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Toyota to have first plant closing in CA

Discussion in 'Prius, Hybrid, EV and Alt-Fuel News' started by efusco, Aug 28, 2009.

  1. efusco

    efusco Moderator Emeritus
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    Looks like the 4700 Employees at the NUMMI plant are going to be hunting for new jobs in the wake of Toyota's first ever plant closing.
    Toyota closing Fremont Nummi plant
    [​IMG]

    (08-27) 13:01 PDT FREMONT -- Toyota's decision to stop making cars in Fremont in March will idle 4,700 workers at the New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. factory and send a shudder of job losses through more than a thousand California companies that supply parts to the only automotive plant on the West Coast.
    The fate of the factory has been in question since June, when General Motors withdrew from the partnership with Toyota that created Nummi in 1984. Toyota on Thursday confirmed rumors that had been swirling for weeks that it will close the plant, regardless of financial incentives offered by the state.
    "Today is a sad day in the history of Fremont as California joins the ranks of states adversely affected by the bankruptcy of General Motors and the worldwide collapse in demand for automobiles," said Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, adding that the state will now focus on retraining workers and finding alternative uses for the roughly 5 million-square-foot plant.
    Nummi worker Ken Villegas said employees learned of the shutdown at a giant plant meeting.
    "I don't think anybody was very surprised," he said. "The news has all been bad for months, and we were getting plenty of signals this was coming."
    The East Bay Economic Development Alliance estimated the plant pays an average production wage of $65,000 and has a direct payroll of roughly $512 million a year. It also estimated that Nummi supports an additional 18,800 jobs at more than 1,100 supply firms throughout the state with an indirect payroll of $904 million.
    50,000 jobs may be hit

    Other sources have estimated the Nummi effect as even higher, from 30,000 to as many as 50,000 jobs.
    Richard Basurto, a 61-year-old delivery worker at Nummi whose wife is also employed at the factory, said it's not just income that is imperiled, but health benefits.
    "This is going to impact a lot of families," said Basurto, who considers himself comparatively lucky because he is close to retirement and has a pension. "There's a lot of younger families I really feel for."
    Word of the closure rippled through the network of Nummi suppliers.
    At Vuteq California Corp. in Hayward, which provides Nummi and another Toyota plant in Mexico with automotive glass and plastic parts, manager Mike "Doc" Skinner was considering how the shutdown would affect his operation and its roughly 70 workers. [snip]
     
    #1 efusco, Aug 28, 2009
  2. dogfriend

    dogfriend Human - Animal Hybrid

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    Ya know, its a bad thing, but if you look at it in total context:

    This plant was originally built by GM and produced El Caminos back in the 70's (one of my former coworkers worked there and had lots of amusing stories about lack of quality control) The plant was shut down by GM.

    GM and Toyota reached an agreement to operate the plant as a joint venture. The car designs and manufacturing techniques were provided by Toyota. Some of the nameplates were GM. They built Corollas and Corolla clones and small pickups. They employed a lot of people and the plant won awards for quality manufacturing.

    GM goes bankrupt and decides they can no longer be a partner. Toyota already has overproduction for most models, so its not really viable for them to operate as the sole owner.

    So, you can see it as bad that Toyota has decided to close the plant, or you can see it as good that Toyota revived the plant in the early eighties and helped to provide jobs for a couple of decades, producing relatively efficient small cars that GM was not capable or willing to do on their own.

    [ame=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NUMMI]NUMMI - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia[/ame]
     
    #2 dogfriend, Aug 28, 2009
  3. bwilson4web

    bwilson4web BMW i3 and Model 3

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    I was also thinking of the Mississippi Prius plant that never opened. Everything built but basicly in mothballs. Yet it sounds like this plant would be a natural to make a North American Prius ... sad.

    Bob Wilson
     
    #3 bwilson4web, Aug 28, 2009
  4. dogfriend

    dogfriend Human - Animal Hybrid

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    Yes, it is sad. The major issue may be the labor rate in Fremont vs. the labor rate in other locations. The NUMMI plant is UAW; I would guess that the other possible locations are not.

    Back a few years ago, I used to work for a Class 8 truck manufacturer that starts with the letter "P". We had 3 factories at that time, one in Texas, one in Tennessee, and the original plant in Newark, CA (a few miles away from NUMMI). When the company decided to shut down one of the factories due to overproduction, the Newark plant was done in by two factors: higher labor rate and allowable daily paint emissions. The UAW workers voted to take a pay and benefit cut to try to save the plant, but it was for nought; the Newark plant was limited to about 20 trucks / day by the VOC (paint) emissions and the Denton Texas plant had no similar restrictions.

    I have worked for two manufacturing companies in my career; the aforementioned "P" company that eventually moved the manufacturing and headquarters out of the state, and I also worked for an electronics manufacturer who was bought out by a larger company and watched our products shifted to other manufacturing sites in cheap labor countries until we had no product left to build.

    I am now retraining and looking for a job that is not in manufacturing. The major problem is that everyone else is too.
     
    #4 dogfriend, Aug 28, 2009
  5. bluetwo

    bluetwo Relevance is irrelevant

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    That's terrible news man. I wonder if we'll ever see large numbers of people moving out of California....

    Good luck to all those people.
     
    #5 bluetwo, Aug 30, 2009
  6. hill

    hill High Fiber Member

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    I feal bad when ANY auto plant closes, when it comes to lost jobs ... whether GM, AMC, Olds, Toyota, etc. I'm hoping it's due to re-allocation of funds to go electric, as Toyota seems to be on the cusp when it comes to dealing with sustainability issues. (hope hope)

    .
     
    #6 hill, Aug 31, 2009
  7. stefcat

    stefcat New Member

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    I feel bad for the worker and other company like one that feed, gas and they shop at.when you close them down everyone in the town is hurt...
     
    #7 stefcat, Aug 31, 2009
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