Marshall Gets a Sabre Industries Plant and a Two-Day Career Fair

A manufacturer that builds transmission towers, poles and electrical enclosures is opening a plant in Marshall, and it is holding a two-day career fair to start hiring, the Marshall News Messenger reported Monday.

Sabre Industries plans to open the plant at 2938 Brown in Marshall, near Interstate 20. The career fair runs from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday, Nov. 4, and Thursday, Nov. 5, at Pioneer Co. Work, 307 S. Wellington St.

Who Sabre is hiring

The company is recruiting for several kinds of jobs, including skilled trades, equipment operators, building systems and professional roles, according to the newspaper. Applicants are encouraged to apply before they arrive to speed up the process.

"Whether you're an experienced skilled trades professional or looking for a fresh start, we'd love to meet you," said Dee Dee Dunigan, Sabre's talent acquisition lead.

City officials listed the benefits Sabre offers. They include competitive pay, pay raises based on performance, several shift options, help paying for work gear, continuing education and tuition assistance, paid time off and holidays, and full insurance benefits.

Downtown Marshall, photographed in 2019. This photo is for illustration. Photo: Renelibrary / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.

About the company

Sabre is headquartered in Alvarado and serves electric utilities, telecommunications networks and data center operators, the Messenger reported. Besides transmission towers and poles, it makes electrical enclosures. The company also has facilities in Fort Worth and in Bossier City, Louisiana.

City officials said the location makes sense for workers across the region. "The Marshall location's proximity to Interstate 20 will make it accessible not only to Marshall residents, but also to prospective employees commuting from Longview, Kilgore, Tyler, and northwestern Louisiana," they said.

What the city's economic development office says

Rush Harris, executive director of Marshall Economic Development, said the corporation is looking forward to the fair. "We are very excited to see new businesses and employment opportunities for our citizens," he said.

Harris said the corporation will keep working with new and existing companies to help them find skilled workers. He named the partners it relies on: the Texas Workforce Commission, Workforce Solutions East Texas, the Marshall ISD career and technical education program, and four colleges inside Marshall. Those are Texas State Technical College, Wiley University, East Texas Baptist University and Panola College Marshall.

He also invited businesses to join a group called the Workforce and Education Alignment Group, or WE Align, which meets on the first Tuesday of each month to match school programs with the skills the region needs.

For more Texas manufacturing news, read about Carrier's $600 million Fort Worth plant and a $1.3 billion chip testing plant in south Fort Worth.

Our view

This is good news for working families in and around Marshall. Skilled trades jobs that build the towers and poles that carry power are real work, and they let a man or woman support a family without leaving home. A plant that offers tuition help and shift options is also a plant that wants to keep its people.

Marshall has done the quiet work of lining up its schools, its colleges and its workforce partners. That kind of planning does not make headlines, but it is why companies come. If you know someone looking for steady work, tell them about the fair Wednesday and Thursday.