Toyota's tenth U.S. plant opens next fall.
Governor Haley Barbour of Mississippi and officials from Toyota Motor Manufacturing Mississippi, Inc. (TMMMS) announced today that the company is resuming hiring at its Blue Springs plant where the next generation Corolla compact car will be built.
Toyota is now finished with the construction of the plant that was put on hold in late in 2008 when the reckless practices of Wall Street caused the collapse of the global economy.
Instead of building Prius hybrid models as previously announced, the $1.3 billion facility will make Corolla models instead, starting late next year. Initially the plant was going to produce Toyota Highlander sport utility vehicles when the project got underway in 2007. The collapse of the truck market and failure of the Tundra full-size pickup truck have forced the Japanese maker to rebalance its production in the U.S. while protecting Japanese jobs in Japan.
The decision to hire as many as 2,000 workers in anti-union Mississippi is the latest setback for the beleaguered United Auto Workers union since Corollas were previously built in a unionized plant – NUMMI – in Fremont, California that Toyota shut in March. Corollas for North America have been built in Japan since April.
The decision to close NUMMI was controversial, to put it mildly, since California is Toyota’s largest market by far, and the home of Toyota’s U.S. headquarters.
“I am so pleased that Toyota is moving forward with its hiring process and is creating so many high-quality jobs for the residents of Mississippi,” said Governor Haley Barbour.
TMMMS is coordinating all hiring for its hourly production and skilled maintenance positions through the Mississippi Department of Employment Security (MDES) and the Workforce Investment Network (WIN) Job Centers. Mississippi taxpayers have subsidized the plant with $300 million in grants.
One of the top priorities for the UAW is organizing the growing Toyota manufacturing network in the U.S., according to Bob King the president of the fading union
King previously said that he’s already lined up the support of Teamster President James Hoffa in the bid to organize Toyota. (Click Here for Hoffa Joins UAW’s King at Good Jobs Now Rally)
Toyota will continue to import its popular Prius hybrid models from Japan.
The NUMMI plant will reopen, but under a new owner while being drastically downsized. With the help of a $50 million investment from Toyota, the California electric vehicle maker Tesla Motors plans to buy the factory and use it to produce the Model S battery sedan.