Tom Abate, Staff Writer The San Francisco Chronicle Thursday, August 27, 2009
FREMONT -- Workers at New United Motor Manufacturing in Fremont assembled in a giant meeting hall this morning to hear plant manager Kunihiko Ogura deliver the news that Toyota has decided to halt production at the factory in March, a move that dooms about 4,700 jobs inside the plant with huge ripple effects throughout California
According to plant worker Ken Villegas, an electrician, Ogura first thanked workers for 25 years of service before telling them that Toyota had decided to follow General Motors in withdrawing from the partnership that had operated the plant since 1984.
"It was very quiet, very somber, very respectful," said Villegas, who estimated that there were about 2,000 morning shift workers on hand. "I don't think anybody was very surprised. The news has all been bad for months, and we were getting plenty of signals this was coming."
State Assemblyman Alberto Torrico, whose district includes the 5 million square-foot factory, said he was told that Toyota officials phoned Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger at 6 a.m. Thursday to alert him that California's efforts to avert the shutdown had not succeeded.
"It's disappointing news. It will be devastating for Fremont, the Bay Area and the California economy," said Torrico, who grew up in the city in the early 1980s, when GM shut down the factory the first time and set the stage for the joint venture with Toyota. "I was hoping we wouldn't have to go through this again."
Union trustee Ron Lopez, whose wife also works at the plant, said the couple had been taking steps to sell their home in preparation of just such news.
Lopez said workers at the plant are disappointed in part because they feel they have been loyal to Toyota for 25 years. "We opened the doors for Toyota to manufacture vehicles in America," Lopez said of the Nummi partnership, which was the foreign carmaker's first foray into the United States. "I think they should make a commitment to us, the labor force that put them on the map in the United States."
Unofficial press reports out of Japan in recent weeks suggested that Toyota was likely to quit the plant in March. But Toyota, which has never before shut a factory, would not confirm them until today.
The plant supports more than 1,000 suppliers throughout California. The closure could have a ripple effect on as many as 50,000 people, according to Friends of Nummi, a group formed to try to keep the plant open.
Meanwhile, politicians had assembled a package of incentives to try to sway Toyota's decision.
The Legislature was working on a bill to designate Nummi an enterprise zone, one effect of which would be to let Nummi carry forward current operating losses to offset future profit for up to 15 years. That designation would also waive sales taxes on $20 million a year in plant machinery upgrades.
Other proposals would create a special utility rate to let Nummi buy electricity at lower prices.
Japanese media outlets reported Wednesday that Toyota would slash worldwide capacity by 700,000 to 1 million vehicles and the NUMMI production was expected to be part of the global plan.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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