Posted on 01/22/2015 1:46:47 PM PST by Olog-hai
U.S. Steel says it will lay off more than 350 workers in East Chicago, Indiana, as it plans to temporarily close its tin mill.
Company spokeswoman Sarah Cassella tells The Times in Munster that layoffs will begin in mid-March. She declined to comment on how long the plant will be closed for.
Cassella says low-priced tin product imports have hurt domestic business. …
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
BILLY JOEL
“Allentown”
Well we’re living here in Allentown
And they’re closing all the factories down
Out in Bethlehem they’re killing time
Filling out forms
Standing in line
Well our fathers fought the Second World War
Spent their weekends on the Jersey Shore
Met our mothers in the USO
Asked them to dance
Danced with them slow
And we’re living here in Allentown
But the restlessness was handed down
And it’s getting very hard to stay
Well we’re waiting here in Allentown
For the Pennsylvania we never found
For the promises our teachers gave
If we worked hard
If we behaved
So the graduations hang on the wall
But they never really helped us at all
No they never taught us what was real
Iron and coke
And chromium steel
And we’re waiting here in Allentown
But they’ve taken all the coal from the ground
And the union people crawled away
Every child had a pretty good shot
To get at least as far as their old man got
But something happened on the way to that place
They threw an American flag in our face
Well I’m living here in Allentown
And it’s hard to keep a good man down
But I won’t be getting up today
And it’s getting very hard to stay
And we’re living here in Allentown
Just like a ‘temporary’ tax hike.
Husband of wife’s friend got laid off from Lear Jet last week. 650 total got their pink slips.
The Crisis is Over
Probably would only take a small tariff on import tin to keep this plant open. Not sure if this is a union shop or not.
Incredible that they spout that BS with a straight face; here in the northeast we’re not just losing financial jobs to other countries - we’re still losing jobs to other states due to the high costs of socialism. We’re losing the Mercedes HQ here in NJ to Atlanta; more foreclosures coming...
Indiana went right to work a couple of years ago, but this is right up near Chicago, my guess is it has to be union.
Gonna be really fun to see what happens if they reopen and then take a non-union stand there.
“Michael, we’re bigger than US Steel. And that’s not saying much.”
It is. At which point the union would demand more and more and the cycle would repeat.
They should move the plant South.
“There isn’t a single segment of the economy that isn’t better off today than when I took office 6 years ago!” If you like your job, good luck getting to keep it.
I think the basis for this location (from the old days) was the freighters could deliver the iron ore from the Minnesota iron range right to the steelmaking plant on the lakefront. Cleveland was the same way.
You load 16 tons, whatta you get?
Can’t ore float down the Mississippi?
It’s US Steel. Of course the union is involved.
“The shadow of crisis has passed ... the state of the union is strong ... middle class economics works.”
Hussein Obama, 1/21/2015
I’m sure it can. These are what the biz guys refer to as “legacy” plants.
How viable is the Mississippi up there in Minnesota for heavy ore transport, and is there the infrastructure from the mines to the river to handle it? (I don’t know). Add to that, what hoops would an existing plant have to jump through to get approval from the EPA to build a new plant in the south, and let’s not forget all the moaning, groaning and outright crying of the unions for moving the jobs.
Easier and cheaper to shutter the plant.
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