Toyota has announced a joint venture with Tesla to reopen NUMMI and hire 1000 workers. While this does not reinstate the facility to its pre-closure size, it is welcome news in recession ravaged California. Previous posts about the NUMMI closure are here and here.

General Motors and Toyota joint ventured to establish NUMMI in 1984. This week the last of 7.7 million vehicles will leave the assembly line and the plant will close. As this article points out NUMMI was an American success story. Its demise has more to do with it being 25 years old than GM and its unions.

We have previously posted here and here about the silly attempt to make car manufacturers proxies in the Union/Anti union wars and in the red blue game. Bob Herbert's NYT opinion piece provides fuel and a black hat portrait of Toyota and its decision to close NUMMI and the impact of job losses in California.