In a story reported widely in northern California last month, agents from the Department of Industrial Relations showed up unannounced at the tiny Westover Winery, in Castro Valley, and slapped its owners with more than $115,000 in fines and assessments for using volunteer workers.
Crumbling and congested U.S. roadways are driving up costs for U.S. manufacturers as late deliveries and unreliable transportation undermine hard-fought gains in production efficiency, according to U.S. manufacturing executives.
The plant pays an average wage of $24 an hour, plus benefits. The region is losing very good middle-class jobs, said Antonio Castro, president of Local 59G of the Bakery, Confectionery, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International Union.
Citing Nevada’s ability to cut through red tape, the chief executive of Tesla Motors Inc. confirmed Thursday that his electric-car company has chosen a site near Reno for a 6,500-job battery factory.
Speaking with Gov. Brian Sandoval in front of hundreds of supporters on the steps of the Capitol, CEO Elon Musk said “time to execution” was the biggest reason he chose Nevada for the coveted factory. He said speed was more important than financial incentives, which state officials said would total between $675 million and $1.1 billion over 20 years.
California, in particular Gov. Jerry Brown, had lobbied hard to persuade Musk to build his battery factory in the state, where Tesla has its headquarters and where it already builds its popular but expensive vehicles.
The largest manufacturing workforce in the country is based in the Los Angeles, Long Beach and Santa Ana metropolitan area, according to government figures..
In July 2014, among metropolitan areas for which estimates are available, Los Angeles-Long Beach-Santa Ana, California, had the highest employment in manufacturing (510,900). In contrast, Fairbanks, Alaska, Laredo, Texas, and Punta Gorda, Florida, each had 700 workers employed in manufacturing.
A decade ago, nearly 4,000 apparel-making sites operated in Los Angeles County, according to government figures. Fewer than 2,200 remain. Employment has plunged from 90,200 in 1990 to 46,000 last year.
Drone manufacturer Ashima Devices announced Tuesday that it will move its headquarters from Pasadena, Calif., to Reno, Nev., and is expected to bring about 400 jobs with it.
A spokeswoman declined to disclose how many layoffs would occur in Silicon Valley. Cisco, which is San Jose’s biggest employer, has been steadily selling off office buildings and land holdings over the last couple of years as it has shrunk headcount.
The state would exempt Tesla Motors Inc. from some of its toughest environmental regulations as part of an incentive package being discussed with the automaker to build a massive battery factory in California, a key state senator said..
With almost no debate, the state Assembly on Monday unanimously approved a nearly half-a-billion dollar potential tax credit for Northrop Grumman Corp. should it win a new Air Force bomber contract and build the aircraft in California.
Glendale-based Nestle USA is closing its Chatsworth Hot Pockets plant and moving the work to its operation in Mount Sterling, Ky., investing $13 million in expanding the facility and hiring 150 workers.
Both Chevron and its detractors claimed at least partial victory Wednesday, after city leaders approved the oil giant’s long-sought effort to begin a $1 billion upgrade of its century-old refinery, the largest in Northern California.
However, Tesla’s on-again, off-again gigafactory flirtations with its home state have exasperated some outspoken critics of the way that California does business. Venture capitalist Tim Draper has made Tesla’s rebuff of California a talking point for his controversial “Six Californias” initiative. Losing Tesla strikes him as a smack-your-forehead example of the state’s dysfunctional business and political culture.