CSC Program extends aid for workers

The program provides training funds and extends unemployment benefits for workers hurt by imports.
By CYNTHIA VINARSKY
VINDICATOR BUSINESS WRITER
WARREN -- Unemployment benefits and funds for job retraining will be extended for up to a year for some furloughed CSC Ltd. workers, now that the troubled steel mill has been approved for new aid from the U.S. Department of Labor.
U.S. Rep. Sherrod Brown's office confirmed Wednesday that the Labor Department informally approved Trade Adjustment Assistance for CSC employees.
Officials at United Steelworkers of America Local 2243 were notified Wednesday and credited Brown, of Lorain, D-13th, for pushing the measure through. The congressman's district includes the western section of Trumbull County, where many CSC employees live, but the plant is not in his district.
The announcement is one bright spot for about 1,300 CSC workers, most of them jobless since the steel-bar mill ran out of money and closed last month.
Decline: The number of employees at the plant had been dwindling gradually since the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy Jan. 12.
CSC attributes its troubles to several factors, including competition from a flood of underpriced foreign steel, an overall slump in the economy and problems related to the company's $100 million modernization program.
What the aid is: Trade Adjustment Assistance was established under the Trade Act of 1974 to help workers whose employment has been adversely affected by increased imports.
It will help to fund up to two years of retraining for employees who qualify and will provide up to two six-month extensions of unemployment benefits for CSC workers who are enrolled in approved training programs.
It will be administered by the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.
Without the aid program, most laid-off CSC workers qualified for 26 weeks of unemployment benefits. Those benefits amount to 50 percent of a worker's average weekly wage, up to a maximum of $303 for a single person and $407 for those with three or more dependents.
Brown's press secretary, Ted Miller, said the Department of Labor won't formally announce the award until late this week or early next week. He said Brown contacted Elaine Chao, the U.S. secretary of labor, early this week to lobby for CSC.
Seeking more time: In a related matter, Gov. Bob Taft sent a letter to CSC lenders late Wednesday, asking them to allow the steel producer more time to find a buyer.
Lenders have set a Friday deadline for the intact sale of the company. After that, they want U.S. Bankruptcy Court in Youngstown to order it to be dismantled and sold piece by piece.
Taft met Wednesday morning with John Kubilis, president of United Steelworkers Local 2243, which represents about 1,100 CSC hourly employees.
Kubilis reported that there are two prospective buyers, Taft wrote, and that one may submit a letter of intent to buy the plant soon. The governor also noted that Locker Associates, a consultant hired to evaluate the plant, has determined that it is in good condition and should be attractive to a host of buyers.
The governor wrote that the permanent shutdown of the mill would be devastating to the Youngstown-Warren area and Northeast Ohio.
"I will continue to do all I can to help CSC succeed," Taft wrote. "Based on the information that has been presented by the CSC union and others, I do not believe that we are yet at the point of no return."
CSC officials could not be reached, and Kubilis was not available.