Toyota has announced that it will be utilizing $250 million in funding in order to fund transition support for the 4,700 workers at the plant that will be closing on April 1, 2010. Toyota is still negotiating with NUMMI regarding the allocation of the funding, but hopes to reach an agreement before the plant closes.
The NUMMI plant, located in Fremont, California, was established in 1984 and was a joint venture between General Motors and Toyota Motor Corporation. The plant is an independent corporation, not owned by either automaker, but used to jointly advance manufacturing efforts between the two automakers.
“Although NUMMI is an independent company, Toyota has made a significant financial commitment to help ensure that production continues as smoothly as possible and that team members receive transition support. We hope that NUMMI and the United Auto Workers will reach an agreement soon, so that NUMMI’s UAW team members can benefit from the transition support that we have committed to funding,” said Jim Wiseman, group vice president, Toyota Motor North America.
When GM entered bankruptcy last year it put its NUMMI assets on the list to be liquidated, essentially removing the domestic automaker from its responsibilities at the plant. GM’s decision to abandon the California-based plant set the wheels in motion for Toyota to follow suit. NUMMI represents the only UAW-represented plant for Toyota, further making the business case to remain more difficult for the Japanese automaker.
Rather than ending production on August 17, 2009, when GM did, Toyota says it chose to continue production for an additional seven months in order to give workers time to prepare for the closure. Toyota used the time to provide jobs counseling and other services in order to help employees plan for the upcoming closure. Toyota also needed time to prepare the San Antonio plant for the arrival of Tacoma production – where Toyota will hire 850 workers to continue the work from the NUMMI location.
Toyota is the only automaker of the two committing resources to the remaining workers, citing GM’s lack of support.
“Toyota appreciates all federal, state and local efforts to help NUMMI team members, who have shown great dedication over many years,” said Mr. Wiseman. “The support we are providing to NUMMI underscores our commitment to do our part. It is unfortunate that neither GM – NUMMI’s other 50 percent shareholder and customer for 25 years – nor Motors Liquidation Company, its current shareholder, has indicated that it will do the same, despite the fact that NUMMI team members have produced more than one million vehicles for GM.”
The NUMMI plant currently produces the Toyota Corolla and Toyota Tacoma , and production will be shifted to the San Antonio, Texas, and Cambridge, Ohio, plants.
