Toyota fights Ontario union vote

Automaker will challenge Machinists, which filed an unfair labor practices claim against the company.

Alan Ohnsman / Bloomberg News

Toyota Motor Corp. engaged in unfair labor practices to sway workers at an Ontario plant where a representation election may be held this week, the Machinists union said in a complaint to the provincial government.

Communications sent to workers at the Cambridge, Ontario, factory "crossed the line set by the law, which prevents employers from intimidating and unduly influencing employees to vote against a union," the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers said in a statement Monday.

The complaint was filed with Ontario’s Labour Relations Board, union spokesman Bill Trbovich said. The vote is tentatively set for Thursday, union organizer Ian Morland said in a Friday interview.

The Machinists union is attempting to become the first labor group in the United States or Canada to win representation at an assembly plant wholly owned by Toyota, Honda Motor Co., Nissan Motor Co. or Hyundai Motor Co. In the United States, the United Auto Workers failed in past efforts at Toyota’s Georgetown, Ky., plant and Nissan’s Smyrna, Tenn., factory.

Toyota, the largest Japanese automaker, said Saturday that it planned to "challenge the union to prove that they have enough signed cards and will request the vote be sealed" until Ontario labor officials rule on the matter.

Pat Clement, a spokeswoman in Canada for the Toyota City, Japan-based company, declined to comment on the union complaint.

The Machinists union filed last Thursday for a vote for 3,100 of the plant’s workers with Ontario’s Labour Ministry. The factory employs 5,059 people, according to the company’s Web site.

Machinists organizers began collecting cards from Cambridge workers in November indicating whether they supported union representation. More than 40 percent of cards turned in were in favor, Morland said.

The Ontario board will hold a secret-ballot election if at least 40 percent are in favor, agency spokesman Voy Stelmaszynski said in a telephone interview.

The Cambridge plant builds Corolla and Matrix small cars, Lexus RX 350 sport-utility vehicles and four-cylinder engines. Toyota is building a second assembly plant in Woodstock, Ontario, that will make RAV4 SUVs when it opens next year.

The UAW represents workers at New United Motor Manufacturing Inc., a joint-venture assembly plant in Fremont, Calif., that Toyota operates with General Motors Corp.

Toyota’s American depositary receipts fell $1.08 to $99.20 Monday. They have declined 6.6 perce