A Californian auto worker who is suing Toyota and others in a whistleblower lawsuit has said she was merely carrying out the quality-conscious ‘Toyota Way’ in spotting defects when managers cracked down and demoted her.
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The Associated Press reports that Katy Cameron, 54, employed for 23 years at New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. (NUMMI), a joint venture between Toyota and GM in Fremont, Calif., is suing the companies in a lawsuit, filed Nov. 6 in Alameda County Superior Court.
According to the AP report the lawsuit accuses management at NUMMI of routinely deleting or downgrading defects that Cameron found as a certified auditor including broken seat belts, faulty headlights, inadequate braking and steering wheel alignment problems. The lawsuit demands US$45m in damages for retaliation against a whistleblower and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
“I believed in the Toyota Way. I really did. I just wanted to know why they turned their head on me,” Cameron said from California in a telephone interview with The Associated Press. “Why did they look the other way when I cried out for help?”
Cameron said she was trained in Toyota’s corporate philosophy, which emphasizes the importance of the workers on the assembly line not only in making manufacturing more efficient but also pointing out defects and other problems. She was so good she trained other auditors, she says.
But about five years ago, the management at NUMMI seemed to shift its emphasis to quantity over quality, eager to reduce defect numbers, which determined their bonus pay, said Cameron.
And Toyota’s vaunted quality-check system seemed to get neglected, she said, according to AP.
Cameron said she went to court only after she tried to alert higher-ups to what she saw as serious wrongdoing, including her bosses, as well as the top executive at NUMMI, handing him a letter and other reports in writing in 2006.
She also sent reports in writing to Toyota executives, including one to President Katsuaki Watanabe but has received no response so far, she said.
