FREMONT, CA (KGO) — Toyota announced the news thousands of Bay Area auto workers feared — it is ending production at the Fremont NUMMI plant. This, as plant managers get set to meet with leaders of the workers’ union later on Thursday afternoon.

The Toyota board voted very early this morning to end production at the NUMMI plant in March of 2010 and that will affect about 4,600 employees. Many of them rallied last week and hoped to changed the decision about keeping the facility operating.

NUMMI is the largest auto manufacturing plant west of the Mississippi and it could impact as many as 35,000 people tied to the production in the supply chain. The joint venture between Toyota and General Motors has been very successful since 1984, but the operation was thrown into turmoil in June when GM announced it was withdrawing the 50/50 joint venture and its partnership as part of its bankruptcy proceedings.

Essentially, the workers and this surrounding community now have six months notice, and many people say it is not over despite Toyota’s announcement.

Following the announcement, Lt. Governor John Garamendi said that a resolution must be reached to save the last auto plant in California. He is talking about perhaps stimulus money or an enterprise zone. There was also some legislation mentioned in Sacramento prior to Toyota’s announcement, and Lt. Governor Garamendi said those efforts will continue despite the announcement.

Tags: economic development, Enterprise Zone, NUMMI, toyota

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 27th, 2009 at 5:03 pm and is filed under Tax News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.