CSC's last, sad chapter

However reluctantly, the Mahoning Valley must now prepare to write the last chapter in the history of the CSC Ltd. plant in Warren, which for most of its 60-year life was known as the home of Copperweld Steel Co.
Until this week, there remained a faint hope that the plant could be saved, that a mill that once turned out some of the highest quality specialty steel in the nation could be brought back to life.
Other options: That hope evaporated when Renaissance Partners announced that the changing dynamics of America's economy presented better investment opportunities than that which could be found at CSC. The investors have better things to do with their money than try to resurrect a steel mill in an area that once produced more steel than almost anyplace else on earth.
Talk about changing dynamics.
There's still some scant hope that parts of the mill might be saved and put back into operation, but the bottom line does not look good.
Before it filed for bankruptcy early this year, CSC employed about 1,375 people and the plant provided at least that many spin-off jobs in support industries.
Those jobs are now gone, and the men and women who held them are eligible for extended unemployment benefits and for retraining assistance. No doubt some will develop new skills and find new and even better jobs, as many Mahoning Valley steel workers did in the late 1970s and early 1980s. For many, though, their jobs at CSC will remain the best jobs they ever had.
A bitter pill: Those workers can't be blamed if they're bitter.
The domestic steel industry and companies like Copperweld were abandoned by national politicians who were so enamored of free trade that they couldn't recognize unfair trade when it was hammering companies into the ground.
Though it is too late for the men and women of CSC and for the communities whose prosperity was tied to the mill, perhaps somewhere in Washington a little red light is going off. Let's hope the message starts getting through that America needs its own steel industry.