At a glance
1952: Dana Holding Corporation’s Marion plant opens. It manufactures driveshafts for trucks and automobiles.
Late 1970s: The plant’s workforce is at its peak, employing 1,200 to 1,400 workers.
2000: Plant is awarded the Malcolm Baldridge National Quality Award for manufacturing.
2002: Dana announces 38 layoffs, one year after the Toledo, Ohio-based corporate office would reduce its workforce by 15 percent companywide, in November. One month later, Dana announces it will lay off 37 more of the then-362 employees with the closure of its Spicer Driveshaft Manufacturing plant, which would be moved to Greensboro, N.C.
2005: Plant lays off 20 more employees.
2006: Dana Corp. files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. As a result, retirees are left without company-provided health care. By 2008, several heavy-duty line machines were removed from the facility; total employment ranges from 250 to 280, down from 330 in 2007.
Tuesday: The United Steelworkers ratify a new contract with Dana, and it is announced that the Marion plant’s operations will be moved to the Fort Wayne facility. About 165 employees remain at the facility, which is slated to close in 2013.
Dana Holding Corp. will close its Marion plant by mid-2013, officials announced Tuesday.
Chuck Hartlage, spokesperson for the Maumee-based company, said the plant is consolidating with the Fort Wayne business.
“We will be moving production of drive shafts from Marion to the Fort Wayne plant,” he said.
The move will affect the Marion plant’s 165 employees. As many as 100 will be given the opportunity to transfer to the Fort Wayne plant, while the others will be given severance pay, Hartlage said. The plant employs about 165 people. He couldn’t comment on what the severance package would entail.
Employees were given the news Tuesday, Hartlage said. Though he expects some employees to transfer, he doesn’t know how many will take the company up on the offer. He also said he didn’t know what would happen if more than 100 people wanted to transfer.
Steve Shively, president of the United Steelworkers Local 7113, also said he didn’t know how many people would transfer. He estimated 20 to 25 employees are currently eligible for retirement.
Shively participated in contract negotiations, which began Feb. 1. He and others fought to keep the Marion plant open, and they negotiated with officials to offer employees the opportunity to transfer.
“We tried to change their minds on closing the plant but, that being said, this was something they were going to do,” he said.
“Of course we’re not happy with plans scheduled to close our plant in 2013, but I think we’re happy with being able to retain some jobs in Fort Wayne,” he said.
Shively said Dana has announced it would close other plants in the past, but those plants are still open and running.
“They gave us no timeline for when it’s going to start,” he said about the consolidation.
Until then, employees will continue reporting for work in Marion.
“Dana said this was a hard decision to make because our plant has been an efficient plant, and we have good, hardworking people at Marion,” he said.
Hartlage said a timetable is still being discussed, and it’s unclear when the move would begin. But he said the move is expected to be complete by mid-2013.
“There’s a firm schedule that’s still being ironed out,” he said.
He said officials decided to consolidate the plants to ensure Dana is operating at its fullest capacity long-term. Transferring operations to Fort Wayne is convenient because the two businesses are located near one another.
Dana officials are constantly studying their operation, Hartlage said, but he doesn’t know when they began discussing the consolidation.
“We’re always looking at our overall manufacturing footprint,” he said, noting the decision to close the plant was difficult.
Roy DeBoy, a retiree of the Marion plant, said there have been rumors about the plant closing for years. He worked at the plant for 30 years before retiring in 1996, and he said there were rumors even then that the business would close.
“There were rumors out there that we wouldn’t be there long enough to retire,” he said.
Though he isn’t in touch with any current employees, he said he wishes them the best of luck.
“There’s nothing they can do to prevent them from moving,” he said. “They’re going to do what they’re going to do.”
DeBoy was saddened to hear Tuesday the plant was closing.
“We took concessions over the years to keep the plant going,” he said. “It’s just sad. It’s going to be another empty plant in Marion — another big, empty plant.”
Marion Mayor Wayne Seybold said things could still turn around for Dana in Marion. The city offered the company a deal to stay in the city. City officials haven’t heard whether Dana will accept or reject the agreement.
“We’ve offered Dana the same type of deal we offered General Motors, which saved that plant,” he said.
He couldn’t comment on the details of the offer.
City officials are working with union members and members of the plant’s management. Though Dana officials announced Tuesday the plant would close by mid-2013, Seybold said the strong offer to remain in Marion is still on the table.
“They’re not going to get that same type of deal out of Fort Wayne,” he said.
Though Seybold said the city doesn’t have a say in whether plants stay in Marion or move elsewhere, he said the city is trying to make sure Dana officials understand what the offer means before the plant makes a business decision.
He said it’s important to try and keep the plant and its workers in Marion.
“We feel strongly about our employees here in Marion,” he said. “We think they’ve done a great job for Dana and made it a very strong facility.”
Seybold said he’s not concerned about the plant closing yet, because officials made a similar announcement in 2007, saying the plant could close by 2011.
But Seybold said a lot of the work is going to not only Fort Wayne, but also Mexico, which becomes problematic for the city.
“The problem is, with Dana you’re fighting the international union that, for some reason, would rather have jobs in Fort Wayne than in Marion,” he said.
Tim Eckerle, executive director of the Grant County Economic Growth Council, said the mayor has been aggressive in the past year and-a-half in trying to get the plant to stay.
“I think it’s important to keep every job we can,” he said.
He said Tuesday was a sad day.
“The biggest focus is on the families directly involved,” he said. “Everything else is just random numbers and abstract.”
Shively said he was aware the city’s offer was still on the table, but he didn’t know if Dana officials would accept the proposal.
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