Toyota Workers Build Houses Instead of Trucks
As most people know, Toyota has slowed down North American production as a result of the massive earthquake and tsunami that hit Japan in March. While most of the parts needed to build Toyota trucks are readily available, there are a handful of assemblies and parts that are produced in Japan that are interfering with Toyota Tacoma and Toyota Tundra production.
As a result of slowed production schedules, Toyota has invited workers at Toyota’s San Antonio truck plant (also known as TMMTX), to help build Habitat for Humanity Homes during the plant’s down time.
The cool part? The workers will be paid to build houses the same as if they were building trucks:
Toyota’s Industry-Leading Commitment To Workers
While Ford, GM, and Chrysler-Fiat work hard to overcome their reputation for laying off workers (these companies laid off 500k+ American and Canadian auto workers over the last decade or so), Toyota’s decision to pay their workers during the San Antonio plant slow down is yet another example of Toyota’s commitment to its’ workers.
While Toyota isn’t perfect – they have laid off temporary workers over the years – Toyota has yet to lay-off a permanent American or Canadian auto worker since they started building cars in North America**.
**Excluding NUMMI, which is a special case (explained below).
Toyota has long held to the ideal that workers are their greatest asset. When a Toyota plant has to slow down or temporarily shut down, Toyota always finds a way to keep paying their workers either by training them in new skills or paying them to volunteer to help the local community.
This is in keeping with Toyota’s stated goal of offering it’s workers lifetime employment…a concept that seems very much like an anachronism in today’s world, yet is much appreciated by Toyota workers.
The NUMMI Fiasco
I noted above that Toyota hasn’t laid off any workers in North America, except in the case of NUMMI (New United Motor Manufacturing), an auto plant jointly operated by General Motors and Toyota between 1983 and 2010.
As a joint venture between Toyota and GM, NUMMI might be most famous for producing the Toyota Corolla/Geo Prism/Chevy Prism for most of the 1990’s. When GM filed bankruptcy in 2009, they suspended the NUMMI joint venture with Toyota. Toyota, reluctant to take ownership of the entire plant, decided to let the joint operation dissolve. While many NUMMI employees blamed Toyota for letting go of the joint venture, most recognized that GM held the lion’s share of the blame for closing the plant. Had GM been willing to continue operating NUMMI, there’s little doubt Toyota would have continued as well.