Toyota Seeks 850 New Jobs in San Antonio

Japanese manufacturer Toyota is considering adding 850 new employees at its San Antonio truck plant in an attempt to boost production of the Tundra and begin building Tacoma for the first time. The company has already invested $100 million for the retooling process of the plant, leftlanenews.com wrote. The plant will return to a two shift schedule in February 2010, when Toyota will mix current jobs with the new employees for the production of the two aforementioned models.

The boost of production at the San Antonio plant is partially a result of the NUMMI closure, as the Californian facility was until now in charge of building the Tacoma. Toyota will transfer the mid-size model at the San Antonio plant, shutting down the joint venture it initially had with General Motors.

Toyota announced in August that it will close the New United Motor Manufacturing Inc (NUMMI) plant after its local ally, General Motors, announced earlier this year that it will step out of the joint venture as part of the internal reorganization.

“After the decision by General Motors to withdraw from the NUMMI joint venture, Toyota conducted a thorough review of its alternatives in light of current and anticipated market conditions. Based on this review, we have determined that over the mid- to long-term, it just would not be economically viable to continue the production contract with NUMMI. This is most unfortunate, and we deeply regret having to take this action,” Atsushi Niimi, TMC vice president said in a press release.

The 4,700 workers currently employed by the NUMMI plant will leave the company by March 31, 2010.