Posted on 07/21/2013 10:32:39 PM PDT by grundle
A job for life. That's what they were promised.
It wasn't in a contract, but to the 20 men who gathered for Bud Lights and commiseration Wednesday night in Greene County, working at a power plant was the equivalent.
"This was the job everybody wanted," said Ray Christner Jr. of Brownsville. "We had it. And now it's gone."
Nine days had passed since FirstEnergy announced it will shut down two power plants: Hatfield's Ferry, Greene County, across the Monongahela River from Masontown, Fayette County, and Mitchell in Union Township, Washington County, by Oct. 9 -- leaving 380 people without work.
"First, we were shocked. Then we were upset. Now, we're just angry," said Gregg Jerome of Uniontown, an electrician at the plant.
The employees are mainly from Greene, Fayette and Washington counties. Many started at the plants soon after high school and some have stayed for more than 30 years. Others were transferred to Hatfield's Ferry and Mitchell when FirstEnergy closed six coal-fired power plants in Ohio, Maryland and Pennsylvania last year.
Those at Hatfield thought the plant would surely be safe from closure, as Allegheny Energy invested $650 million on scrubbers meant to eliminate sulfur and mercury emissions just four years ago.
If the workers lived somewhere else, losing a job in the power business might not be as stressful. But in Pennsylvania, where coal-fired power production has decreased 28 percent since 2005, there are few, if any, jobs that can replace what the workers at Hatfield's Ferry and Mitchell had: regular hours, salaries between $22 and $30 per hour, and good benefits, all without a college education.
"I understand the importance of regulations and clean air," said technician David Donaldson, 45. "But ask Obama this -- what good is green energy to me if I can't support my family?"
(Excerpt) Read more at post-gazette.com ...
who did they vote for or did they not even vote???? I’ll bet half or more voted obama and Democrats
I cannot see a Romney Administration being this cruel via the evil EPA. Half the EPA are stupid loafers and porn surfers just fire them.
imagine if electoral votes were awarded by county rather than popular vote.
win the majority of a states counties and you recieve that states electoral votes.
no more flyover country. no more big city clustering.
Or: each Congressional District gets one EV, and the majority of the State gets Two EV. Since EVs are actually enumerated that way, it's fairly easy to implement. It also makes holding the State legislature very important at redistricting time ...
perhaps we should put up signs near government dole offices:
You have no job.
You have to collect unemployment.
Thank a Democrat.
Outside Charleston, WV. I have seen several similar billboards in WV, PA, and KY.
state republicans better move on making electoral awards go by country rather than state wide.
wining a mojority of individual counties wills the electoral votes. none of this statewide flyover BS.
I doubt that would fly constitutionally... in fact I know it wouldn't. But you could award electoral votes by congressional district with the other two votes going the the state-wide popular vote winner. That way it is still majority rule, but it does not give an advantage to big city political machines with corrupted polling places.
In 2012, instead of Obama winning all 20 EV votes from PA, he would have only won 8 or 10 of them with the rest going to Romney.
WY, WV, and KY don't have anything approaching the size of the corrupt political machine that is Philadelphia. If they did, those states would have gone to Obama as well.
The Obama voters in Philly don't give a crap about people in SW Pennsylvania or what happens to them as a result of Obama's policies. They want their free stuff and they don't really give a damn if the rest of the state collapses.
Don't blame everyone in the state for the corruption in the big cities.
Good point. Look again at #56 and #57. Voting for demonicRATs appears to be strongly correlated with urbanization.
You don’t know how they voted either...if they belonged to a union their money went to elect democrats....I assume they did nothing when the same democrats were shoving it to the rest of us. The county might have voted for Romney but union members vote for democrats. And these a-holes are union members!!!What goes around comes around so they can get in the same line with lumberjacks, pipeline workers and a lot of other people whose lives were ruined by stupid ass democrats!
That’s where the Fayette Cong live.
“Electricity rates will necessarily skyrocket.” commander zero.
C’mon....these guys should stop complaining. They have a lucrative future in unemployment/food stamps/SSA/disability/AFDC/welfare/EITC/tuition grants....use ‘em all! Mix and match...It’s the now thing in 0bama’s USSA.
To some extent. But look at the maps again. There were more counties in Mississippi that voted for Obama than counties in Pennsylvania. They weren't 'Urban' counties.
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