NUMMI auto workers demand: ‘Save our jobs!’

“There ain’t no power like NUMMI power, cuz NUMMI power won’t stop!” could be heard for blocks in downtown San Francisco when several hundred autoworkers from the Fremont New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. (NUMMI) plant picketed the offices of Senator Dianne Feinstein on Aug. 29. The workers have been protesting recent actions by General Motors and Toyota that will lead to the closure of the NUMMI plant by March 2010.

Sergio U. Santos of UAW Local 2244 chairs Aug. 29 rally. WW photo: Judy Greenspan

NUMMI was a joint venture between GM and Toyota. GM closed the plant in 1982, then opened it up two years later with the Japanese automaker’s assistance. The current job crisis for the 4,700 members of United Auto Workers Local 2244, Region 5, began last June when GM, currently in bankruptcy proceedings, withdrew from its partnership with Toyota.

On Aug. 28 Toyota officially announced that it will end all production of cars at the NUMMI plant in March 2010. Toyota cited the GM bankruptcy and withdrawal as the reason for its decision to move production elsewhere.

The community and autoworkers who will be directly affected are fighting against NUMMI’s closing. The Aug. 29 demonstration was the second organized by Local 2244, and it attracted the attention of several legislators who attended. Statements were read from Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Lee expressing their concern for the more than 50,000 jobs that will be lost in the South Bay due to the pending NUMMI closure.

One of the first speakers, Alberto Torrico, majority leader of the California State Assembly, slammed the plant closing, calling for a government bailout of the NUMMI workers. “It’s time to bail out the people, not the bankers and Wall Street executives,” said Torrico.

Many UAW locals were represented at the protest. Tim Carlson, a spokesperson from the San Francisco Labor Council said, “On behalf of our more than 150 unions, we want to express our outrage over the planned closing of NUMMI.”

Several speakers, including Ron Lopez, trustee of Local 2244, said they were determined to continue the fight to save NUMMI. Sergio U. Santos, president of the local, chaired the rally.

Demonstrators kept a loud and energetic picket going outside Senator Feinstein’s office for over two hours. A statement by the Bail Out the People Movement was distributed expressing solidarity with the NUMMI workers and inviting them to attend the Sept. 20 National March for Jobs in Pittsburgh on the weekend before the Group of 20 meet there.