Posted on 07/31/2009 9:30:47 AM PDT by tcrlaf
The United Auto Workers and its union allies have quietly launched a campaign aimed at pressuring Toyota not to close the NUMMI plant in California now threatened by the break-up of a long-standing joint venture between the Japanese maker and General Motors.
The e-mail-based campaign is urging supporters of the UAW to call their Congressmen and encourage them to keep the plant in Fremont, California open.
The factory, originally a GM plant, has been running for a quarter century as part of an alliance between the two erstwhile competitors. Toyota originally saw the joint venture as a way to test the possibility of producing cars in the U.S., while GM hoped to learn about Japanese manufacturing techniques.
(SNIP)
Inaba indicated during a visit to Detroit, last week, that Toyota probably has too much capacity in the U.S., which would suggest the unionized NUMMI is particularly vulnerable. Toyota has already put on indefinite hold a partially-completed plant, in Tupelo, Mississippi.
The UAW isn’t taking any chances and is deploying its political skirmishers in a bid to dissuade Toyota from axing Fremont, which has more than 5,400 employees and can build more than 400,000 vehicles annually.
“Toyota Motor Corp. is considering closing the New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. (NUMMI) plant in Fremont, Calif. NUMMI is the last automobile manufacturing plant in California,” the union’s e-mail to members and supporters stated.
“We believe that Toyotas sold in the United States should be made in the United States. California is by far Toyota’s single biggest market for car sales in the United States. From the start, the NUMMI plant has been praised as one of the nation’s most advanced car factories,” the letter continued.
Asserting that the closure would have, “a devastating impact on California” and UAW members, in particular, the e-mail concluded, “We must act now!” It urges them to call their state and local representatives to demand that the plant stay open and that Toyota be pressured to bargain fairly with the union.
It is obvious that the battle over NUMMI is only heating up.
I wonder if this clown has ever asked himself WHY it's the last Car Plant in California???
UAW wants to have their cake and eat it too. Guess what though? They can’t strong arm Toyota and there’s no more blood to squeeze from GM. Plant’s closing.
“I wonder if this clown has ever asked himself WHY it’s the last Car Plant in California???”
Not a chance.
Obama can always make Toyota an offer it can’t refuse like “keep nummi open and the prius gets extra tax credits or close nummi and face a big fat tariff on luxury autos like lexus.”
Close the plant and help kill off the union. Besides, the union already got spoils from the Chrysler and GM debacles.
Screw the union. Without a place to work, they won’t have to worry about picketing any longer.
Which is exactly what he’s likely to do. That will most likely start a trade war with Japan - just another crisis not to be wasted in zero’s view, I’m sure...
I seem to remember that when the NUMMI plant built Toyotas (with non-union personnel) the quality was higher than when GM built cars using the union folks.
Go figure.
Please, unions, stay in California - where you so properly belong.
“demand that the plant stay open and that Toyota be pressured to bargain fairly with the union.”
Geez, that says it all.
Of course, GM could just keep it open on their own instead of investing $1billion in manufacturing in Brazil.
It’s always interesting to see a “local” story show up in a news paper 1500 miles away!
Most people around here expect the plant to close. Will the last person leaving Fremont please turn the lights out!
It’s my understanding that Toyota gave the employees 2 choices:
disband the union and you keep your jobs or we close the plant.
KIA closed ties to California and is now in Georgia.
Of course, Toyota if it sits tight can get all kinds of new federal and local tax breaks and subsidies to stay open. So I suspect they’ll let that happen.
5,000 employees translates to another 20,000 suppliers.
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