General Motors Corp. said it will end its 25-year manufacturing joint venture with Toyota Motor Corp. in California, saying the two companies couldn't agree on what future product would be made at the facility. The joint venture, called New United Motor Manufacturing Inc., currently churns out the Pontiac Vibe, which GM will stop making within 60 days, and the Toyota Corolla. Toyota's new president, Akio Toyoda, served as a vice president at the plant early in his career. Toyota had been accounting for nearly three-quarters of the plant's output. "We have enjoyed a very positive and beneficial partnership with Toyota for the past 25 years, and we remain open to future opportunities of mutual interest," said GM North America President Troy Clarke. GM's ownership interest in the venture will become join assets in the portion of GM being sold as part of bankruptcy proceedings. GM-Toyota Joint Venture Ends - WSJ.com
There is a possibility that Toyota may work out a deal with GM to make a version of the Prius at that plant.
I personally suspect it will be closed. NUMMI is Toyota's only UAW plant. The Tacoma could easily go to their Plant in Texas that makes the Tundra. The Corolla could go to Mississippi in place of or in addition to the Prius.
Unclear. GM ends joint venture with Toyota at Calif. plant - Yahoo! Finance says It would be quite a blow to the Bay Area if the plant closed. When I took a tour a few years ago, the guide mentioned they'd never had a layoff at NUMMI. Prior to it being opened as NUMMI, it was an closed former GM plant. Unfortunately, their web site seems hosed right now with an error. Hmmm... Here's an excerpt.
Highly doubt it - if that did happen, they will be lots of anti-Japanese backlash from the UAW, just like in the 1970s-1980s. The UAW propaganda machine will be spinning.
dont think it will be closed either. the market there is huge. shipping cars less than 500 miles in either direction covers nearly the entire west coast. the location was not picked at random
More interesting info on NUMMI: GM's exit may force Toyota to shut California plant | Freep.com | Detroit Free Press http://www.tradingmarkets.com/.site/news/Stock News/2398580/
The main hurdle is the union in the plant. My guess would be that Toyota will negotiate with the UAW, and based on whether the UAW wants to do it Toyota's way or not will determine the closing of the plant. Basically, the UAW has no choice here. Either bow out gracefully, i.e. Toyota is 100% successful in the negotiations or get run out when the plant closes.
Toyota says it may shut down Fremont's NUMMI auto plant: (Posted: 07/10/2009 01:28:14 PM PDT Updated: 07/10/2009 10:35:53 PM PDT) http://www.mercurynews.com/topstories/ci_12810838?nclick_check=1
love those california politics!!! cant pay their employees but still willing to give big business money!! not to hard to figure out who pays who
Well, if any large business like an auto plant closes down, that means all the workers are laid off (4700 in this case). Besides it being a blow to the families and supporting local businesses and suppliers, it's also a blow to the tax revenues of the state and locality (sales tax, corporate tax, property tax, state income tax (we have that in CA, unlike WA), etc.). It also puts a burden on unemployment funds. Perhaps the tax breaks would be less expensive than the above hit?
economic management in bad times always has a loser. losing the plant is a major impact that guarantees a loss of long term income down the road and i agree that extraordinary steps should be made to preserve that "long term" income... but i sure as hell aint gonna starve my children to do it, so to be honest with ya, i simply dont understand the logic in what you are saying here... its too bad the plant is closing but it happens every day in nearly every state. so oh well. i think if you were a CA state employee who was getting IOU's instead of paychecks, you might be seeing much more my way
More news on this. Report: Toyota wants out of Fremont in August - Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal: The logic I'm using is that the loss of 4700 jobs + all the supporting jobs created (ranging from burger flippers to barbers to parts suppliers) could be MORE costly to the state and local government due to the drain on unemployment funds and loss of tax revenue than giving incentives so that those jobs aren't lost.
not arguing that point. 4700 highly paid jobs equates to three times that many positions to support them and each of those positions usually affects 1.7 other people so now we talking close to 40,000 livelihoods. that is enough to take down an entire town. i used to live less than 5 miles from the place. granted its in an area of very heavy population and it will hurt, but they will recover. the reason i dont live there any more is because major economic swings happen there every 3-5 years anyway. job turnover is the worst there than any other place i have ever lived in and the cost of living was simply too high there to have to look for a new job every few years. now granted, i stayed at my job the whole time i lived there, but the first time i was laid off, i left and glad i did.
Latest news: It's looking more and more likely Nummi is done. Toyota to halt operations at California's last car plant - Los Angeles Times
that is a bummer.... every day, the US wields less and less power over the rest of the world. we rested on our laurels, did nothing to preserve our way of life, our infrastructure, our economic stability, lessening our dependence on foreign oil, the list goes on and on. pretty soon, china will be demanding a much greater share of our grain harvest and we will be forced to comply. we wont have a choice, china simply has too much control of our money for us to say no. then we will start to hurt from within. food prices will skyrocket causing a complete collapse of our already underpowered social programs, our power to counter economically weakened by the steady undercutting of foreign oil debt. its all pretty sad that after more than a century on top. we are destined to fail.
