Pending closure of Toyota plant in California protested

[Omaha Steve]

Source: LA Times

The United Auto Workers union launches a campaign to pressure the automaker into keeping the NUMMI facility in Fremont open.

By Marc Lifsher

Reporting from Sacramento - National labor union officials, community leaders and politicians stepped up their efforts to pressure embattled Toyota Motor Corp. to reverse its decision to stop making cars in Northern California.

Seeking to piggyback on bad publicity generated by Toyota's massive safety recalls, the United Auto Workers union held a rally Friday outside the quarter-century-old New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. factory in Fremont, 40 miles southeast of San Francisco.

The rally protested the planned March 31 closure of the plant, which would put 4,700 union members out of work.

Friday's protest was only the start, said UAW national Vice President Bob King. The union and backers from consumer and environmental groups launched a rolling campaign that over the coming weeks will dispatch squads of protesters carrying signs and handing out leaflets at 50 Toyota dealerships in California and 50 more across the country.





Read more: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-toyota-nummi13-2010feb13,0,2154696.story

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This is Toyota's only unionized plant in the US. The closing was announced last Summer, long before the recalls.

[FarCenter]

1. If they didn't need the capacity last summer, they certainly don't need it now.

[madrchsod]

3. they are closing their best plant in the usa in their largest market and...

moving to a southern state where there is a docile workforce and tens of millions in tax breaks. a state that nissan pulled out of because they could`t find quality help. it`s all about cheap labor and a docile workforce.

the blood of men,women,and children were shed to build a strong union labor force in the country. today their sacrifice was in vain.

[Paulie]

11. Old GM owned half the plant and walked away

Have new GM buy back in, I'm sure it would stay open. Yes?

[pipoman]

14. Exactly

[The Croquist]

17. Why do you call it "their best plant in the usa"?

Not trying to argue but the article doesn't say that.

[Trillo]

2. "last Summer"?

...back in 2004, the company worked with the NHTSA to get rid of incidents of unintended acceleration that occurred for a few seconds, or when the driver would hit the brakes on the vehicle. In 2007, the NHTSA opened a formal investigation into the Camry crash that ultimately lead to the first recall of Toyota's vehicles.

http://commonlaw.findlaw.com/2010/02/toyota-is-aware-that-unintended-acceleration-is-not-new.html

[madrchsod]

4. during that time they also had the suspension parts recall

no wonder they were sitting on the accelerator problems.

[Trillo]

12. OTOH, I rather doubt it is possible to build a "perfect" car.

Unexpected acceleration problems, as far as I recall, started with Audi back in the 1980s or thereabouts, and if I recall correctly, also took some public information (newspaper articles, media, etc.) to get the serious attention of the regulators and thus the company. My guess: this is likely due to the increasing complexity of engine control systems and perhaps multiple problems intersecting.

Of course, if a company has hired former regulators to run interference, then it looks like some kind of deliberate obfuscation of a manufacturing issue instead of one that could be explained by them truly believing whatever problems were "random" and comprising such a tiny percentage number of total cars built (limited to one or two) they don't yet have evidence that there's a greater design fault.

[pipoman]

15. The audi issue

ultimately turned out to be attributed entirely to driver error (hitting the accelerator instead of the brakes)...after it nearly ruined Audi.

[Trillo]

21. Perhaps

But despite NHTSA's explanation for the problem, sudden acceleration remains an industry-wide concern. NHTSA is investigating sudden acceleration in 1980-85 Nissan 280z/300z cars, 1983-84 AMC Alliance/Encore models, 1981-84 Toyota Cressidas and 1982-85 General Motors J-cars, 1985-86 Dodge-Plymouth Colts and 198687 Honda Accords LXI. But the agency is not expected to take action on these cases. Since 1980 NHTSA has closed sudden acceleration investigations into 13 car models.

