FREMONT, California – After 26 years of building Toyota and General Motors cars, New United Motor Manufacturing Incorporated, or NUMMI, closed its doors for good today, leaving 4,700 factory workers jobless.

Workers have been getting laid off in groups as they complete their roles on the assembly lines.

“I was excited and at the same time sad to see my teammates go out as soon as the last car passed our group,” said Edgar Tranco, a NUMMI employee for 8 years.

Religious leaders held a vigil outside the plant as the last Toyota Corolla was made. Religious leaders and government officials are sending a petition asking Toyota officials in Japan to reconsider the closure.

“Twenty-two congressional members sent a letter to Toyota asking them to reconsider the impact of this closure, not just on our state’s economy which is going to cost 2.3 billion dollars to support these folks and retrain them get back to work, but also another 2 billion dollars in trade deficit,” said the Reverend Carol Been of Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice.

The Fremont Board of Supervisors is using stimulus funds to give newly laid-off workers up to 3 years in unemployment benefits, $10,000 in re-training, and 80% coverage of their health care costs.

“I probably won’t go into training, but I’ll definitely take advantage of the medical benefits the government is providing,” said Chris Rojas, a NUMMI employee for three years.

Workers also received severance packages of up to $70,000. Tranco says he’ll spend a month in the Philippines for a vacation while he thinks about his future.

Frank Samonte, an 8-year veteran with NUMMI, says he is hoping the $30,000 severance he expects can hold him over until he finds work.

But there’s a silver lining, Samonte says: “It’s going to be hard for me because I was the only one working at home, but at the same time its good because I get to spend more time with my family.”

The closure will have a negative domino effect throughout California.  An additional 20,000 related jobs are expected to be lost, and replacing all these jobs will cost taxpayers over 2 billion dollars. Balitang America.