First Mazda CX-50 off line at Toyota JV in Alabama

Ken Zino of AutoInformed.com on First Mazda CX-50 off line at Toyota JV in Alabama

What’s missing in this picture? Hint, look for a union label.

Mazda North American Operations (MNAO) produced the first 2023 Mazda CX-50 at Mazda’s new Huntsville, Alabama plant. Mazda Toyota Manufacturing (MTM) is a $2.3 billion joint venture between Mazda Motor and Toyota. The CX-50 is made for the North American market. (AutoInformed – Mazda, Toyota Building 2022 Corolla Cross in Alabama)

MTM began operation in September 2021 and can produce 300,000 vehicles annually – 150,000 units each for both Toyota and Mazda. The plant will employ up to 4,000 workers. Several thousand workers are expected to be employed by suppliers in non-union shops. Alabama, aside from its history of racism and white supremacy, is a right to work*” (for less?) state, which means workers don’t have to be unionized.**

Toyota and likely Mazda are vehemently lobbying against the Biden Administration’s ambitious Build Back Better plan that has a provision for made in American by union workers to be eligible for substantial taxpayer-subsidized EV subsidies. This is part of a vast forward-thinking strategic plan to create middle-class jobs and benefits from the Administration that was put in place by a majority of voters to rid our democracy of the treasonous former Administration.

It is still being led by King Trump from his Castle in Mar-a-Lago (Mar-a-Lardo?). It has become clear that the disgraced Trump Administration planned, promoted and ran the January 6th insurrection attempt to take over the US Capital and stop the counting of votes from the Electoral College as part of a much larger conspiracy to overturn the Presidential election via the Big Lie that is the ongoing (rotten) core of the Republican party of Nope comprised of Fifth Amendment takers, forgers, racketeers, rascists and enemies of democracy.

The first-ever CX-50 will be equipped as standard with the latest (marketing babble alert> i-Activ All-Wheel Drive (AWD) technology and a new Mazda Intelligent Drive Select, or Mi-Drive. The new drive modes can be selected with the Mi-Drive switch and it’s claimed, “to help the crossover SUV drive naturally in a wide variety of conditions, such as in exciting off-road terrain or providing reliable towing capabilities.”

At launch, CX-50 will be available with Mazda’s Skyactiv-G 2.5 naturally aspirated engine or Skyactiv-G 2.5 Turbo engine both paired with a six-speed automatic transmission. In the coming years, the CX-50 will also be offered with electrified powertrains, including a traditional hybrid model. More information will be shared at a later date.

*Alabama Right to Work: “Every organization, association, group, union, lodge, local, branch or subdivision thereof, whether incorporated or not, having within its membership employees working in the State of Alabama, organized for the purpose of dealing with employer or employers concerning hours of employment, rates of pay or the tenure or other terms or conditions of employment, but such term or terms shall not include any labor organization or labor union the members of which are subject to the Act of Congress known as the Railway Labor Act. (Enacted 1953 and excerpted here.)

 ** On 10 June 1963, President John F. Kennedy federalized National Guard troops and deployed them to the University of Alabama to force its desegregation. The next day, Governor Wallace yielded to the federal pressure, and two African American students—Vivian Malone and James A. Hood—successfully enrolled. In September of the same year, Wallace again attempted to block the desegregation of an Alabama public school – this time Tuskegee High School – but President Kennedy once again employed his executive authority and federalized National Guard troops. Wallace had little choice but to yield. Courtesy of History.com. More under Segregation in the United States.

AutoInformed.com on

 

This entry was posted in manufacturing, new vehicle, news analysis and tagged , , , , , , . Bookmark the permalink.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *