September 06, 2008

Wheeling-Pitt plans to idle some lines

The State Journal reported that Wheeling Pittsburgh Steel Corp plans to idle its Allenport plant as well as two of three galvanizing lines at its Marlins Ferry mill.

The report cited Mr Jim Bouchard chairman Wheeling Pittsburgh Steel as saying that as many as 342 workers could be affected by the reductions but it is too soon to say how many jobs will be eliminated. He said that "Again, nobody has been laid off.”

Mr Bouchard added that the company complied with the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification that requires larger employers to give workers a 60-day notice of shutdowns and major layoffs. He said "We just issued the WARN notice and over the next 60 days we will bargain with the union on retirements, transfers, everything."

He said that closing the Allenport plant and eliminating the two galvanizing lines clearly is part of the right sizing. He said "It breaks my heart to have to do it. We are not here to shut down facilities, we a here to build. But this needs to be done so that the company can return to profitability and stay profitable."

The report added that Mr Bouchard has on several occasions spoken of the need to right size the company to bring costs in line and in October had confirmed that they were considering closing Allenport's cold mill and shifting its production to their Steubenville plant and in November, when Wheeling-Pitt's merged with Esmark, he promised a company wide restructuring.