Once again, a major corporation — this time Toyota — is threatening to cut thousands of jobs in the name of ‘competitiveness.’
Don’t let banks and corporations get away with a “jobless recovery” that restores profits and bonuses, but leaves workers behind. A real recovery puts workers and communities first, providing good jobs, affordable housing, retirement security and health care for all.
As part of the complicated auto industry bankruptcy process, Toyota is considering shutting down its only unionized workforce, the highly efficient partnership with GM called “New United Motor Manufacturing Inc.” (NUMMI) in Fremont California. Shutting down the plant would cost 4,500 good autoworker jobs, not to mention tens of thousands at dependent companies.
New United Motor Manufacturing Inc (NUMMI) is a partnership between Toyota and General Motors. According to outside evaluators, the vehicles produced at the unionized NUMMI plant had fewer problems than those produced at other Toyota plants. NUMMI was the 7th most efficient car making plant in the US, and better than any of Toyota’s car assembly plants in the US. The only Toyota-related facility in the US with a collective bargaining agreement, labor costs are comparable to other auto plants, including other mature Toyota plants, such as in Georgetown, KY.
NUMMI employs 4,500 workers and is responsible for approximately 35,000 other jobs due to related businesses and wages spent by NUMMI workers. NUMMI paid the city of Fremont $1.9 million in property taxes last year.
Under the government overseen bankruptcy process with General Motors, GM’s part of the NUMMI plant is now part of “Liquidation Motor company” and the bankruptcy judge will make determinations as to what happens with the plant. The government can have some influence on the outcome, therefore contacting Congress can be helpful, as it was in the initial filings of GM and Chrysler (though still not what would have been best for workers).
Take action to save jobs at NUMMI and to put Congress on notice that we need a new economy with new rules embodying worker and community interests and economic fairness.
[...] With the economy being what it is these days, one has to wonder, “What’s it going to take to turn this thing around”? Big Business is already trying to go back to “business as usual”, with a bottom-line focused on profits, and acting as if no economic crisis ever occurred. Sadly this continues to be done at the expense of their workers. [...]