NUMMI Closing
I originally blogged this AM about the pending decision on the fate of the NUMMI plant in Fremont. Here's an update.
Breaking News from the San Francisco Chronicle:
(08-27) 13:01 PDT 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. Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/08/27/BU6919EL3P.DTL#ixzz0PQBy7eAu
The 4,700 jobs in Fremont are just a small percentage of the total job loss that this plant closure will create in the Bay Area and the Central Valley. Local economists conservatively estimate that nearly 10,000 manufacturing jobs in San Joaquin County are dependent on the NUMMI plant. A good chunk of the domestically produced parts for the vehicles came out of plants in San Joaquin County. The NUMMI plant closure could increase our local unemployment rate by as much as 5 percent!
As is typically the case, the state of California was very slow at reacting to the pending plant closure. There were a number of bills plodding through the legislature to provide incentives for NUMMI to stick around. Even though Toyota had made it clear that a decision was coming in late August, the earliest any legislation could have passed would have been mid-September. (click here for an article that discusses the state's glacial progress in providing incentives)
While it still may not have staved off the closure, it is symbolic of the absolute inability of our legislature to do anything right--and further reinforces our state's anti-business stance. While I hope this will serve as a wake up call that California can't continue to run businesses out of our state, only time will tell.
In the meantime, the business leadership in San Joaquin County needs to help its existing industrial base survive this serious blow.
Breaking News from the San Francisco Chronicle:
(08-27) 13:01 PDT 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. Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/08/27/BU6919EL3P.DTL#ixzz0PQBy7eAu
The 4,700 jobs in Fremont are just a small percentage of the total job loss that this plant closure will create in the Bay Area and the Central Valley. Local economists conservatively estimate that nearly 10,000 manufacturing jobs in San Joaquin County are dependent on the NUMMI plant. A good chunk of the domestically produced parts for the vehicles came out of plants in San Joaquin County. The NUMMI plant closure could increase our local unemployment rate by as much as 5 percent!
As is typically the case, the state of California was very slow at reacting to the pending plant closure. There were a number of bills plodding through the legislature to provide incentives for NUMMI to stick around. Even though Toyota had made it clear that a decision was coming in late August, the earliest any legislation could have passed would have been mid-September. (click here for an article that discusses the state's glacial progress in providing incentives)
While it still may not have staved off the closure, it is symbolic of the absolute inability of our legislature to do anything right--and further reinforces our state's anti-business stance. While I hope this will serve as a wake up call that California can't continue to run businesses out of our state, only time will tell.
In the meantime, the business leadership in San Joaquin County needs to help its existing industrial base survive this serious blow.
Labels: Economic Development, Economy
posted by City Manager @ 6:50 AM
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