As complex NUMMI partnership fades, is Toyota left holding the GM bag?
Tuesday, March 9, 2010 at 10:47AM by Kay B. Day
This antique beauty snapped at a car show in Jacksonville was built at a time when a car was a car. [Photo by Kay B. Day]NUMMI seemed like a good idea. GM was about to close a plant and a partnership with Toyota seemed like a solution. In the 1980s, had Toyota not come along, the Fremont plant would’ve likely ceased to operate. Now Toyota wants out, and American workers will feel the bite.
Protests and petition drives by union members are underway after Toyota announced the closing of New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc., plant in Fremont, Calif. The Japanese car maker’s contract with NUMMI ends April 1.
In the March/April 2010 issue of ‘Solidarity,’ the magazine for UAW members [The International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America], a feature story described protests that included members who “took their message to the Japanese Embassy in Washington on Jan. 28.”
A study by California state officials found 25,000 jobs will be lost when the plant closes. Solidarity puts the figure higher, projecting losses of 4,500 Local 2244 members, and “up to 50,000 supplier and support workers, including hundreds of members of UAW Local 76.
Politics, US Business and Economy, US Government tagged Fremont Calif., NUMMI, Toyota, UAW, US job losses, auto industry 