The New United Motor Manufacturing Incorporated assembly plant in Fremont, California, might have begun life as a joint-venture between General Motors and Toyota , but reports out of California indicate that only the Japanese automaker will be covering the cost of closing the plant, including worker severance pay and environmental concerns.
The portion of the former General Motors that is still languishing in bankruptcy, Motors Liquidation Corporation, says it is not planning to help out at all with the costs involved in closing the plant. GM has officially stopped producing the Pontiac Vibe at the facility, leaving Toyota as its sole occupier until the automaker moves out by March of next year.
Tim Yost, a spokesman for Motors Liquidation, told the Detroit News, “We don’t believe there will be a requirement for us to do so.”
GM abandoned the plant in June, leaving Toyota hanging. The Japanese automaker decided about a month later that it would also stop using the facility. The plant employed about 4,700 workers, meaning severance costs will climb well into the hundreds of thousands of dollars according to analysts at Maryann Keller & Associates. In addition, the firm says that numerous environmental issues, required by both California and the federal government, will need to be addressed before the plant can officially be shuttered.
“This is an old factory, built when rules were quite different,” Maryann Keller said. “Who knows what kind of environmental issues will have to be resolved?”
