Port Strike Hits Home
October 4, 2002
By Joe Goldeen
"Pride" and "sadness," words not usually associated with each other, sum up the feelings of those connected with south Stockton's Dana Corp. manufacturing plant. Thursday, Dana celebrated its recognition as one of the 10 best plants in the nation. It is efficient and profitable, and its sole customer considers it an outstanding supplier.
"Pride" and "sadness," words not usually associated with each other, sum up the feelings of those connected with south Stockton's Dana Corp. manufacturing plant.
Thursday, Dana celebrated its recognition as one of the 10 best plants in the nation. It is efficient and profitable, and its sole customer considers it an outstanding supplier.
Today, it is shut down -- with most of its work force of 221 sent home without pay -- because it has run out of the parts it takes to assemble truck frames for Fremont's New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. plant, or NUMMI.
Dana is a direct victim of the lockout of West Coast dockworkers by shippers and marine-terminal operators, who want to employ new technology. They can't reach agreement, however, with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, which wants to protect the jobs of its 10,500 members, including 55 at the Port of Stockton.
"I don't think anybody's prepared for something that comes up this quick," Dana product technician Hector Torres said, concerned the plant may be shut down all of next week. "I just wish (the shippers and dockworkers) would hurry up and get it over with. It not only affects us, it affects everybody."
Dana's Stockton plant Thursday celebrated its recognition by IndustryWeek magazine as one of the 10 best industrial plants in North America. Other winners include plants operated by such well-known names as Boeing, Honeywell and Medtronic.
After workers were feted with a catered steak-and-lobster lunch and heard congratulatory speeches from Stockton Mayor Gary Podesto and industry representatives, they were handed information on unemployment benefits and a phone number to call to check daily on the status of their jobs.
It was a bittersweet day for those in attendance. Podesto felt "mixed emotion" while making a presentation on behalf of the city: "pride for Dana Corp. and sadness for the port situation."
Plant manager Tim Reed said Dana workers assemble the frames used for 12 models of Toyota Tacoma pickup manufactured exclusively by NUMMI.
"As of Monday, we'll be going day by day. We only run when NUMMI runs," Reed said, explaining that Dana's frames are assembled and shipped just in time for use at the Fremont auto plant. The NUMMI plant shut down at midnight Wednesday.
Dana quality manager Raul Ragunton said that under normal circumstances, the plant ships 12 trailers loaded with frames per day to NUMMI. The last trailer for this week went out Wednesday night.
The 143 parts Dana uses to assemble each truck frame are manufactured in Japan, shipped to the United States and trucked to Stockton from the Port of Oakland, the largest in Northern California. It is that continuous flow of parts that supports NUMMI's just-in-time manufacturing schedule.
With the lockout by the Pacific Maritime Association affecting all 29 ports in California, Oregon and Washington, those parts are stranded on ships idling in port and moored in San Francisco Bay, or stored in locked port warehouses.
Dana employees hope the labor dispute is resolved quickly so they can get back to work.
"The company is taking care of us," welder Narciso Cardoza said. He and his fellow workers are prepared to call in at 5 a.m. every day starting Monday to see if they can return to work.
Honoring the Stockton plant fell to IndustryWeek's David Drickhamer, who flew out from Cleveland to tell Dana employees that they are not just doing something right -- which is difficult enough -- they are doing something great.
"The circumstances may be a bit strange, but this is a day of celebration of your success," he said to the staff assembled outside the plant Thursday morning.
"Great manufacturers do more than just survive. They prosper," Drickhamer said. He called the Stockton plant "one of the world's premier automotive suppliers" but cautioned the workers: "Don't let this success breed contentment."
Podesto said that since Dana came to Stockton in 1994, "You really put us on the map. Every time we can get our name out there with some good news is certainly a pleasure for us."
NUMMI also sent a representative to the celebration. Linda McColgan told Dana workers that Toyota's eight-year "experiment" with assembling a key automotive component at an outside plant has created an "outstanding relationship," and she encouraged workers to keep doing what they are doing.
Torres, his stomach full of food and his mind full of good thoughts about the job he and his co-workers are doing, sounded upbeat after obtaining information on how to apply for unemployment: "We'll make it through. We'll be OK."
By the numbers
* 1: Number of days Stockton's Dana Corp. has been shut down.
* 12: Average number of trailers that leave the Stockton Dana plant daily bound for New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. in Fremont.
* 143: Number of parts Dana workers use to assemble a Toyota Tacoma pickup frame.
* 221: Number of families losing wages because of the shutdown, which is related directly to the lockout of dockworkers at West Coast ports.
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