‘A sad day’
World Kitchen Plant in Charleroi shutting down Friday
Daniele Byrne expects the next few days to be filled with emotion at the World Kitchen plant in Charleroi.
About 100 employees will end their tenures there Friday, the final day of production. About 50 more, such as Byrne, will remain until April 25, and two union employees will be on the job through the end of May.
“Friday is supposed to be the last day of production,” Byrne said Wednesday. “Friday morning at 6 a.m., they’ll shut them down.”
Byrne, vice president of United Steelworkers 53G, which represents workers at the plant, said she would see those who work the 2:30-to-11 p.m. shift Wednesday for the last time.
“It’s devastating, it really is,” she said, adding she’ll be handling scheduling and similar duties for the next two weeks, but many who remain aren’t certain what work they will be doing.
Employees were informed in September that operations would be shifted to an Anchor Hocking glass plant in Lancaster Ohio.
It marks the end of an era at a facility that has been a mainstay in the Mon Valley for 132 years.
It’s a place where generations of family members have plied their trade or family members have worked together, such as Byrne and her husband, Rob. She said her grandfather worked at the plant for 50 years.
Byrne, 57, said three meetings were held Tuesday with the Mon Valley Unemployment committee. No severance package has been agreed upon, but Byrne said there will be a meeting sometime next week to continue those negotiations.
Mark Eichorn, CEO of Anchor Hocking, said there would be about 150 positions open at the Lancaster plant. Byrne said not a single Charleroi employee has accepted a position in Lancaster but more than 100 have moved on to other jobs.
Attempts to contact a representative of Anchor Hocking Wednesday went unanswered.
Byrne and her husband, who each have worked at least 35 years at the plant, will be seeking work elsewhere.
“I feel bad for everybody else, but this is doubly hard for me,” Byrne said. “This is both of our income. (Rob) won’t have trouble getting a job because he’s an electrician and he was a hydraulic mechanic here for 29 years.”
There have been many efforts to keep the plant open, and its closure has been delayed on three occasions. Byrne reiterated her stance that she will fight until the end.
“We still have a little bit of hope that something will come through before Friday,” she said.
Borough officials have joined the fight to keep the plant open.
“Our intention always was, first and foremost, to fight as hard as we could to keep it open,” said Kristin Hopkins-Calcek, Charleroi council president. “We put up a good fight. We’ve put as much pressure on as we could the last few months and will continue to put pressure on. We’re just trying to support our employees there and the community. It affects everyone in the valley, especially in the borough.”
She said PA CareerLink in Charleroi is offering its services to assist those who will be seeking employment.
“It absolutely is (a sad day for the borough),” said Joe Manning, borough manager. “It’s part of our identity, part of our DNA – glassmaking. It’s what the whole community was founded on and for this to be the last operation and for them to be closing, it’s a gut punch to this community.”
Councilman Larry Celaschi, whose grandfather worked at the plant, said he will continue to make calls to see if there could be a “last-minute miracle” to stave off the plant’s closure.
“You just have to wonder if they’re going to pull that same stunt with a last-minute notification for the workers to stay on,” he said. “If we could only get just a little more time.”
No formal ceremony was planned for Friday. Byrne said the lunch whistle will sound one more time at noon, a practice that returned in recent days and allowed different people the chance to sound it. Those who have participated have written in a journal to go with a time capsule to be buried at a future date.
Also Friday, the flag at the facility will be taken down and replaced with one commemorating the plant’s many years.
The plant opened in 1893 as MacBeth-Evans Glass Co. Ownership has changed hands numerous times in its long history, with the most recent owners being New York-based Centre Lane Partners, following its acquisition of the appliances division of Instant Brands. Anchor Hocking is another company under the Center Lane umbrella.
“The whole scenario is really sad,” Hopkins-Calcek said. “No one makes glass, no one makes Pyrex like we do in Charleroi. We feel our legacy has been stolen. It’s a sad day for everyone.”
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