Although the auto industry and NHTSA publicly claim that driver error is responsible for sudden acceleration problems, private engineers have theorized that faulty computer components could cause the computer control systems to malfunction, sending messages to the car to accelerate when it should not. In some cases, these malfunctions would not leave any evidence that could easily be detected.

http://www.multinationalmonitor.org/hyper/issues/1987/05/wathen.html

[pipoman]

24. I knew one of the team of engineers

who worked the Audi case. Their findings were, simplified, in order for the Audis to accelerate in the way they were reported to accelerate, it would have required malfunction of both the cruise control and the completely separate braking system..the indications were never duplicated in any lab test, except when the accelerator was pushed instead of the brakes. I don't know about the Toyota issue and am not likening the two.

[bluecollarcharlie]

22. I know that the Toyota lovers hate admit it............

... but let's face it, Toyota has real and true problems. It is almost laughable but certainly dreadfully predictable that the old Audi issue (which happened nearly 30 years ago) would be used to bolster the Toyota corporate line of driver error. This is like all of those people who point out that they stopped buying an American-branded car back in the '70's because some a door handle fell off.
Gimme a break! Why not deal with the reality of the here and now? Or can you? Or is it that because Toyota is headquartered anywhere other than the United States you feel they should get some kind of special dispensation therefore you won't ?

[pipoman]

23. Geeezuzz

Are you a telepath or just a psychopath?..To have made all of these ass-umptions about what I think or don't think based on this oneliner certainly indicates some kind of pathy..

[Omaha Steve]

5. Got me on that one

I meant the current large rash of attention getting recalls.

[Oldtimeralso]

6. K & R and proud to help union solidarity n/t

[scentopine]

7. Wow - Toyota is turning into a PR disaster, too bad...

my 94 toyota is still going strong - if I clean her up, it still looks sharp. It is a study in mechanical simplicity and razor sharp attention to detail. One went 280,000 miles, two others are ready to push past 200,000.

I don't need a bunch of electronic crap in my car - that was done to compete with the glitz and schmaltz GM puts in their cheesy vehicles. The american market falls head over heels for bullshit gadgets that fail within 12 months. Americans literally think the car with the most cup holders wins. They needs to stop designing biggie sized electronic auto-chilling cup holders for sugar engorged Americans and focus on engineering and quality.

[LeftyMom]

8. I wouldn't buy a car made in that plant.

Because I know people who used to deal drugs in the parking lot.

[Codeine]

9. Meh. I'm certain someone is slinging dope in the

parking lots of most large industrial automotive concerns, whether they are UAW plants in Detroit or California or the union-busting factories in the Southern states.

My NUMMI-made, UAW-built '93 Corolla has a nudge over 250,000 miles on the original engine and it's still running. Doesn't even burn oil yet, though it does leak transmission fluid like a sieve. That said, if they close NUMMI Toyota is dead to me for all time.

[LiberalFighter]

13. As well as corporate headquarters of major businesses and wall street.

Or police stations.

[Codeine]

18. LOL!

And I can say from experience grocery stores as well.

[hogwyld]

10. It's not economically feasible

To keep an auto plant in overpriced California. What with the taxes, and required wages to live in the Bay Area what they are. I escaped 5 years ago because of the expense and hassle of living there.

[pipoman]

16. I thought the same thing..

it's not like Cali is real industry friendly, they have already ran off much (if not most) of their industry and have started trying to run off Silicon Valley.

[The Croquist]

19. Cali might be "industry friendly"

just not as "industry friendly" as other states.

[pipoman]

25. No, they really aren't industry friendly..

and haven't been for 30 years.

[hogwyld]

20. They have eliminated most

of the semiconductor (computer chip) manufacturing jobs, and more and more companies are starting to move their R&D out as well. Why pay an engineer $100k plus, when you can get the same job done by someone in say Arizona or Oregon for 60-80k? You multiply that by 1000 engineers, and you're starting to talk real money. I'm sure some of the more specialized research will continue to stay there due to the talent pool, but mass production in Cali is a thing of the past.