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Toyota Motor Corp. announced Thursday that it plans to end production in March 2010 at the Fremont, Calif., plant it has run with General Motors Co.

(8/27/2009) Toytoa announced today it will end production at Fremont, California’s New United Motor Manufacturing Inc., better known as NUMMI, in March 2010. Before today’s announcement, California lawmakers and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger have appealed to Toyota to save Nummi and its 4,600 jobs, a majority of which are represented by the United Auto Workers union. The NUMMI plant, established in 1984, employs 4,600 workers.

The question is being asked at dinner tables and water coolers throughout Wisconsin: Why would those union workers at Mercury Marine's Fond du Lac plant vote against the company's last contract proposal? Why, indeed. At first glance, the consensus rejection by members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAMAW) Local 1947 on Sunday makes no sense. The company had flat-out threatened to leave Wisconsin for Stillwater, Okla., unless the Fond du Lac workers bent over and took substantial cuts in pay and benefits. So, why would the Fondy workers cut their own throats? Isn't a job with...

Title only. No links allowed to Bloomberg. Here is the url: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=akQaZGWodMhY

Farouk Shami, a Palestinian-born hairdresser who built a $1 billion manufacturing company around a popular line of hair irons, is moving all of his production of hand-held appliances from China to a sprawling new factory here. The move flies in the face of conventional wisdom, which says gadgets like this are best made in a low-cost country. But, he says, outsourcing has led to a loss of control over manufacturing and distribution. "We'll make more money this way -- because we'll have better quality and a better image," says the 66-year-old, who says his company, Farouk Systems Inc., spends about...

In a statement the company the said, "Following the union's vote, the company will consolidate much of its Fond du Lac manufacturing operations with its existing operations in an expanded Stillwater, Oklahoma, facility." Mercury Marine is Fond du Lac's largest employer, with 2,000 workers, and community leaders have expressed fears losing the plant would affect even more jobs countywide.

China is on its way to surpassing the U.S. as the world's largest manufacturer far sooner than expected. The question is, does that matter? In terms of actual size, the answer is, no. But if size is a proxy for relative health of each nation's sector, the answer is yes. In 2007, the latest year for which data are available, the U.S. accounted for 20% of global manufacturing; China was 12%. The gap, though, is closing rapidly. According to IHS/Global Insight, an economic-forecasting firm in Lexington, Mass., China will produce more in terms of real value-added by 2015. Using...

FOND DU LAC, Wis. – Union workers at Mercury Marine put their jobs at risk Sunday when they rejected a package of wage and benefit concessions the boat engine maker said it needed or it would move their work to a nonunion plant in Oklahoma. Union leaders did not immediately release Sunday's tally but said the vote was "overwhelming" to reject what the company called its final offer. The International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, Local 1947, represents 850 workers at Mercury Marine, the largest employer in the eastern Wisconsin city of Fond du Lac and the world's largest...

Boeing plans to give 60-day layoff notices to about 500 workers companywide today, with about 275 of those in the Puget Sound region. About 200 of those receiving the notices work in the commercial-airplanes division, Boeing said. Boeing has been issuing layoff notices monthly since January, when it said it needed to cut 10,000 positions in 2009. Through the end of July, Boeing had cut about 2,400 jobs companywide and not filled more than 1,000 additional open positions.

Manufacturing employment in the U.S. peaked in June 1979 with 19,553,000 jobs (data here), and by July of this year manufacturing employment had fallen to 11,817,000, the lowest level of manufacturing jobs since April 1941 (see chart above).As a percent of the total labor force, manufacturing employment fell below 9% in July (see chart below), the lowest level in BLS history (back to 1939).

Indianapolis - The Indiana Manufacturers Association announced today strong concerns with climate change legislation under consideration in Washington D.C. The United States Senate is poised to take up discussions on the American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009, authored by Congressmen Waxman of California and Markey of Massachusetts. The concern is based on a report issued last week by the National Association of Manufacturers predicting significant increases in the cost of energy and a general decline of economic conditions under the act. The report reveals that Indiana could be impacted as follows: * Employment losses of up to 59,260...

Cap-And-Trade: The administration likes to defend bad policies with analogies to the post office. New studies from a business group and the administration itself confirm that cap-and-trade belongs in the dead-letter bin.Along with Energy Secretary Steven Chu, Rep. Ed Markey likens the cost of the Waxman-Markey cap-and trade bill to "about a postage stamp a day," based on estimates made by the Congressional Budget Office and the EPA. But as we and others have shown, they arrive at this magical number in part by ignoring the hit on gross domestic product and employment that will occur. As Garret Vaughan, economist...

