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Toyota faces first union organization poll at Ontario plant

Toyota Motor Corp workers at a Canadian assembly plant vote this week on representation by the Machinists, the first such attempt to organize one of the Japanese manufacturer's North American factories, the union said.

A certification vote for Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada Inc workers in Cambridge, Ontario, is set for Thursday, Ian Morland, organizer for the International Association of Machinists' District 140, said in an interview late on Friday. The union filed for a vote for 3,100 of the plant's employees with Ontario's Ministry of Labor Thursday.

No assembly plant wholly owned by Toyota, Japan's largest automaker, Honda Motor Co, Nissan Motor Co or Hyundai Motor Co in the US or Canada, has been organized by the United Auto Workers (UAW) and Canadian Auto Workers unions.

The UAW's past efforts targeting Toyota's Georgetown, Kentucky, plant and Nissan's Smyrna, Tennessee, failed to win enough support.

"Early on the international plants had the advantage of a young workforce, impressive expansion and sophisticated labor relations," said Harley Shaiken, a labor professor at the University of California at Berkeley.

"We're now in a more volatile auto market, and those workers are aging," Shaiken said. "It's not out of the question that one of those plants will be organized eventually."

The Toronto Star reported on Friday the Machinists said they have enough support to require a representation vote.
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