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Fayette Glass Closing
| Fayette Glass Closing |
Fayette glass plant's closing shatters many
Loss of 340 jobs threatens town's fragile economy
Saturday, November 06, 2004
By Cindi Lash and Jim McKay, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The abrupt closing of the Anchor Glass Container Corp.'s bottle factory in South Connellsville, Fayette County, has devastated employees who jammed into the local fire hall yesterday crying and wringing their hands.
"This area is already in bad shape," said a sobbing Debbie Hinklie, 54, who found out Thursday evening before she reported to the night shift that her job of 36 years was gone.
Directors of Anchor Glass voted Thursday afternoon in Tampa, Fla., to close the plant, citing overcapacity, high shipping costs and other economic reasons.
A few hours later, shocked employees in South Connellsville were escorted from the huge complex that hugs the Youghiogheny River and dominates a significant stretch of the town that has made glass since 1911.
Like many of the 340 who worked at the plant, Hinklie came to the meeting with local politicians and union leaders accompanied by family members. Some brought parents, children and grandchildren to the meeting, which was thick with both smoke and acrimony.
"We can't all live on Wal-Mart wages," said Ursula Burns, 57, who challenged union representatives and asked how the government would help. "I can't start over. Who the hell is going to hire me when there are 20-year-olds to hire?"
Hinklie said her job at Anchor supported her and occasionally helped a son and his four children after her husband, Walter, lost a manufacturing job years ago and was unable to find anything but minimum-wage work as a store clerk.
"It's going to be very hard," Peter Casini, South Connellsville's mayor, said before the meeting began.
The closure is particularly difficult because many of the employees have long tenure with the company and are over the age of 50. During a bankruptcy reorganization in 2002, the federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. assumed control of Anchor's underfunded pension liabilities -- an action that forestalls early retirements with full benefits.
Hinklie said she could have retired at age 55 but that option was taken away with the PBGC's action -- something she said accepted at the time as necessary.
"It's very degrading how they have treated us," she said.
The plant's workers will continue to be paid for 90 days and will receive benefits and 401(k) match payments during that time in lieu of a contractually required plant closing notice, said Richard Baumcratz, a staff representative of the plant's largest union, the Glass, Molders, Pottery, Plastics and Allied International Union. The United Steelworkers union also represents a dozen mold makers.
When the 12 weeks of pay run out, Baumcratz said employees will receive severance of one weeks' salary for each year of service up to 25 years. Those with service over 25 years will receive additional payments of $500 for 25 to 30 years of service, $1,000 for 31 to 35 years, and $2,000 for 36 to 39 years. Those with 40 years of service will be paid $3,000.
The meeting was unruly at times with people shouting at the union representatives in profane language and others challenging government officials who said the closing came as a complete surprise.
"I was shaken," Fayette County Commissioner Vincent Vicites said, noting he found out about the closure when a local reporter called him late Thursday night. "This was a total surprise."
After government officials talked about possible incentive packages that could be used to either persuade Anchor to reopen or to find a buyer for the factory, Erica Jeske stood up and asked why that wasn't done before it closed.
"It's like the stone age in there," she said as her father, Charles Roadman, a 37-year veteran of the plant sat at her side and nervously wove his fingers together. "Who would come in and buy this place. It would be like buying a house that was falling down."
Vicites and other politicians promised to fight the closure and seek other alternatives. They said Gov. Ed Rendell was contacted and he promised to try to intercede with the company.
The plant was one of the largest employers in depressed Fayette County, where the unemployment rate is consistently higher than the other five counties that comprise metropolitan Pittsburgh. In September, the Fayette jobless rate was 9.6 percent, more than double the 4.6 percent rate in Allegheny County.
Connellsville Mayor Judy Reed and other local officials pointed out that the closure is a disaster not just for employees but for other businesses in the region that benefited from the plant or its employees.
"This is terrible news for the Connellsville area. It's a small community," Michael W. Krajovic, president and CEO of the Fay-Penn Economic Development Corp., said. "There will be a significant economic impact."
The riverside factory, which contains two glass-making furnaces and four molding machines, primarily produced beverage and beer glass containers. It recently lost two significant beer industry customers: Latrobe Brewing and D.G. Yuengling & Son, of Pottsville.
Latrobe, a unit of Labatt USA and part of an international beer giant InBev, last year switched production of its distinctively painted green bottles to Owens Brockway, a division of Owens Illinois Glass Container North America. Owens, a longtime LaBatt supplier, refurbished and reopened a closed plant in Brockway, Pa., to make bottles for Latrobe and other customers.
Yuengling, once a customer of the Connellsville plant, now gets green glass bottles from another Anchor Glass facility in Elmira, N.Y., spokeswoman Jennifer Yuengling said yesterday.
"It won't hurt us, but it's a sad thing to see," she said.
Although Anchor immediately ceased production, the company said in a statement that it expects to fully complete the plant closure within 12 months.
The nation's third-largest maker of glass containers blamed excess supply conditions in the glass industry and said the Connellsville plant was chosen for closure after a recently completed analysis of each of the company's 10 facilities.
Anchor's chief executive, Darrin Campbell, said the analysis concluded that the plant's economics could not be materially improved.
"This was a very difficult decision, particularly considering the dedication, talent and hard work of the Connellsville employees," he said in a statement.
At the same time as it announced the closure, Anchor Glass reported a third quarter net loss of $5.9 million on sales of $186.2 million. It said it was pressured by rising energy and raw materials costs, higher freight charges and higher production costs that could not be passed on to its customers. It also blamed hurricanes and other severe weather during the quarter for a drop in sales to its beer and consumer customers.
Baumcratz, the union representative, said the company told him the closure was strictly for economic reasons and that shipping loads of finished product from South Connellsville cost more than from other locations.
Some employees involved in shipping and maintenance will be recalled over the next few weeks to close the plant. Union officials said a failure to report to work will be considered a voluntary resignation. Those who are not called back will be given scheduled times to collect their personal belongings.
(Jim McKay can be reached at 412-263-1322 or at jmckay@post-gazette.com. Cindi Lash can be reached at clash@post-gazette.com or at 412-263-1973.) |
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