One doesn’t usually tune in to the Rachel Maddow show for car reviews, but there is quite a buzz in the media these days about the new General Motors electric car, the Chevrolet Volt, and Maddow doesn’t want to be left behind. Can anyone blame Maddow for being excited? Who wouldn’t be enthused after hearing about GM’s recent announcement that the Volt, which is expected to herald a new dawn for the company when it is released next year, will get the equivalent of a staggering 230 miles-per-gallon! I’ll take two of them! Before you trade in your Prius, however,...

Dearborn, MI (AHN) - Ford Motor (NYSE:F) said Thursday that it plans to raise North American production in the rest of the year in a bid to meet growing consumer demand, helped by the government's "cash for clunkers" program. Ford aims to increase output by 10,000 units to 495,000 new vehicles in the third quarter, which is almost 18 percent more than the production level of a year-ago period. The production gain will primarily focus on building additional Escape small utility vehicles and Focus small cars. The automaker also plans to produce 570,000 vehicles in the fourth quarter, 33 percent...

...In "The Graduate"...Dustin Hoffman's Benjamin is given a one-word bit of career counseling by one of those shallow and corrupt grown-ups at a shallow and corrupt grown-up cocktail party: "Plastics." Forty-two years later, the line has picked up a meaning that the makers of "The Graduate" could not possibly have anticipated.. today, the reaction is, "Oh, right: America still made things then." We don't any more...Since 1987, manufacturing as a share of our gross domestic product has declined 30 percent. Once the world's leading net exporter, we have become the world's leading net importer. In 2007, we exported $1.2 trillion...

Production workers at Boeing's newly acquired assembly plant in Charleston, S.C., plan to vote Sept. 10 on a petition to get rid of the Machinists union. At a National Labor Relations Board hearing in Charleston this morning, the company and the International Association of Machinists (IAM) agreed to the vote. A decision to decertify the IAM at the Charleston facility could influence whether Boeing will move future airplane assembly work there, including a second production line for its new 787 Dreamliner. If the vote succeeds, nonunion Boeing Charleston will compete directly with the unionized Everett plant for the new 787...

The only part of the stimulus program that is working, the cash-for-clunkers program is, in reality, a subsidy to foreign car companies, proving that Barack Obama is the best president Japan ever had. The Department of Transportation reports that the ten leading trade-ins are all American branded cars while six of the top ten new cars purchased - and four of the top five - are foreign. So the United States Senate is about to pass additional funds to subsidize the trade-in of American cars and the purchase of foreign cars. DOT reports that the following are the ten top...

Workers paint the company's colors on a jet, right, in late April in Everett, Wash. The company delayed the first test flight of the plane once again in late June. SEATTLE -- The 787 Dreamliner, Boeing Co.'s marquee project, is about two years behind schedule, but another big worry has emerged: Is the company expanding in the South, where unions are weaker, instead of here? Boeing, the area's largest employer, has said in recent weeks that it would likely choose a site for a second 787 assembly line, possibly in South Carolina, by the end of the year. The...

Nearly half of the $2.4 billion in federal grant money awarded Wednesday to stimulate the U.S. economy and boost the production of hybrid and electric vehicles went to six companies with ties to places as far away as Russia, China, South Korea and France. President Obama announced the grants during a visit to Indiana and said the funds would create domestic jobs and instigate more "green" manufacturing in the United States. But because so few American companies have the necessary technology, much of the money will initially go toward manufacturing electric vehicle batteries overseas. Three grants went to General Motors...

President Promotes Stimulus, Says America's Future Will Be 'Fought and Won' in Places Like Elkhart WAKARUSA, Ind. (CBS) ― President Barack Obama speaks on economy at the Monaco Recreational Vehicle plant in Wakarusa, Indiana, on August 5, 2009. Trumpeting a "made in America" message, President Barack Obama on Wednesday unveiled a national investment in electric cars as the latest effort to rebuild an economy that keeps shedding jobs. "We know that, even in the hardest times, against the toughest odds, we have never surrendered. We don't give up," Obama told employees on the steamy factory floor of an RV...

Wakarusa, Ind. -- President Obama returned today to this economically hard-hit stretch of northern Indiana for the fourth time in 15 months, proclaiming that the government's economic stimulus program is working and has begun to switch gears from rescue to recovery. A few feet away Shelley Ahlersmeyer, a part-time paralegal who lives in Warsaw, Ind., said too many of her friends and family are having trouble finding work to call the stimulus plan a success. "I keep feeling that Obama's still in campaign mode: making lots of promises, giving us few details and not giving us a lot of results,"...

