...a comment off which I felt compelled to riff:
" It would take a remarkable lack of business savvy and a total inability to read the political winds to plunk down a mult-billion dollar blue collar manufacturing facility in the middle of the Bay Area. That'd be like letting your kid go to the slumber party at the Escobar household; your investment and future livelihood would be hostage to the whim of every hippie political fad to hit the front page until you finally threw up your hands, sold the plant at a loss to some rubes from Shanghai, and moved to Alabama. "I'll take my chances with a Tuscaloosa tornado over a San Francisco ballot box any day of the week and twice on Sunday.
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The tornados are at least impartial.
ReplyDeleteHuy Fong is learning that painful lesson right now, which is why they're entertaining offers from Texas to relocate.
ReplyDeleteAnd Tuscaloosa Tornado sounds like a boxer's ring name, doesn't it?
How are a tornado and divorce similar in Tuscaloosa? Someone's fixin' to lose a mobile home.
ReplyDeleteSorry.
Looks like another step in re-industrialization for the second half?
Tornado's really hone in on Trailer parks, although of late any high point in their path works as well.
ReplyDeleteMy momma taught me if you can't say anything good about something don't say anything.
That pretty much sums up California for me.
They already owned one, in Fremont I used to work just down the road.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, it would have been insane.... the environmental crap with the batteries... forget it.
Building manufacturing in the Bay area would be about as smart as deciding to build a gun parts factory in New York or Maryland; stockholders would be justified in using it as proof of your mental inability to run the company.
ReplyDelete"...your investment and future livelihood would be hostage to the whim of every hippie political fad to hit the front page..."
ReplyDeletePretty much sums up the facts of life for people residing in nutjob areans like CA.
Kalifornia politics today is the triumph of Northern California leftwing nutcases over genteel SoCal Chamber of Commerce boosterism.
ReplyDeleteImagine how _I_ feel - born in Alameda Co., Cali, and now stuck in the "Free" state of Maryland - wish Barretta had pulled out on O'Malley lock, stock and barrel....
ReplyDelete"...plunk down a mult-billion dollar blue collar manufacturing facility in the middle of the Bay Area..." Hmmm - that's what Tesla is doing, in a way. Tesla is in the former Toyota/NUMI facility in Fremont (south of Oakland). So stay tuned for Tesla's eventual awakening and retreat from California.
ReplyDeleteI just read that Toyota is moving its HQ from CA to TX
ReplyDeleteToyota refused to touch the UAW contract when GM pulled out of the joint Pontiac Vibe plant in CA.
ReplyDeleteWhile the Bay Area (the South Bay in particular) has a very rich history of manufacturing, especially in the realms of tech and defense (no, really), it's morphed into a hub of R&D.
ReplyDeleteTesla, Lockheed, and Snap-on are the only major companies that I can think of that have any serious manufacturing around here.
Manufacturing in the south bay area (San Jose-Fremont region) took a HUGE hit after the dot-com bust. (I think there was a connection)
ReplyDeleteAbout 12 years ago, there were so many machine shop auctions, that I sometimes hit two on the same day. Everything from a couple car bays size to warehouse size facilities went on the block. Lots of owners deciding to "retire", and none got sold as a complete business, that I saw. This went on for months. Everything from metal to plastic to wood shops. Gone.
BTW, When Toyota did the joint venture with GM at that Fremont plant, they got complete say over who got hired, labor union be damned. That was the only way they would agree to it. Their interview process was set up to look for attitude first, ability second. IIRC, they only rehired about 900 of the original GM union people after that process. Had a roommate who was an engineer at NUMI, who clued me in on it.
I worked with one of those asshole GM union people at a different company. Holy Crap! Wouldn't hire one of them for any reason. They thought that sabotage of the product was a reasonable method of negotiating with GM, their employer! (in reality, the union was their employer)
Funny thing I know people that work at the KY Toyota plant apparently the last big push by UAW to unionize the plant got nowhere because the workers figured out that they would be taking home less money and benefits if they had a UAW contract.
ReplyDeleteYep, Toyota has had it's HQ in Torrance for FIFTY SEVEN years, and they're pulling the plug, and heading to TX.
ReplyDeleteStory here: http://www.dailybreeze.com/business/20140428/toyotas-departure-for-texas-a-major-blow-to-regional-economy
The whole Huy Fong Sriracha incident should be warning enough to any business even thinking about moving there to manufacture anything other than white guilt and weapons for class warfare.
ReplyDeleteToyota trucks get made in Texas.
ReplyDeleteWhile some may suggest this plant location was a choice driven by business savvy, I'm convinced the Toyota executives decided on San Antonio after watching a lot of Ford & Chevy truck commercials, all based in a wild yet industrious place that looks like the San Antonio suburbs.