The UAW is apparently urging its members to try to persuade lawmakers, as well as Toyota , to keep open the Fremont, California, NUMMI – New United Motor Manufacturing Incorporated – assembly plant open. Toyota hasn’t officially announced what it plans to do with the plant, which assembles the Toyota Matrix , now that General Motors has said it is exiting the partnership as it struggles to rebuild.
“We believe that Toyotas sold in the United States should be made in the United States. California is by far Toyota’s single biggest market for car sales in the United States,” the UAW said in an e-mail.
The plant is Toyota ’s only union plant in the United States. It opened in 1984 as a joint venture between Toyota and GM and it’s the only automobile plant still operating in California. Local lawmakers have indicated that its closure, and subsequent loss of 4,500 assembly line jobs, would be a massive blow for the region. The plant is located in the southeastern San Francisco Bay area.
Just last week, 17 of California’s congressional delegation, including senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer, addressed a letter to new Toyota president Akio Toyoda asking him to prevent the plant’s closure.
