Is there a labour-friendly car company?
Is there a labour-friendly car company?
I'm shopping for a new car, and would like to choose one made with the least bad labour practices, if possible.
My reading suggests there is literally no good choice, but curious if anyone here has a perspective that could inform my choice.
Is there any car company that shits on their workers less and/or chooses contractors/vendors that shit on their workers less than the rest? Or are we just doomed to drive around the blood sweat and tears of exploited persons?
Shopping in America.
Edit: New to me. Used just as likely.
In general, the only kind of company friendly to its workers is a worker-owned co-op. Otherwise, the relationship between management and labor is inherently adversarial, no matter how much management might try to pretend otherwise.
(There are no worker-owned co-op car manufacturers.)
Any German car company since they have unions, strict labor laws and many other regulations which make the life of workers decent.
It's worth noting that a huge part of their manufacturing takes place outside of Germany where salaries are way lower and regulations aren't as strict.
At least for cars sold in Europe often times they are still being assembled within the European Union even if in cheaper markets, so protections are still in place and strong. But cars are made of millions of components manufactured all over the world so there's always at least some human suffering somewhere along the chain.
Sure regulations are not same as Germany but even in those cases there’s a lot of corporate culture that makes a difference. I know it first hand working in an automotive in DE and cooperating with people from foreign offices.
As a German, our car companies are still shady. One word: Abgasskandal
If you are buying a Japanese car that is made in Japan, that would be my suggestion but I don't know what the labour practises of US built Japanese cars is like.
I have don't literally 0 research so I'm talking out my ass right now. But I would be shocked if cars made in Japan have good labor practices. In Japanese culture it is perfectly normally to work 12+ hours a day. They have one of the worst work cultures of any first world country. It's so bad that most Japanese media that is about children, they rarely if ever mention the characters' dad. Think about Pokemon. In most games, they never mention your dad. It's not even weird that he's completely absent. This is just a fact for Japanese children. They don't even know their dads because their dads are always at work, and it's just something they accept. The one pokemon game that I remember meeting your dad in, he's actually at work, and you visit him at work (he's a gym leader).
So my point is that I don't know why car manufacturering in Japan would be any different than every other industry in Japan, which convinces workers to want to work 12-16 hours a day.
Thanks for the suggestion!
Unfortunately I found this about Honda Canada (presumably same in US because they can), but I'll see if there's a way to get a Japanese made one.
https://briarpatchmagazine.com/articles/view/how-hondas-anti-union-monitor-works
The VIN tells you country of manufacture with the first digit. US is 1, Canada is 2, Mexico is 3, Japan is J, and Germany is W, to cover the main ones you'll see in the US. You'll likely have base your model choice on that. It's not like you can request a Japanese Accord just for fun. Sometimes a particular trim might be built in Japan for some reason. I think the Subaru Crosstrek and most Mazdas are still Js
Anti union, but not horribly abusive from what I hear
No, there isn't.
Do the actual ethical thing and buy a used car. You're putting money back into the hands of actual working Americans instead of companies, contributing dramatically less to climate change by reusing an existing product, you'll get a dramatically nicer vehicle, and save money too.
I actually do buy used cars, and am currently looking at used Honda and subaru thingies.
But the used car market affects the new car market, so I feel like the choice still matters even if I'm not buying new. I don't think it's "the actual ethical thing" (kind of condescending phrasing btw) to absolve self of the implications of the purchase just because it's used.
Maybe Volvo? Do note that Polestar cars are made in China, but Volvo ones should be made in Europe or US. I dont know how good the conditions in the american Volvo factory are but in Sweden, Volvo is considered a good employer. Volvo/Polestar are owned by Geely, which is a chinese company but Volvo is pretty independent.
FWIW my dad works at volvo and a lot of the parts arrive from china to only be assembled in sweden.
Not really relevant to "labour-friendly" though
Bentley
More realistically, you're going to want to hire a proper custom coachbuilder to ensure you can oversee every aspect of the production process.
hold on to ur hunk of metal until its last mile, that way u would have spared a soul some human suffering.
Buying used is pretty much the only way to go here. Preferably something like a 10 year old Toyota so that you're not having to do repairs frequently and creating waste disposing of the old parts.
Other than that, maybe something like a kit car if you're really serious about labor friendly? The components are usually made by a a small team of enthusiasts, but you'd be assembling the vehicle either yourself or through a local shop.
Huh, kit car is a thought. Left demolition derby behind me because I stopped having time to do stuff to cars myself tho, so it might be impractical.
NGL kinda want an excuse for an ancient highlux
United Auto Workers (UAW) creates a list of union-built cars every year. Here's the list for 2023: https://uaw.org/solidarity_magazine/2023-uaw-union-built-vehicle-guide/
Sadly there's only a handful of EVs in here.
Do the actual ethical thing and buy a used car. You're putting money back into the hands of actual working Americans instead of companies, contributing dramatically less to climate change by reusing an existing product, you'll get a dramatically nicer vehicle, and save money too.
I mostly use „ let’s go alread-aaayyy“ and the heavenly „seven!“ from Benders game
I think you misclicked which comments you went to as it sounds like you meant to post this on the one about your most frequently quoted Futurama line, and not this question about labor-friendly car companies. lol
As OP, I found their futurama quote helpful. I will tell all shady used car salesmen to bite my shiny metal ass.
Damn, yes, I did - but I finally have something for the Mlem bug report, so there is that.
This is such a circlejerk question I have no idea if you're looking for an answer grounded in reality