Toyota shutdown to cost 2500 jobs
TOYOTA will close its Camry factory in Altona today , ending 54 years of manufacturing in Australia and axing 2500 jobs.
According to factory insiders, about 40 per cent of the blue collar workforce has found a new job and about 15 per cent are set to retire.
But the future for the remaining 45 per cent of workers remains unclear despite Toyota starting a job search program three years ago and paying for new qualifications outside the industry.
Toyota has says it has done “everything possible” to help its workers find new jobs.
The last Toyota Camry is due to go down the production line about midday today.
As with the Ford shutdown, the Toyota factory will be closed to media. Instead, the car company says, it wants to make the send-off a private affair.
Long-serving workers with more than 25 years experience will take home in excess of $200,000 as part of their redundancy payment. They will also receive access to discounts on new Toyotas for life.
Workers who’ve been with Toyota for less than 10 years get a discount on new Toyotas for five years.
Toyota has built more than 3.4 million cars across various factories since 1963. More than 2 million were made in the Altona factory since it opened in 1995.
By comparison, Ford built 5.9 million vehicles over 91 years and Holden will have built more than 7 million cars over 69 years when it closes its factory gates at Elizabeth.
The Altona facility is the first mass production Toyota factory in the world the Japanese car maker has shut down.
Previously it sold a factory in the US jointly owned with General Motors, and a small assembly line in New Zealand was shuttered in the 1990s.
Altona’s factory closure will bring to an end $1 billion in annual export orders for Australian made Toyota cars and parts.
While the local Camry has reached the end of the line, the difference will barely be noticed in showrooms.
That is because next month , a new Toyota Camry goes on sale, fresh off a boat from Japan.