Mazda Toyota looking to hire 2,400 for Alabama plant. Here’s how to apply

mazda toyota aerial may 2021

Production will begin soon at Mazda Toyota in Huntsville. The company announced June 2, 2021, it will build a Toyota Corolla Cross with a Mazda vehicle to be announced in the future. This photo was taken May 30, 2021. (Marty Sellers | sellersphoto.com)

Amid the excitement of unveiling one of the vehicles that will be built in Huntsville, Mazda Toyota Manufacturing is facing a harsh reality.

The giant automotive plant still needs thousands of workers.

Officials said that Mazda Toyota has hired about 1,600 people so far on its way toward meeting its obligation of 4,000 employees, which leaves 2,400 jobs yet to be filled. Production will begin soon on the Toyota Corolla Cross – the SUV announced Wednesday at the plant in Limestone County.

The company will be announcing the Mazda vehicle for production later this year.

“Trying to hire a workforce, particularly a large workforce, has its challenges even in the most normal of times,” said Alabama Secretary of Commerce Greg Canfield, who attended Wednesday’s announcement. “But right now, in the middle of a pandemic, even as we’re toward the end of the pandemic and getting a little more back to normal, it has been particularly challenging.”

Janette Hostettler, vice president for production at Mazda Toyota, touted not just a job but a career at the automotive plant. To fill out an online application, click here.

“It’s quite the challenge,” she said of finding enough workers. “But we’ve got such a competitive edge, I feel.”

Hostettler then invoked the word “mendomi” – a Japanese term that translates into taking care of its workers.

“It’s all about caring for our members,” she said. “It’s all about ‘mendomi’. It’s about teaching you to be the craftsman we want you to be. We take a lot of time to train every single one of our members. Not only do we teach how to roll a bolt, we teach you how to think through some efficiency thinking, some training to make it more safe and building great quality. We teach every aspect of it.”

No experience or expertise is needed to apply for a job at Mazda Toyota, Hostettler said. Pay range begins at $17 an hour and escalates to $23 an hour with benefits, a savings plan and paid time off.

“You don’t have to be able to roll a bolt or shoot a sealer gun,” she said. “But when they come here, definitely, it’s part of the ‘mendomi’ spirit. We want the team members to be craftsmen. We call them industrial athletes. But that training is so important to be able to build high quality vehicles safely as well.”

Before COVID-19, north Alabama was already facing a daunting task of developing a workforce for an array of economic development announcements that eventually need employee muscle to bridge the excitement of those announcements into a reality of production.

In November 2019 – four months before the early days of the pandemic shut down the nation’s economy – north Alabama leaders were told they needed a “moonshot effort” to attract the needed workforce to the region.

Mazda Toyota was a big part of that equation. And beyond the 4,000 jobs at the plant itself, thousands more were needed to fill jobs at automotive suppliers coming to the area – including on the Mazda Toyota campus.

Beyond the Mazda Toyota campus, Canfield said Alabama’s automotive industry is poised for more growth.

“Our first concentration to support this facility, the first step has been to make certain that we hire the on-site production and support chain that’s going to be needed from suppliers,” he said. “Once we get to that point, which we are now, we begin to concentrate on tier 2 and tier 3 suppliers – many of which already exist in our state.

“So this is going to create expansion opportunities for much of Alabama’s automotive supply chain as well as opportunities for new entrants. We’re not stopped. We’re not at a standstill. We have not stopped recruiting industries to the state to support the automotive supply chain and the (original equipment manufacturers) that are here. MTM is playing a large part in our ability to recruit new suppliers to the state. There’s still a lot left to be done in Alabama and a lot more to come in the automotive sector.”

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