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Dana To Close Marion Driveshaft Plant

By Scott Sarvay
By Max Resnik
March 30, 2011 Updated Mar 30, 2011 at 6:09 PM EDT

MARION, Ind. (Indiana’s NewsCenter) - The Marion community is preparing to watch more than 150 manufacturing jobs leave town.

DANA Corporation has announced it will close its driveshaft facility in Marion and merge those operations with DANA’s Fort Wayne plant, which focuses on axels. DANA’s Marion plant provides driveshafts and universal joints for Chrysler, Ford, General Motors, Toyota and a number of other construction companies.

Currently, there are 165 steel workers at the Marion plant. One hundred workers will be offered positions in Fort Wayne. Others could receive severance pay.

Steve Shively, President of the United Steel Workers Local 7113, is advising workers in his union to accept the agreement and commute to Fort Wayne. Today he said, “I think it's a good option for the people to have a chance to keep a good paying job within the union. Yes. These type of paying jobs aren't that easy to have right now so yeah, I recommend them taking the jobs.”

Marion Mayor Wayne Seybold is optimistic that a deal can be reached with DANA to keep the plant in Marion. He says the city has offered DANA future tax incentives to remain in Marion. He says the city offered General Motors a similar agreement that kept their facilities in town.

At the same time, Seybold says, “We're not Dana, Indiana. We're Marion, Indiana. You know, so, if the plant leaves we're out recruiting companies all the time. You know this would be the first plant loss we've had in seven years, and in that environment, that's a good record to have I believe.”

DANA's Marion facility opened in the 1950's and employed up to 1400 people in the late 1970s.

Dana's Marion facility is slated to close in mid-2013.

Check out the video for a full timeline of DANA’s impact on the Marion community.



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