WAKARUSA, Ind.— President Barack Obama brought his latest prescription for recovery Wednesday to this economically ravaged region of northern Indiana, promising to “unleash prosperity for everybody, not just some.” Obama announced that the federal government will distribute $2.4 billion in 48 taxpayer grants to create electric cars and recreational vehicles. The grants will be divided among 25 states. Afterward, the president talked with Chuck Todd, NBC’s political director and chief White House correspondent, who relayed questions submitted by msnbc.com readers. During his address at the old Monaco RV plant here — where 1,400 people were laid off as the company...

WAKARUSA, Ind. (AP) - Trumpeting a "made in America" message, President Barack Obama on Wednesday unveiled a national investment in electric cars as the latest effort to rebuild an economy that keeps shedding jobs. "We don't give up," Obama told employees on the steamy factory floor of Monaco RV in northern Indiana, a region suffering from one of the worst unemployment surges in the nation. Obama's comments amounted to part pep talk, part defense of his economic agenda. In the heart of small-community America, he relied heavily on a pro-American spirit in his remarks. "I'm committed to a strategy that...

President Obama plans to pay another visit today to Elkhart, Ind. -- a city that has become a poster child for the nation's unemployment problem -- to speak about the economy and warn the public that it will take some time for jobs to return. [Snip] This trip will focus on "some innovative ways" that can address creating jobs over the long term, according to Obama's press secretary Robert Gibbs.

We knew the day would come when the final Gold Wing motorcycle would be built in America after Honda announced last year that it would eventually close its motorcycle plant in Marysville, Ohio. Apparently, that time is now, as Honda has confirmed that the Gold Wing assembly line has halted. Moving forward, all Gold Wings – along with just about every other two-wheeler from Honda – will be imported from Japan. Finished in 1979, the 330,000 square-foot Marysville Motorcycle Plant that has assembled the Gold Wing since 1981 was the first Honda manufacturing facility in America. Since then, over a...

PEORIA, Ill. - A union official says Caterpillar is laying off 75 employees at a central Illinois foundry and may close the plant for two months late this year if demand for its engines doesn't improve. Rick Doty is president of United Auto Workers Local 974. He says the 75 workers at the foundry in Mapleton will be laid off Monday. The town is about 10 miles south of Peoria, where Caterpillar is based. Doty says the company also has tentative plans to close the foundry and idle its 525 remaining workers in November and December.

A motocross publication that I read online is quoting Nasdaq that Honda is closing their Marysville OH plant, which currently produces the VTX and Honda Goldwing motorcycles. Production (up to 75,000 motorcycles/year) is being sourced back to Japan.

General Motors is spending more money where it counts: Latin America. The Latin American market has been generous to the struggling automaker despite struggles at home. Today, GM announced a $1 billion plan to expand its vehicle lineup in Brazil. "We believe the Brazilian market will be very strong, will continue to grow at a rate of at least 5 percent a year and we also believe in the prospects for exports of the new models," Jaime Ardila, GM's chief executive for Brazil and the Mercosur region of South America, said in a statement. Ardila added that GM showed record...

LANDRUM, S.C. Las Vegas has always served as an important – if odd – barometer for Charles Martin's manufacturing firm, which makes commercial-grade door hinges. That's because even in bad times, casinos still went up in Nevada. Not so today. “When gamblers aren't building, forget about people who make rational decisions,” said Martin, president of Bommer Industries, the last completely American manufacturer of door hinges for hotels, malls, universities and other big commercial buyers. “The gamblers have quit building, and they're always optimistic.” The U.S. manufacturing sector is trying to claw back from a deep downturn, and manufacturing globally is...

Like the F-22? Don’t like the F-22? Think we need more F-22s? Think 187 F-22s is about the right number? Believe we need the capability the F-22 brings to the fight, or think we don’t. The U.S. Senate’s vote Tuesday of 58 -- 40 to stop F-22 production at 187 aircraft is the next to the last nail in coffin of the Air Force’s premier fighter program. A House-Senate conference still has to agree on the final result, but it seems like a long shot that the program will be continued. Regardless, of where you come down in the debate,...

Toyota Motor Corp. has decided to liquidate its stake in a California manufacturing plant that it jointly operated with General Motors, a Japanese news agency reported Thursday. The Japanese carmaker will begin negotiating with the "Old GM" starting next week, Kyodo News reported, citing unnamed company officials. Toyota spokesman Mike Goss would not confirm that the Japanese automaker had made a final decision on the fate of Fremont, Calif.-based New United Motor Manufacturing Inc., also known as NUMMI. Goss said Toyota will begin negotiations with the GM officials about the plant and added that the company is conducting an "extensive...

