UAW presses Toyota, Tesla for union workers (Silicon Valley)

The United Auto Workers union on Friday urged Toyota Motor Corp. and Tesla Motors to bring back its members that were let go in Fremont in the past year.

UAW President Ron Gettelfinger welcomed the news that a Tesla-Toyota partnership plans to make electric cars at the closed New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. plant where 4,700 workers were terminated in the past year.

NUMMI was a joint venture of Toyota and General Motors Co. GM dumped its stake in the plant as part of last year's bankruptcy and Toyota made its last car there on April 1. NUMMI was the only plant in the United States where Toyota used union workers in a factory.

Tesla said it will buy the plant to make a new sedan and the car produced by its partnership with Toyota.

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on Thursday he expects the plant will employ 1,000 workers by 2012 but could ramp up to as many as 5,000 after that. He said the plant could account for another 5,000 jobs through its suppliers.

Read the full post in the Silicon Valley / San Jose Business Journal