Vol. 73/No. 38      October 5, 2009

“Without Nummi, how can we afford to pay our mortgage, our car payments, our health insurance?” Marcela Alvarez, a passenger seat assembler, told the San Francisco Chronicle.

With three children and a husband out of work she was protesting the closing in front of Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s office in San Francisco. Her union, United Auto Workers Local 2244, organized two rallies with hundreds of workers participating.

Unlike other UAW members, workers at Nummi have no contract provision for extra benefits after being laid off and they cannot transfer to another Toyota plant with their seniority. Severance pay and post-layoff benefits would be up to plant management.

With an unemployment rate of 12.2 percent in California, estimates are that some 30,000 to 50,000 more jobs will be lost because of the plant shutdown. More than 1,000 companies supply parts to this auto assembly plant, the only one left on the West Coast.

Nummi was started as a joint venture between General Motors and Toyota in 1984. GM pulled out of the plant last June.

The factory, the first plant that Toyota opened in the United States, is their only unionized one. The production of the Toyota Corolla will move to Canada and Japan. The Tacoma pick-up trucks, also manufactured at the plant, will be moved to Toyota’s plant in San Antonio, Texas.  
 
 
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