As Cat announces factory shutdowns, Libertarians want Obama explanationMore jobs lost as ‘stimulus’ bill delays economic recovery WASHINGTON -- America’s third largest party Wednesday asked President Barack Obama to explain to the American people why his $787 billion “stimulus” government expansion plan has once again failed to deliver on even its most basic promises. “If he has time to explain why Congress should outlaw private health insurance and force Americans into expensive, rationed care he has the time to explain why exploding the deficit and expanding government isn’t creating prosperity,” said Donny Ferguson, Libertarian National Committee Communications Director. “...if Congress...

Nearly half of the 1,000 job cuts announced by Harley-Davidson Inc. on Thursday will come from Wisconsin, the company says. Of the 1,000 jobs to be eliminated, about 480 will come from Wisconsin, including the elimination of 300 hourly production positions. About 180 salaried employees will lose their jobs here, including 100 from Harley-Davidson Financial Services. The production of Harley-Davidson Sportster engines in Wauwatosa will be shut down for about 14 weeks late this year, including the company's entire fourth quarter.

General Motors announced plans to invest $1 billion to develop two new car models in Brazil. The president of GM's operations in Brazil and the Mercosur countries said it is GM's biggest investment since the onset of the global financial crisis. Jaime Ardila says about 50 percent of the money will come directly from GM Brazil while the rest will be borrowed. One new small car and one medium-sized car will be developed at the Gravatai plant in southern Brazil and are expected to be in production by 2012. Ardila says Wednesday GM Brazil has avoided the problems of its...

Obama says lost auto jobs are gone Tue Jul 14, 2009 2:36pm EDT By David Alexander WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama took a dose of reality to Michigan on Tuesday, saying that thousands of jobs lost to the auto industry's downturn are not coming back and it is time to prepare for new industries. Traveling to Michigan, a state hit hard by job losses as Detroit's Big Three automakers have reeled from the U.S. recession, Obama planned to promote a $12 billion initiative to boost community colleges and increase the graduation rate. "(The) hard truth is that some of...

The American Clean Energy and Security Act--the so-called “cap-and-trade” climate-change bill--that passed the U.S. House of Representatives last month would give manufacturers in certain industries in the Communist People's Republic of China an advantage over their U.S. competitors and put U.S. jobs at risk, according to a report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO). “I think what we’re trying to do is point out to the Congress and others that are interested that there could be some industries where China’s competitive advantage might be affected or could be further enhanced by (climate-change) legislation, if the features of the legislation don’t...

Robots are the most efficient workers in the world. Moreover, they do not complain about hours worked, ask for raises, or seek collective bargaining agreements. Nonetheless, In Japan, Machines for Work and Play Are Idle . Japan’s legions of robots, the world’s largest fleet of mechanized workers, are being idled as the country suffers its deepest recession in more than a generation as consumers worldwide cut spending on cars and gadgets. At a large Yaskawa Electric factory on the southern Japanese island of Kyushu, where robots once churned out more robots, a lone robotic worker with steely arms twisted and...

Five words would change law, have big impact on ocean carriers and shippers All U.S.-flag ships in international commerce would have to be built in the United States if language approved July 9 by the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee becomes law. Shippers of government-impelled cargo such as food aid, project or military cargo that require U.S. flag vessels for transport would likely incur higher rates. Experts said it would be impossible to calculate how much, but owners would have to recover the higher relative cost of building a ship in the U.S. The change — spelled out in...

Organized labor this week is warning Senate Democrats not to renege on trade protections included in House climate change legislation that would buffer domestic manufacturers from cheap consumer products made in China and elsewhere. “We need to have global warming legislation that makes sure we don’t create perverse incentives that encourage these energy-intensive industries to leave the United States and invest elsewhere in the world where they don’t have the same environmental costs,” said David Foster, executive director of the Blue Green Alliance. The Blue Green Alliance is a coalition of unions and environmental groups including the Sierra Club, the...

NEW YORK (AP) -- Shares of major metal manufacturers traded sharply lower Monday, a day after Vice President Joe Biden said the White House "misread" the economy, prompting concerns that an economic recovery could be slower than expected. In an interview with ABC's "This Week" broadcast Sunday, Biden said the administration "misread how bad the economy was," but stood by its stimulus efforts. Those comments will likely dampen investor confidence, said David Silver, an analyst with Wall Street Strategies. During the second quarter, commodity prices "went through the roof," and investors snapped up metal makers stocks on word that the...

