About 100 workers hosted a rally protesting against the closure of a glass manufacturing facility in the USA.
Staff from the Anchor Hocking facility in Charleroi, PA, called on Corelle Brands and Anchor Hocking to reconsider closing the plant and moving machinery and jobs 170 miles away to Lancaster, Ohio.
The facility makes glass for the Pyrex cookware brand.
It was announced last week the facility is set to close with the loss of 325 jobs.
The workers want company leadership to sit down with them and find a solution.
Danielle Byrne, vice president of Corelle Brands’ Charleroi division of United Steelworkers Local 53G said the plant closure would devastate Charleroi.
“Not only that, but 300 hardworking people will lose good paying jobs and be without a job,” she said.
State senator Bob Casey wrote a letter to Anchor Hocking CEO Mark Eichhorn, expressing his dismay at the news, noting the 132-year history of glassmaking in the Mon Valley borough.
He asked for a response by October 1 to several questions about why the company decided to close the facility, and urged the company to reconsider.
“The jobs at this plant have provided family-sustaining livelihoods for the tens of thousands of proud workers who have shaped it into the local legacy it is today,” Casey wrote.
“Your sudden announcement to close the plant will upend the lives of Pennsylvania workers who have contributed to your company’s success.”
