New Production Restart Dates for Toyota, Hyundai

Steph Willems
by Steph Willems

Toyota and Hyundai are now aiming to bring assembly plants back online later than initially planned. News of the shutdown extension comes as other automakers, notably Fiat Chrysler, Honda, and Nissan, announced a targeted return to work in the first week of May.

Toyota first said April 6th would be the return date, pushing that back to April 17th in late March after the scope and duration of the coronavirus pandemic sweeping the U.S. became clear. April 20th was then floated.

Now, Toyota says another two weeks will go by before workers return to the automaker’s four U.S. assembly plants and various powertrain facilities, and the same goes for Canadian and Mexican manufacturing sites. May 4th suddenly seems like a popular choice in the industry.

The company says that workers will be asked to forgo two days of pay during the extension, or give up two paid days of leave. Roughly 5,000 Toyota workers are employed by outside agencies; these workers will not receive pay until work restarts, though health benefits will continue to flow.

“We will continue to monitor the situation and take appropriate action in a timely manner,” the automaker said in a statement.

Meanwhile, the tentative April 13th restart date floated by Hyundai Motor Manufacturing Alabama has fallen by the wayside. The automaker now says workers will return to its Montgomery plant on May 4th, though the automaker hasn’t set the date in stone. During the extension, workers are asked to draw from paid vacation time or leave, with health benefits maintained. Those unable to tap into such reserves will have to apply for employment insurance benefits.

When production does return, Hyundai says measures will be in place to ensure worker safety, including “pre-screening for elevated temperatures, ensuring physical distancing guidelines throughout the facility, expanding cleaning protocols and increasing distribution of health and safety materials.”

[Image: Toyota]

Steph Willems
Steph Willems

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  • SCE to AUX SCE to AUX on Apr 09, 2020

    "... increasing distribution of health and safety materials" Just thought of this... if health care workers can't get masks, etc to do their job, how will tens of thousands of returning workers in other industries get them when they return to work?

  • MoDo MoDo on Apr 09, 2020

    They'll only be down as long as current inventories last

  • ArialATOMV8 All I hope is that the 4Runner stays rugged and reliable.
  • Arthur Dailey Good. Whatever upsets the Chinese government is fine with me. And yes they are probably monitoring this thread/site.
  • Jalop1991 WTO--the BBB of the international trade world.
  • Dukeisduke If this is really a supplier issue (Dana-Spicer? American Axle?), Kia should step up and say they're going to repair the vehicles (the electronic parking brake change is a temporary fix) and lean on or sue the supplier to force them to reimburse Kia Motors for the cost of the recall.Neglecting the shaft repairs are just going to make for some expensive repairs for the owners down the road.
  • MaintenanceCosts But we were all told that Joe Biden does whatever China commands him to!
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