Toyota brings back laid-off workers

[rickaren]

Toyota brings back laid-off workers

Posted on Tuesday, November 10th, 2009 at 2:34 PM EST. (Employee News)

The Georgetown, Ky., Toyota plant is running at “full capacity,” working overtime on Saturdays through the rest of the year, and temporary workers laid off last year have been brought back, said Steve St. Angelo, plant president and vice president of the automaker’s North American operations, the Louisville Courier Journal reported.

Declining auto sales last year led Toyota to lay off 275 temporary workers in Georgetown. In addition, some permanent Georgetown workers with 20-plus years on the job accepted buyout offers, company spokesman Rick Hesterberg told the paper. Those actions left about 6,600 workers making the Camry, Camry Hybrid, Venza crossover SUV and the Avalon, St. Angelo said, the Courier Journal reported.

Toyota recently returned those laid-off workers to the assembly line and hired more for a total plant work force of 7,300, about the same as before last year’s cutbacks, the paper said. Roughly 1,000 of them are temporary workers, the story said. (Louisville Courier Journal)