NUMMI Workers OK Severance Deal

Edward Niedermeyer
by Edward Niedermeyer

Workers at the former Toyota-GM joint venture NUMMI have approved a severance offer from Toyota. Union officials won’t reveal the exact amount involved, and while the Detroit Free Press reports that workers will make a “minimum” of $21,175, the San Jose Mercury says the deal “gives an average severance package of $54,000.” Could it be that some union brothers are more equal than others? What the Freep leaves out is that $21,175 minimum applies to 300 of NUMMI’s 4,700 workers who are already on disability leave. Workers with over 25 years of experience will receive $68,500.

But the minimum payout is drawing fire from local union members, and several workers have said they will file grievances with the UAW. Toyota’s $281m severance pool was made available in the form of a “retention bonus,” and injured workers were not able to meet the attendance requirements for eligibility. “As soon as NUMMI found a loophole to screw people, that’s just what they did,” one worker told the Mercury. But that still didn’t stop 90 percent of the local from voting for the lesser of two screwings.

In any case, union officials refused comment on the situation, prompting anger from workers and a statement by NUMMI spokesfolks confirming that:

The UAW committed of its own accord not to further denigrate NUMMI or Toyota as a term of the shutdown agreement. In fact, the union negotiated and proposed specific language for that provision of the agreement

Now why would that be?

Edward Niedermeyer
Edward Niedermeyer

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  • Mikey Mikey on Mar 19, 2010

    Toyota doesn't give a rats ass about the USA or the workers at NUMMI. This severance package is a POS,but its the best that could be had from the likes of Toyota. As crappy as it is,the package is far sweeter than Toyota would ever cough up to one of the non union plants. The workers in those plants are very aware of this fact. I have said this before,and I will say it again. The Toyota transplants are ripe for UAW plucking. As soon as one goes the rest will fall like Dominoes. Hyundai and Kia will go next. Honda will be the only holdout, thier better managed have a better product. Above all they treat thier employees with respect and dignity.

    • See 4 previous
    • Crash sled Crash sled on Mar 20, 2010
      "And the last I checked, Ford didn’t take one dime from uncle Sam, and the UAW is building their products that is on par for quality and design with the Japanese..." . And last time I checked, David, Ford had their hand stuck out begging for loan guarantees, same as the rest of the Government Motors beggars. Toyota didn't do that, and by the way, your claims of parity in quality and design don't seem to be confirmed by the customers, nor by the Detroit 3 themselves, as I've seen in their in-house presentations.
  • Mikey Mikey on Mar 19, 2010

    @ WSN.. So Toyota doesn't consider tax breaks,when they decide where to locate thier new plants? Who picks the bill up for that eh?

  • Omoikane Omoikane on Mar 19, 2010

    Nothing new here. The UAW shills have no shame. GM contributed zero dollars to the severance deal despite the fact this was a plant they have owned for 48 years! The profit was shared 50-50 with Toyota starting 1984. And most of the time, the plant actually lost money. Before the ongoing smear campaign against Toyota, encouraging messages were coming out of Japan about having the Mississippi plant running full production (200k Corollas) starting sometime in 2011. There was even talk about the possibility of shutting down NUMMI for a year or two and re-tooling for Prius while the patent lawsuit would be sorted out. As a result of the sudden acceleration witch hunt, the Mississippi plant was put on hold again. And after Waxman's and UAW's circus, you can now be sure there is never going to be a Toyota plant in California. As for the eventuality of UAW getting into a Toyota plant - Toyota will close that plant the very next day, come hell or high water.

    • See 1 previous
    • Crash sled Crash sled on Mar 20, 2010
      "You’re kidding me? Right. Toyota has global capacity to build close to 10.8 million cars a year. Shut down NUMMI that capacity goes down to 10.4 million. They are hoping to build 7.5 million, give or take this year. That is positively Detroit grade over-capacity." . "Detroit grade over capacity", David? Quite the bit of hyperbole, no? 75% utilization, in the midst of carmageddon, isn't even CLOSE to the Detroit 3's levels of incompetence, in terms of capacity. They were lucky if they were at 75% during BOOM times. You're right though, the industry's main problem is overcapacity, both worldwide and in NA. Good thing we bailed out the Detroit 3. That should fix the problem, eh?
  • Geo. Levecque Geo. Levecque on Mar 20, 2010

    If only the CAW and UAW where more democratic in there dealings with People and Owners of Firms, they might face a different outcome, but they are still mired in the old ways and if that continues, they will be on a downward slope in the History of the Union movement in North America.

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