TRANSFER, PA. Workers, company to meet over plant closure deals

Half the plant's work force was furloughed in February 2001.
THE VINDICATOR, YOUNGSTOWN, OHIO
TRANSFER, Pa. -- Employees of the Greenville plant of Marcegaglia USA plan to meet with company officials today, Wednesday and Thursday in hopes of working out some plant closure agreements.
After 50 years of operation, the former Damascus Tube plant is closing.
Randy Lamotte, chairman of United Steelworkers of America Local 3713-04, said the employees have been officially notified that the plant will close Dec. 31.
Only half the plant's 85-member work force has been working since 43 were laid off in February 2001, Lamotte said.
Job retraining
Most of those furloughed have gone through job retraining programs and nearly one-third of them have found new employment, Lamotte said.
All the remaining workers have at least 30 years of service, and the union hopes to work out early retirement packages for some, as well severance and health-benefit packages for everyone, Lamotte said.
The plant, which made stainless steel pipe and tube for the chemical and paper industries, opened in what is now the Greenville-Reynolds Industrial Park in 1952.
The Sharon Steel Corp. bought it in 1973 and it was sold to Company Marcegaglia S.p.A., an Italian company, in a 1993 bankruptcy court sale.
Lamotte said the closing notice wasn't a surprise.
The company has been moving equipment from the plant to a new one it opened in Munhall, Pa., near Pittsburgh, in 1998, he said.
Lamotte said the union believes Marcegaglia was never able to adapt its operation to the American marketplace.
The European pipe and tube market is producer-driven, but the American market is customer-driven and Marcegaglia was never able to adapt to meeting those customer demands, he said.