An earlier report indicated that the NUMMI closure would affect around 50,000 jobs in the state of California, including suppliers and local businesses. Obviously, this attracted criticism from the UAW who described the decision made by the Japanese manufacturer as devastating and unfortunate.
"Toyota's announcement that it will close the NUMMI plant is devastating news for thousands of workers in California," UAW President Ron Gettelfinger said. "This is no time to close a highly successful manufacturing facility. California is one of the most important markets for Toyota," UAW Vice President Jimmy Settles added, saying the move is "illogical."
Toyota said the main factor that attracted NUMMI's closure was the high cost of the location which, in its turn, attracted high labor expenses.
“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 in August when announcing the NUMMI production halt.
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