Toyota Shelling Out $250M to Unemployed Workers
Amidst a recall issue that's hammering their corporate reputation, Toyota Motor Corp., the world’s largest car-maker is going to shell out $250 million for workers who will lose their jobs when a former joint-venture auto- assembly plant in California closes next month.
In a statement issued today, Toyota said will pay salaried and hourly workers who keep building vehicles through April 1, when Toyota’s production contract with the New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. venture ends.
Back in August, Toyota said it would operate the plant, which is the workplace for 4,700 employees. The plant is located in Fremont, California and is better known as Nummi. The former General Motors Corp. pulled out of the same plant after 25 years. Motors Liquidation Co., which took over assets shed as the new General Motors Co. got through bankruptcy in July, hasn’t committed to financial aid to the factory’s workers.
“The support we are providing to Nummi underscores our commitment to do our part,” Jim Wiseman, a group vice president for Toyota’s North American unit, told Businessweek. “It is unfortunate that neither GM — Nummi’s other 50 percent shareholder and customer for 25 years — nor Motors Liquidation Company, its current shareholder, has indicated that it will do the same.”
Nummi, opened in 1984 and was California’s last large auto-assembly plant that was an experiment for GM to study Toyota’s manufacturing system. The factory had been solely owned and operated by GM from the early 1960s until the Detroit-based automaker closed it in 1982.
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