General Motors has announced that it will quit its joint venture auto manufacturing plant, operated with Toyota, leaving the unionized facility's future in Toyota's hands. Toyota already sells 80% of the products built there, but the workforce is organized by the UAW, so if Toyota were to keep the facility open under its own management, it would find itself sitting across the bargaining table from the very union that seeks to organize its other plants in North America. New United Motor Manufacturing Company (NUMMI - pronounced "new me") is the sole remaining automobile manufacturing facility on the West Coast, and...

Leave it to the Germans..

House Democratic leaders Thursday weighed tough trade penalties on countries that don't cap so-called greenhouse-gas emissions, while President Barack Obama sought support from wavering lawmakers ahead of a vote on a climate bill. The trade proposal is designed to protect a half dozen trade-sensitive U.S. industries, including steel, cement and chemical manufacturers, from competitors in countries that don't cap their output of greenhouse gases. [Climate Cost] Top House Democrats and many members of the Ways and Means Committee, which has jurisdiction over trade policy, led the negotiations and effectively signed off on details of the plan late Thursday. The measure...

Boeing's largest airline customer for the 787 said it is canceling orders for 15 Dreamliners and deferring another 15 deliveries by four years. Qantas Group, the parent of Qantas and discount carrier Jetstar, said Friday in Australia that the changes were driven by the economic climate, not this week's announcement of a design problem that will add weeks or months to the much-delayed plane's first flight. Qantas has 50 remaining Dreamliners on order, comprising 35 787-9s and 15 787-8s. "The latest delay is disappointing, but we do not expect it to impact the Qantas Group given these changes to our...

Orders to U.S. factories for big-ticket manufactured goods rose sharply for a second straight month in May, and a key indicator of business investment surged by the largest amount in nearly five years. The Commerce Department said Wednesday that demand for durable goods rose 1.8 percent last month, far better than the 0.6 percent decline that economists expected. It also matched the rise in April, with both months posting the best performance since December 2007, when the recession began. Orders for non-defense capital goods, a key proxy for business investment plans, jumped 4.8 percent, the biggest increase since September 2004....

Note: The following text is a quote: THE BRIEFING ROOM • THE BLOG THE BLOG TUESDAY, JUNE 23RD, 2009 AT 11:00 AM Chains in Command Posted by Jared Bernstein Ed. Note: The Middle Class Task Force is meeting today on the future of American manufacturing in Perrysburg, Ohio. When we think about manufacturing in America, most of us probably picture a big factory churning out cars or refrigerators. But there’s another side to manufacturing in America: the supply chains that provide these end-users with the inputs they need to make the final product. In fact, there are more workers at...

Perrysburg, Ohio (AP) -- A new government council will help auto industry workers transition to new manufacturing opportunities, including jobs in alternative energy, Vice President Joe Biden said Tuesday. Biden toured the northwestern Ohio headquarters of the Willard & Kelsey Solar Group, which plans to begin large-scale production of solar panels this year. The Toledo area has been hit hard by job losses in the auto industry and is banking on more green factory jobs. "I'm not going to sugarcoat this. Manufacturing is facing one of its toughest periods, in at least my lifetime," Biden said. But, he said, U.S....

The first Chinese-assembled A320 is set for delivery, symbolizing the importance of future demand in Asia. PARIS -- Will emerging markets make or break the aerospace industry? Though the airline industry is suffering across the world, executives from Boeing and Airbus talked up the prospect of future demand from China as one bright spot at this month’s Paris Air Show. And on Tuesday, Airbus will deliver its first China-assembled A320, part of a joint venture that could help the plane-maker take more market share from its American arch-rival. The Airbus A320, which was assembled at a plant in Tianjin that...

We've found a snazzy interactive map that shows the location of the plant at every American-built car and light truck is assembled, along with information on that plant's unionization or lack thereof. The New York Times piece also lists the nation of origin for each vehicle's engine and transmission, and the overall effect is to provide tirade ammunition for both ends of the political spectrum. For example, if you know that unions (and the hand-wringin', gun-confiscatin', Kyoto-treaty-signin' parlor-pink liberals who enable them) have systematically destroyed everything that was once good and true about this country, you'll be able to point...

Caterpillar Inc. is emptying out its Illinois factories at the fastest rate in a quarter-century as it copes with a wrenching drop in global demand by accelerating a shift to producing equipment in lower-cost locales. After the latest cutbacks, which have been playing out in recent weeks, the number of United Auto Workers members on the job at Caterpillar's factory near Aurora is expected to be down by nearly half, to about 1,100, says Local 145 President Mark Patton. Plants in Pontiac and Decatur are expected to see equal drops, union leaders estimate. And at plants in the company's hometown...