Brick maker lays off 34 employees

COLUMBIANA (AP) -- A local plant that may close early next year has laid off more workers.
The National Refractories & amp; Minerals plant dismissed 34 employees Friday.
Jeff McCallister, president of United Steel Workers Local 523B, which represents the workers, said another 30 employees lost their jobs one week earlier.
The plant now has an estimated 30 union workers left, and McCallister expects at least half of them to be laid off in the next few weeks.
He said the company issued a 60-day plant closing notice Nov. 15, which means the plant could be closed Jan. 15. The company has said it is trying to sell the plant but hasn't identified potential buyers.
The plant, formerly known as Kaiser Refractories, was founded in 1956 and once employed more than 200 workers. It makes bricks for blast furnaces, coke ovens and foundry cupolas.
McCallister said the problem for the company hasn't been a lack of orders, but a lack of money to buy materials because of cash flow problems.