Toyota Pays $6 Million To Close Book On NUMMI. The Shafting Continues (Video NSFW)
Toyota closed the last chapters of the book on NUMMI, wrote a check for $6 million, and put the book to where it will collect the dust of history. According to Reuters, Toyota reached a $6 million settlement with former NUMMI workers.
The suit was brought by workers on medical leave when NUMMI was shut down in March 2010. It’s not that they had gone empty-handed. After GM had pulled out of NUMMI in June 2009 and left Toyota holding the bag, Toyota announced plans to pull out by March 2010. Toyota had negotiated a $281 million settlement-agreement with the UAW-represented workers, while GM was whistling Dixie.
At the time it was clear that some union brothers were more equal than others.
Contract or not, the slighted workers brought suit. They sued Toyota, not the union that negotiated the deal on their behalf, a deal they had signed. The suit ground its way through the wheels of justice, and is now settled.
About 500 workers are expected to file and receive awards from the settlement, says Reuters. There must have been an epidemic in Freemont at the time. The plant was said to have employed a total of 5,400 employees, including 4,550 UAW hourly workers. Any way you slice it, that’s an absentee rate of around 10 percent.
The shafting continues. The biggest chunk of the settlement, $700,000 goes to lawyers. The remaining $5.3 million will be distributed – according to a new formula. If all 500 will apply, the average payout will be around $10,500. But in a time-honored tradition, some will get more, some less.
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
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Meantime Americans will lap up union built cars coming out of Germany, Japan and Korea.
I'm no fan the domestics or the UAW. I generally buy Honda and Nissan, usually with a 3rd pedal. That said, boycotts do not work, the bailout is done, the money spent. Maximize YOUR personal well being when in the market for a vehicle. If I were in the market for a casual use pickup, I'd probably get the best one for the buck, a Silverado. The extra margin that GM gets from this sale means almost nothing. The benefit to me, with the money I save over a Tundra, is significant: I can support politicians and organizations that will have the guts to put a bullet in GM's brain if it crawls back to the taxpayers a second time. I can support governors like Scott Walker willing to do the hard thing toward unions.