Toyota moves production to a non-union plant even though California is its largest U.S. market.

About 4500 members of UAW Local 2244 voted today to accept a $281-million severance pay package offered by Toyota, which is closing New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. on April 1. Ratification was approved by 90%.

It is the only auto assembly plant in Toyota’s largest market in the United States.  (Click Here for Toyota Sweetens NUMMI Closure Severance)

The joint venture between Toyota and General Motors was making  the Toyota Corolla sedan and Tacoma compact pickup truck. Production of the Pontiac Vibe ceased there last August.

NUMMI repeatedly won J.D. Power  awards for quality.

Production is being moved to a non-union plant in Texas. Tens of thousands of jobs at the plant and its suppliers will be eliminated. The severance package only applies to union members.

Part of the Toyota offer stipulated a gag order.

“I believe (it) violates our First Amendment rights under the U.S. Constitution, and our rights to Freedom of Association under the Labor Rights Conventions of the United Nations’ International Labor Organization (ILO),” says local 2244 President Sergio Santos.  

“Nonetheless, under conditions set by Toyota, after the agreement is ratified, I will no longer be able to comment on the plant closing or its impact on our members,” he says.

“Toyota has betrayed us and now they have gagged us. We will be silent in the future, but we deserve better. We are accepting the terms of Toyota’s settlement out of necessity, as a means of securing some limited funds for our families,” Santos concluded.

A California state commission report said that Toyota had options other than closing the plant located in Fremont. Toyota claimed it was the work lost when GM filed for bankruptcy and stopped production of the Pontiac Vibe there, production that amounted to only 15% the plant’s total output during the last decade.

Options included Toyota producing a  higher percentage of the Corollas that it sells in California at the plant instead of making them in offshore. Another plan once promised by Toyota was to make Prius models there. And Toyota could produce the future Corolla hybrid.

“Instead, for the first time in its history, Toyota is forsaking a workforce that consistently produced high quality vehicles for them,” says Santos.

NUMMI was a pioneering joint venture between General Motors Corporation and Toyota Motor Corporation.  Established in Fremont, California, in 1984, NUMMI helped change the automobile industry by introducing the Toyota Production System and a teamwork-based working environment to the United States.

NUMMI and UAW Local 2244 signed their first collective bargaining agreement in June 1985. The contract emphasized the philosophy of mutual trust and respect, it also contained a number of concepts not found in most labor agreements, including:

• Non-confrontational problem-resolution procedures based on discussion and consensus.
• Advance consultation with the union on relevant business issues.
• Minimum job classifications that provide work flexibility.
• “No strike” provision over production or safety standards.

The UAW and NUMMI reached a tentative severance agreement March 15.

“We are grateful to the members for the solidarity they’ve shown throughout this process,” said UAW Region 5 Director Jim Wells. “We also want to thank our brothers and sisters in the labor movement, community leaders and consumers across the country for the support they’ve given the NUMMI workers.”