Toyota Motor Corp. is closing California's last automobile plant, but that isn't keeping the factory from asking the state for $2million in taxpayer money for recent training that made some of its workers better car builders.
The automaker says it deserves to be paid back money it spent on training this year at its Fremont plant under a Feb. 27 agreement with the state's Employment Training Panel.
But critics are incensed, noting that there won't be any more auto assembly plants left in the state where workers can make use of their training.
"This has the appearance of some kind of dreadful corporate welfare," said Barry Broad, a labor union lobbyist who serves as the panel's acting chairman. "We can't in good conscience give money to train people how to do jobs that are about to disappear forever."
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