SHATTERED: GLENSHAW GLASS STARTS SHUTDOWN PROCESS
Published: Tuesday, November 23, 2004
By Jim McKay
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Despite an 11th-hour protest by union workers, financially troubled Glenshaw Glass Co. yesterday stopped production and, barring a last-minute rescue, will begin draining glass-making tanks at 7 this morning, setting the stage for the final shutdown.
Court-appointed trustee Margaret Good, of The Meridian Group, ordered the action late in the afternoon after temporarily delaying draining the two tanks while two unions considered seeking a court-ordered stay. But that effort failed to materialize by day’s end.
“It’s a sad day,” Lou Brudnock, president of Local 134 of the Glass, Molders, Pottery, Plastics and Allied Workers International Union, said yesterday. “This plant has been like a mother to thousands of families throughout 109 years.”
Glenshaw Glass workers, who learned Friday night and on Saturday that the factory would be closed, lined Route 8 in front of the plant yesterday morning carrying picket signs decrying the event. The closing will affect more than 300 workers, some of whom were previously laid off.
“Where do you start over?” asked Rocco Carrieri, 56, a 30-year veteran of the plant. “Thirty years and on the street. What am I supposed to do? Flip hamburgers, super-size them? It’s just disgusting.”
Good, appointed as trustee early this month, argued that the plant’s customers started to flee as news of the company’s troubles surfaced in the media, and that the losses the facility incurred were too great to keep it in operation.
Glenshaw Glass was put into receivership Nov. 5, the day after Anchor Glass Container Corp. abruptly closed its plant in South Connellsville, Fayette County, idling some 340 workers there.
The Glenshaw Glass plant, which has operated in the Glenshaw section of Shaler since 1895, has been hit by a series of unfortunate events compounded by rising costs of natural gas, a large operating expense and international overcapacity in the glass container industry.
On Sept. 17, two days after the company disclosed to employees that it was running out of money, the plant suffered extensive damage to its furnaces and other equipment in flooding caused by Hurricane Ivan. While workers were repairing two furnaces knocked out by high waters, a third developed a fiery leak that knocked it out of production, too.
The flooding damage not only temporarily idled production but chased away Sun Capital Partners Inc., of Boca Raton, Fla. The potential investor had been in discussions with former owner John Ghaznavi before the flooding occurred. An insurance claim for $25 million in flood damage also was disallowed, bankers familiar with the situation said.
Ghaznavi was ousted when the receivership was ordered by Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Robert Horgos. The action installing Good as trustee was forced by a lender, PNC Financial Services Group.
PNC spokesman Patrick McMahon said the bank was saddened by the day’s events
“Receivership was the last, best option to provide time to find long-term solutions but it became clear that the overwhelming losses could not be overcome,” he said.
After the trusteeship was imposed, Good asked union members to take concessions that Brudnock estimated would reduce pay and benefits by about 20 percent. The concessions were rejected by union members in a close vote.
Brudnock did not want the unions to take the blame for the shutdown.
He said employees have taken concessions three times in the past and may have accepted another round of cuts if Good had given them another opportunity to do so. The blue-collar workers were upset the night of the voting that concessions were not equally applied to salaried workers.
“The concession issue has been blown out of proportion,” Brudnock said. “People would have given her concessions had she handled it differently.”
Plant leaders of the two unions, which also included the United Steelworkers, were hoping for a delay in the shutdown because they think the plant will be more attractive to a buyer running than closed. They also fear that glass-making furnaces lined with refractory brick may not survive a shutdown in shape good enough to be restarted.
“The tanks are fragile,” said Gary Eichler, president of United Steelworkers Local 21 at the plant.
Good said she is spending a “lot of money” to make sure the plant’s two remaining furnaces are shut down in an orderly way that should permit them to be restarted. But she said the older of the two furnaces would likely require repairs before it could be put back into operation.
The trustee also said she is continuing to hold discussions with potential buyers of the plant, which makes beer and wine bottles and other glass containers. Pittsburgh Brewing, the maker of Iron City beer, and Yuengling Brewing, were both customers.
“We’re still pursing the concept of a sale,” Good said yesterday. “There are two or three [potential] buyers right now and we’re still getting calls from people.”
Brudnock, the union officer, said he has spoken with one group that has expressed interest in the plant even if it is closed, but he declined to name the group because of a confidentiality agreement.
“These investors said even if they shut down, they’re still looking to buy the plant,” Brudnock said. “But we’re facing reality.”
“Do you want to buy a running plant … or are you going to buy one stone cold where you have to spend millions to get it up and running? It doesn't seem realistic that would happen.”
Pittsburgh Brewing has been mentioned as a possible suitor but the company’s vice chairman, Joseph Piccirilli, said he only toured the facility to see what bottle inventory was available.
“I have enough headaches,” Piccirilli said -- Pittsburgh Brewing recently finished paying $1.5 million to clean up delinquent water bills. “I shouldn’t say headaches. My plate is full. We're doing well. That’s my primary focus.”
Eichler, the plant’s USW representative, said the decision to close the plant was unexpected by him.
Now 52, with two children in college, he has worked at Glenshaw for 34 years. He started the day after his high school graduation. “It’s a shock,” he said.
jmckay@post-gazette.com
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