Kubota's Headquarters Moving from California to Texas

[EddieWalker]

Toyota has been in the news a lot... ever since Nummi plant closed in Fremont with production sent to Texas and Canada...

I spent 13 years in the Union and found that in just about everybody I met from another barn, the conversations always revolved around how much they made compared to how little they did. It was always about getting out of doing anything and getting away with it. The guys I know who worked at NUMMI seemed to win these conversations hands down. I never met one who admitted to actually doing any work, and the list of everything they did to get out of work was just amazing. When NUMMI opened up, there was a lot of talk if Toyota could turn around all the problems GM had there before they closed the plant. I think they rehired most of the GM guys who where there before and they came back to work with the mentality that they worked too hard before and this time they are going to do even less!!!!

Sad to hear it closed, but I never expected it to last very long either.

Eddie

 

[ultrarunner]

The talk was closing was the only way Toyota could make a break from the Union... even though NUMMI built quality vehicles with the plants biggest market being California... the facility won many awards...

A big blow is when the NUMMI wanted to expand on adjacent property it owned for expansion... the expansion was stopped cold because or a family of burrowing owls... offers to relocate the owls or buy another parcel for the owls were shot down.

Don't forget the plant having to shut production for California energy grid problems tied to Enron too... plus the cost of utilities kept escalating.

The severance packages offered by NUMMI came with strings... if a Union member accepted the package they were barred from seeking employment at any other Toyota plant in North America... many were willing to move to Texas.

 

[300UGUY]

The talk was closing was the only way Toyota could make a break from the Union... even though NUMMI built quality vehicles with the plants biggest market being California... the facility won many awards...

A big blow is when the NUMMI wanted to expand on adjacent property it owned for expansion... the expansion was stopped cold because or a family of burrowing owls... offers to relocate the owls or buy another parcel for the owls were shot down.

Don't forget the plant having to shut production for California energy grid problems tied to Enron too... plus the cost of utilities kept escalating.

The severance packages offered by NUMMI came with strings... if a Union member accepted the package they were barred from seeking employment at any other Toyota plant in North America... many were willing to move to Texas.

Most were able to retire. The average age in those plants is probably 60+. I don't think the hourly folks had been hired by Toyota, only a few? GM hasn't hired hourly much since 1980 or so. When my plant closed, the average age was 61, seniority was 35 years, average. We had guys 70 + years old, with 50 + years seniority. One was 86!!

Severance packages are severance, you can't take severance and continue employment. Otherwise it's a transfer.

 

[ultrarunner]

Transfer was prohibited...

Most of my NUMMI friends were early 50's... they took the training and have had a hard time finding work... a few have found warehouse jobs... others not.

A couple of the guys now work for Tesla...

 

[Streetcar]

Coming from a yestercity resident. HS

HS
I am friends with one of the people involve when Toyota moved to Texas. He told me Texas offered stupid high incentives to move there. Other states did not come close in their incentives.
I have friends and family in Houston area and most love it there.

 

[Gator6x4]

All the things I like about California are still here... it's just my list of things I don't like is growing and a lot of those have to do with tractors, building, farming/ranching and working the land...

If someone has the mind to leave... it has never been a better time with CA Real Estate off the charts...

Was following a 3 bedroom tract home for sale...

After less than a week on the market, picking the best offer only takes a few minutes, which was 13 percent over the asking price, $1.58 million.

æ“¢or all intents and purposes, it sold in four days. Pretty much went exactly according to script,

Silicon Valley Homeowners Quickly Cash Out In Red-Hot Real Estate Market ﾂｫ CBS San Francisco

Red Hot real estate markets have brought two financial crashes to the United States. The first was in 1929, the second was in 2008.

 

[texasjohn]

WOW....What an amazingly informative thread!

 

[ultrarunner]

Red Hot real estate markets have brought two financial crashes to the United States. The first was in 1929, the second was in 2008.

I thought it was the fall of the equities market... stock market crash and derivatives?

Anyway... more than 40% are cash buyers... and 15% are foreign buyers... the balance is mostly 20% down... not like the last go round.

I'm not that old and have already lived through three Real Estate reversals...

Bay Area Real Estate is very cyclical... yet it always comes back stronger... so far.

Lots of big business has already left... growing up we had a Ford Truck Plant, Caterpillar Plant... huge paper mills, canneries, etc... all gone.

I wonder if Landpride is moving to Texas along with Kubota? Landpride is OEM for many Kubota implements and headquartered next to Kubota in Southern California.

 

[NativeSon]

You just might be right, and of course Kubota got some pretty serious "incentives", too. I sometimes wonder how much "growth" is actually good for an area. Never before in my lifetime have I seen as much construction as we currently have in this area, and it includes all kinds of construction; big, expensive single family homes, huge apartment complexes, offices, warehouses, retail stores, highways and streets. Traffic anywhere in the area is the worst I've ever seen, in spite of lots of new, and wider, streets and roads. But I also can't recall a time when we had rougher streets, potholes, and such.

I'm sure there are those who would say my perception is just because I'm getting old, and I couldn't really disagree with them.:laughing:

Bird--You are absolutely right. I moved to Denton County(The Colony) in 1975 and it could have been considered rural. On I-35 North you would leave out of Carrollton and drive through open country till you got to the small town of Lewisville. Then it was, again, open country till you got to the (little) Bigger town of Denton.

One of my sons told me that Little Elm is the fastest growing City in the Country. In 1975 it was where you had to go (The "Y") to buy liquor. Somebody tell me where all those people came from.

Charlie

 

[Garandman]

Some amazing data from https://www.aei.org/publication/tuesday-afternoon-links-16/.

Steve

I wonder how much of that was fueled by energy industry growth, now slowed.