HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Y-Tec Keylex Toyotetsu (YKTA) Alabama started production on September 16, and the company will bring 650 new jobs to the Tennessee Valley.
The concern is, YKTA is short hundreds of workers as they begin production on parts for the new 2022 Toyota Corolla Cross.
The starting wage for someone with little to no experience is $17 to $19.50 per hour. Skilled maintenance positions are paying $24 to $32 per hour based on experience.
"We're using a few different ways of trying to recruit people, first of all, working with AIDT here locally in town, and we are also doing some advertising on our own," Vice president of manufacturing, Richard Morris said.
AIDT is an agency in Alabama that pairs workers and employers. YKTA hopes that by 2022 they will be fully staffed. The plant has also partnered with local schools like Wallace State and Calhoun Community college to give students on-the-job training.
"With Wallace and Calhoun, we're actually a part of the FAME program where we have a few of those students that come here, work a couple days a week, and then they go to school for the other part of the week," Morris explained. "So they get actual practical experience working on equipment, and then take that back to school and learn more details."
Even though YKTA isn't fully staffed, the hundreds of employees that they have on the clock have noticed an increase in traffic in the area. YKTA ensures that there is a plan to fix that.
"There is a plan in place for that," Morris said. "And that is being worked on right now. There's great partnership with the local authorities who are actually helping us manage that until we get a lot of the signal lights and things of that nature in place."
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