What's Wrong With This Picture: End Of The Line Edition
Published: April 1st, 2010
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The literal answer is that it’s not the very last vehicle built at NUMMI. A red Corolla had that honor, but this is the very last Tacoma to be built by the UAW. And with that, the grand experiment between GM and Toyota is over. Could anyone have guessed way back in 1984 that the joint venture would eventually fall victim to a GM bankruptcy and Toyota overreach? Perhaps a few, but then who can say what firm, or even what industry, will be busying NUMMI’s production floors 26 years from now? The times, they are a-changing.
More by Edward Niedermeyer
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Nice to see that the NUMMI plant got a better sendoff than the entire Pontiac brand.
Good "This American Life" broadcast on this http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/403/nummi The execs didn't know their asses from a hole in the ground.
First plant Toyota closes in 73 years. No to US AutoUnions! Yes to Japanese unions.
GM closed NUMMI twice. Once in 1982 and now again in 2010. Obama decided to shut the plants in the RED states that he didn't have to worry about in 2012. So the government shut down NUMMI. GM left the secured creditors pennyless. And instead gave preferential treatment to unsecured creditors like the UAW. Obama threw 200 years of bankruptcy law out the window to subsidize GM and Chrysler. SO GM pulls out, and leaves Toyota to try and continue to make profitable vehicles in a state like CA. GM gave the UAW 60 days notice and stopped their production. Toyota continued to provide employment to the workers for almost a year. And Toyota provided $300 million severence to the workers. How much did GM provide to the NUMMI workers? ZERO. NOTHING. GM pulled out and left the NUMMI workers and the UAW high and dry. But the UAW protests Toyota. Tell me this is not political. Toyota did the right thing by the NUMMI workers. As best they could in a difficult situation. GM did NOTHING.