"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 quoted by Autonews.
Last week, 17 members of California's congressional delegation, including Sen. Dianne Feinstein and Sen. Barbara Boxer, sent an open letter to Toyota President Akio Toyoda urging him to keep the plant open.
The UAW said it asked US lawmakers to get involved and "mandate a fair bargaining" between Motors Liquidation and Toyota of the NUMMI issue.
The Japanese manufacturer announced last week it has entered negotiations with Motors Liquidation, the entity which took over GM's so called "bad assets" , in order to determine the future of the single auto assembly plant in California, New United Motor Manufacturing (NUMMI).
However, hopes run low, despite Toyota's plans to increase production capacity in the US.
“We are looking at the viability of NUMMI. There is a likelihood that we would not buy the rest of NUMMI,” Yoshimi Inaba, the new Toyota North America chief said last week.
“There are a number of difficult and complex issues that we need to address before making any final decisions with respect to NUMMI and this process will take more time. We would hate to make a painful decision,” Inabaa added.
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