Importers Protest King’s Call for a Toyota Blockade

The recently appointed UAW president Bob King has already put on his fighting gear, several days after being confirmed in the new position and called late last week for a UAW attempt to picket Toyota’s dealerships in the US, in response to Toyota’s closing of the New United Motor Manufacturing (NUMMI) plant.

According to King, Toyota closed NUMMI because the workers there are UAW and will open the facility in Mississippi, TMMMS, where the workers to be employed are not UAW members. In response to King’s actions, Cody Lusk, president of the American International Automobile Dealers Association, released a statement condemning King for what he call an attack on small businesses.

“A picket line will only hurt the dealership, its employees and the community it serves,” Lusk said in the statement, cited by Autonews. “An assault on America's auto retail industry will only serve to highlight the disconnect between the UAW and reality.”

King, however, isn’t backing down. Although his actions come a bit late, given the already sealed fate of NUMMI, King is not willing to let it go and will fight to get all Toyota workers under the UAW umbrella.

“We're going to pound on Toyota until they recognize the First Amendment rights of their workers to come into the UAW,” King said last week.

“Our No. 1 fight with Toyota is to give those workers the choice,” King said. “Not for Toyota to make the choice … to fire workers and to threaten to close plants.”