Toyota Motor Corp., which exports millions of vehicles to the United States, is considering closing the last remaining West Coast auto assembly plant in Fremont, Calif., the very state where it sells a huge percentage of its vehicles.
Meanwhile Toyota is ramping up production in Japan, upgrading 900 temporary workers to permanent status while its workers in the United States face plant closures and wage and benefit cuts -- not only in California, but in non-union plants in Kentucky, West Virginia, Canada and elsewhere.
It’s high time that our elected representatives start dealing with unfair trade issues. Our goal is simple: If you sell vehicles locally, they should be built locally by workers making decent wages and benefits.
Will you sign our petition to President Obama and Congress asking them to investigate and support ways to keep the NUMMI plant open?
Dear President Obama and Members of Congress:
For 25 years, workers at the New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. (NUMMI) plant in Fremont, Calif., have produced quality vehicles. From the start, the NUMMI plant has been praised as one of the nation's most advanced car factories in the world with innovative collective bargaining agreements.
Toyota is getting set to make more vehicles in Japan and is even upgrading 900 workers from temporary to permanent status. Now it's considering closing the NUMMI plant while cutting wages and benefits to its North American workers.
The closure of this manufacturing plant -- the last assembly facility remaining on the U.S. West Coast -- would be a crippling blow to California and beyond. At stake are the jobs of 4,500 UAW Local 2244 members, as well as another 1,000 management and direct contract workers, and tens of thousands of supplier and support workers.
California is by far Toyota's single biggest market for vehicle sales in the United States. I don't want to see more good jobs leave our shores or be leveraged into poverty. Please investigate ways to convince Toyota to keep this vitally important plant open in California.
Thank you for your consideration,
Signed by:
[Your name]
[Your address]
