Toyota to Close Long Beach Plant

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Toyota will shutter its Hino commercial truck assembly line in North Long Beach this summer, bringing an end to nearly 70 years of automobile production in Southern California, the Long Beach Press-Telegram reports.


The production line, which last year churned out nearly 5,000 trucks, is being shifted to a Toyota facility in West Virginia, company officials said Thursday.

The site, known as TABC, or Toyota Auto Body California, employs nearly 700 workers building Hino trucks and parts for several Toyota models, including the Tacoma, Matrix and Corolla.

Hino, a Toyota subsidiary, cited rising fuel prices and weak demand for the shuttering, said company spokesman Hidenobu Tezuka.

The company is reportedly offering buyouts to employees with 10 or more years experience, and as many as 100 will be accepted, sources said.

Workers were initially given until Friday to consider the offer, but that deadline may be extended, said Louie Diaz, a TABC employee and vice president of Teamsters Local 848, which represents some 550 workers at the site.

“It’s an unfortunate situation where the company is taking good jobs from Long Beach and sending them off to facilities all over the place in other states,” Diaz said. “We’re very concerned.”

The assembly line closure marks the end of an era for auto production in Southern California. Before Hino production begin in 2004, the last auto assembly line regionally was at General Motors’ Van Nuys factory, which closed in 1992.



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