DANA Automotive leaves Bristol for Mexico

by Lewis Loflin

In 2003 the local government worked with DANA to keep unions out, a longtime anti-labor policy of Bristol City Government. DANA claims the Union had nothing to do with their relocation to Mexico, but Mayor Weberling whines anyway they can't get auto part plants to locate to Bristol because of the DANA union. Weberling said the city in the past six months has lost two automotive company prospects that feared Dana being unionized would make it more likely a union would organize their workers, although Virginia and Tennessee are right-to-work states.

Quoting the October 21 2005 Kingsport Times-News, "They (Dana officials) said it's purely economic and they had no problem with the city or state...This is NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement) at its best...We're willing to do anything we can do to keep them," Weberling said. "We'll have to make the best of a bad situation."

Yet anyone with any brains at all knows auto parts plants are leaving the nation in droves union or not. The closing Teleflex Automotive in Lebanon, Virginia in late 2004 along with Assured Castings in the August 2005 and TRW earlier in the year points to how bad the problem really is. While recent price hikes in steel and a 40% power rate increase in Bristol are factors, DANA's payroll in Bristol currently exceeds $8 million – not including benefits, but can be done in Mexico for $1.3 million without benefits, safety, or environmental regulations. We should also note the loss of 270 good jobs can cost an additional loss of 400 lower paid service jobs.

U.S. Rep. Rick Boucher, D-9th, claims the pending job losses reverse a regional trend of job growth. During the past 10 months, more than 1,000 new jobs have been announced at a dozen facilities across Southwest Virginia and Northeast Tennessee. The city gained more than 2,300 net jobs between 1981 and 2001, while Washington County netted more than 8,700 during the same period. "If you look at what is lost, (it) was mostly sewing factories and apparel industries that didn’t pay much and had no health or retirement benefits...Overall, you would have to say the jobs that have come since are better. Not all have benefits and some still pay minimum wage, but many are better."

This website has presented to Congressman Boucher a request for just what those jobs were, he has refused to answer with any specifics. Let's note he said "announced," which in the past have been grossly inflated. If these new jobs are so great, why does the poverty level keep climbing? Why did Bristol lose population with those 2700 "net" jobs? The Bristol area alone lost over 1000 jobs in 2003, there has been no major hiring in anything outside restaurants. The 8700 he claims for Washington County is absurd, unless we count minimum wage jobs held by kids. Bristol is also having budget problems due to falling tax revenues, traced to lower incomes.

DANA closing doors

Quoting BHC October 21, 2005

It’s just another loss due to NAFTA, with jobs going to Mexico instead of staying here. It’s a sad day for Bristol...Built in 1988, the nearly 154,000-square-foot plant, which sits on 22½ acres, has an appraised value of $3.1 million. A Dana axle manufacturing plant in Buena Vista (VA) also will close, idling about 275 workers...Closing the Bristol plant could continue "well into 2006 and possibly even 2007," company spokesman Todd Romain said, adding that specifics hadn’t been finalized. "We recognize that taking these steps is very painful, and we regret having to close this facility," he said. "But the competitive environment in the automotive sector has forever changed, and we, like many others in our industry, face difficult and challenging circumstances."

In terms of local economic impact, the plant closing would affect about 400 other service jobs, said Steb Hipple, professor of economics and business at East Tennessee State University in Johnson City. "Those salaries are above average, so it will have a secondary impact of 1.4 jobs per employee," he said. "It sustains that kind of high ratio. "There has been an erosion of manufacturing jobs from the U.S. to Mexico and Asia for decades, and the people in Washington do not seem very concerned about it because it’s market-driven...

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