Dana Canada Layoffs

The London Free Press is reporting that 350 of the 410 workers at the Dana Canada plant in St Marys have been given layoff notices. Layoffs will begin in June and continue into July.

The plant on James Street makes frames for Ford's F series pickup trucks. Dana has lost the Ford contract so it is possible the layoffs are permanent and the plant will close. If a new contract for another model or with another company were secured it could take up to a year to get up and running with the new product.

Dana is St Marys, Ontario's largest employer and eliminated the third shift, laying off 108, in August 2006.

Flooding

Yesterday, warm temperatures that melted snow creating 125 mm of water as well as 25 mm of rain and caused flooding in St Marys. This morning, the Thames River and Trout Creek were 70 mm lower but the Flats and Kinpark, shown above, were still under water.

704 cubic metres of water per second was flowing through the town yesterday afternoon. St Marys hasn't seen that much water since the spring melt in 1977.