before output was curtailed in response to falling demand for its strip steel products. The decision by the subsidiary of US Steel (Pittsburgh) to cut working hours has prompted the Serbian government to consider instituting the measure at similarly underutilised state-run companies. Ambitious Toyota retools its upscale Prius to appeal to the averagely virtuous American buyer Toyota Motor Corp, of Japan, has sold more than 1.27 million Priuses worldwide since the elite hybrid’s debut in 1997. Now, the third-generation Prius is the product of more than 4 1 / 2 years of effort to turn the renowned ‘eco-icon,’ rated at 50 miles to a gallon of gasoline, into a mainstream car. Now, the world’s largest car company by sales is rolling out the new-model Prius – bigger, more powerful, lower-priced ($22,000 and up) – in the huge United States market, where early reviews have been more than enthusiastic. If the remodelled Prius meets with the same success in the US as in Japan where, in May, it was the best-selling car in the country, Toyota will have pulled off a second remarkable feat of rowing against the tide. While the economic recession has been roughly twice as severe in Japan as in the US, domestic demand for the Prius is surging. Even with production ramped up to 50,000 cars a month, the waiting time for a Japanese Prius buyer is three to four months. Writing from Toyota City, Japan, in the Washington Post , Blaine Harden reported that Toyota is framing its US campaign in terms of the appeal the retooled Prius holds for the average car buyer – as distinguished from the earlier, and wealthier, customer for the righteous hybrid with stellar fuel economy. Automotive

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Wire & Cable ASIA – September/October 2009