Strike deadline approaches for Dana unionized workers
POTTSTOWN -- Contract negotiations between the owners of Pottstown’s Dana automotive plant and the United Auto Workers union are going down to the wire.
Kelly Moore, external communication manager for the Toledo, Ohio-based automotive giant, confirmed that the 18-month contract expires as of "12:01 a.m. Sunday."
She said negotiations have been ongoing in Detroit since May 30.
"Our first and foremost intention is to reach an agreement with the union," Moore said, "and we will continue to negotiate regardless of the deadline passing."
Negotiations are tied to another Dana plant in Lima, Ohio, which is "part of a master contract," Moore said.
A call to the UAW headquarters in Pottstown was not returned before deadline.
However a 24-year veteran of the plant, who asked not to be identified, did tell The Mercury that the major issues in the negotiations are "health care and wages."
The worker said the union had taken a strike authorization vote.
"It’s time for them to give and they don’t want to give so I guess we’ll go on strike," said the worker.
The Pottstown plant on South Keim Street currently employs 480 workers and is one of the largest employers in Pottstown.
Over the past two years, the plant has initiated several slow-downs and laid-off and then re-hired workers.
Two years ago, the firm announced 11,000 job cuts world wide.
In August 2000, Dana idled about 900 workers in Reading when it closed its Parish Structural Products Group.
The Pottstown facility is part of Dana’s Spicer Driveshaft division and manufactures parts for the driveshafts of light trucks and sport utility vehicles. That group alone has 52 facilities and eight research and development centers in more than 20 countries. In all, Dana Corp. has some 300 operations in more than 30 countries.
