Dec 17th, 2008 · Carla Kesterman of Fairland, Ind., has been an autoworker since April, when she went to work for Honda's new Indiana plant. She makes about $34,000 a year as an assembly worker. She has not been following the bailout deliberations and is only vaguely interested in the problems of the Big Three automakers.
Dec 16th, 2008 · Toyota says it's suspending plans to produce its Prius hybrid car in the U.S. A plant is under construction in Tupelo, Miss., was to be the first to make the popular gas-electric hybrid in this country. But as auto sales plunged, Toyota has been scaling back production. Toyota will finish the building but won't install equipment.
Dec 4th, 2008 · El Paso, Texas, and Ciudad Juarez in Mexico are economically tightly intertwined. The economic downturn in the U.S. is hurting the hundreds of assembly plants just across the border as a raging drug war that's killed some 1,400 people in Juarez this year is squashing tourism.
Nov 19th, 2008 · The world's biggest automaker says it will stop production at all U.S. and Canadian factories for two days next month. Toyota's assembly, transmission and engine plants will close in late December as the company tries to work through excess inventory. The Japanese carmaker is in much better financial shape than its U.S. rivals, but sales of Toyota's vehicles also are plunging.
Oct 2nd, 2008 · With the economy heading down, unemployment is heading up. Three unemployed women from Nashville, Tenn., talk with Renee Montagne about the challenges finding a new job. The group includes a former bank employee looking for a job for almost a year, an assembly line worker at a car parts plant that moved to Mexico and a former manager of a bank in Japan who has had trouble finding a job since returning to America.
Oct 1st, 2008 · Just a few years ago, the meal-assembly business was the next big thing. But now, amid competition from big grocery store chains, some kitchens are retooling the idea.
Sep 24th, 2008 · President Bush has talked about free trade with Western Hemisphere leaders, but the comments follow an address to the U.N. General Assembly by Bolivian President Evo Morales, who decried capitalism as the worst friend of humanity.
Sep 23rd, 2008 · Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin met with the leaders of Afghanistan and Colombia, who were attending the U.N. General Assembly. New York Times reporter Kate Zernike discusses the meetings and the flap between Palin's handlers and the press corps.