Fort Wayne piston plant to close, eliminating 38 jobs

Marty Schladen, The Journal Gazette

mschladen@jg.net

It might be a sign of the region's ebbing manufacturing power: Karl Schmidt Unisia Inc. announced Monday that it would close its Fort Wayne piston plant this year.

The plant employs just 38 production workers. But as Zollner Pistons, the company employed more than 1,200 in its heyday and was the inspiration for the basketball team that later became the Detroit Pistons.