The Need to Replenish Vanishing Jobs : Van Nuys auto plant’s demise signals necessity for new economic chapter in L.A. area
Detroit’s troubles continue to take a toll on Southern California.
The last major auto plant in Southern California will close next summer, ending a once-thriving manufacturing sector that brought prosperity and the good life to thousands of families. Not long ago, as many as 15,000 Los Angeles-area workers put together half a million automobiles each year. No longer.
The death of local auto production--the decline began a decade ago--is a harsh reminder that our manufacturing jobs need to be replaced with new ones. Business is changing in Southern California. And, unfortunately, too much of the change involves leaving.
General Motors told 2,600 employees at its sprawling Van Nuys factory last Friday that they will lose their jobs in August, 1992, when the assembly lines come to a permanent halt after 45 years. The 100-acre facility is the last major auto plant in Southern California and the only U.S. source of Chevrolet Camaros and Pontiac Firebirds.
Plummeting sales of these models, and the auto industry trend of situating factories nearer to Midwestern suppliers, prompted the GM decision. The company, which gave notice in 1989 that it would move Camaro and Pontiac production to Ste. Therese in Canada, said it was unable to find a product to make at the Van Nuys plant, which has suffered from labor disputes and quality problems in recent years.
It’s a bitter blow to GM workers and their families. The plant’s shutdown will have a ripple effect on suppliers and businesses, and not just in the San Fernando Valley.
It’s yet another setback to manufacturing in Southern California. The retrenchment in the aerospace industry, for example, has resulted in the loss of 25,000 jobs in the past year. The recession has taken its toll, too. Jobs in durable-goods manufacturing in L.A. County dropped to 504,900 in May from 551,300 a year before.
Of course, GM’s decision to close the Van Nuys plant is more the result of trouble in Detroit than of our own regional economic readjustment. Still, Southern California is the nation’s auto mecca, and while the closing is a sign of the times, it is sad to see our once-booming auto industry become a footnote in history.
The challenge now is for local leaders to recognize it’s time to write a new chapter in the economic development of this region. The future is in luring new jobs and businesses here.
