Published on Thursday, February 04, 2010
By Daily Breeze Staff Writer
At the behest of South Bay Assemblyman Ted Lieu, California lawmakers took the unusual public step Thursday of drafting a rule intended to publicly punish Toyota, one of Torrance's largest employers.
The Assembly Rules Committee that Lieu chairs banned that lower house from purchasing vehicles for its fleet if less than 50 percent of a given model is manufactured and assembled in the United States.
That's a return to a "buy American" policy the Legislature had in place before 2003. It was modified to allow the purchase of hybrid vehicles produced by foreign carmakers.
The goal behind the action was partly punitive, partly symbolic, but was designed to wholly embarrass Toyota to rethink polices Lieu said is harming the state.
That includes the company's decision to stop buying Toyota Corolla sedans and Toyota Tacoma pickup trucks from an independently owned company called NUMMI that produces them in the San Francisco Bay Area. That will idle 4,700 workers next month
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