| The report found:
§ Even during the recent downturn in auto sales, Toyota's share of the U.S. market continued to expand. Toyota could easily operate all of its U.S. plants -- including NUMMI -- at full capacity and still not meet the demands of the U.S. market.
§ NUMMI's closure would deepen the recession in areas that are already among the hardest hit. Unemployment in the state is 12.4 percent and in Fremont is nearly four points higher.
§ More than 20,000 jobs would be permanently lost according to the University of the Pacific forecast for 2010-2014. Many of these jobs are high quality, well-paying jobs.
§ States and localities will lose nearly a billion dollars of tax revenue needed to fund vital services in the ten years after the plant closes.
§ Workers and their families will suffer not only economically but physically as well, according to new research, which shows that plant closings significantly increase the incidence of heart attacks and strokes by 50-100 percent among older workers like the long-time workforce at NUMMI.
§ Californians buy more Toyotas than anywhere else, and by closing the NUMMI plant, Toyota is drastically increasing the distance that the vehicles must be transported to reach the California dealerships, which will lead to more pollution and result in greater degradation of the environment
If Toyota takes the Commission's advice and uses NUMMI as the center for developing the eco-friendly California Corolla, it has the potential to lead the auto industry in the development of electric and plug-in technologies. But by leaving California behind, Toyota would also be leaving behind the state that is leading the nation in the development of those green technologies. And by abandoning its workers, the automaker is only drawing even more negative attention to Toyota's blatant disregard for the well being of those individuals that keep them in business.
As the company seeks to rebuild its commitment to the "Toyota Way," it needs to seriously reevaluate its recent management decisions. The report concludes
The most immediate, direct, and cost effective jobs program available is to keep NUMMI running. The automaker and California would reap a triple bottom-line benefit: Toyota would restore its image and retain a world-class plant; workers and their families would make it through a dark economic winter; and California would get further down the road to economic growth and a green future.
Rebecca Greenberg is communications organizer at the California Labor Federation Email her at rgreenberg@calaborfed.org. |
