CHARLEROI, Pennsylvania – A hundred-year-old glass factory is closing, leaving 300 people unemployed, and Dave McCormick, Republicans challenging Pennsylvania Senator Bob CaseyWants to save it.
“I'm here today to show solidarity with these workers in their fight to keep these jobs,” McCormick said Friday in an address to a crowd of workers, retirees and their families.
Anchor Hocking this month announced plans to close its Corelle brand factory, which makes iconic Pyrex glassware — and which has supported the local economy since 1892.
The plant survived the steel mill and coal mine closures of the 1980s that hollowed out the Mon Valley’s industrial communities.
Now its corporate owner is dismantling the equipment and moving to Ohio — but workers are aiming to stop it, and are mobilizing whatever help they can.
Danielle Byrne, vice president of United Steelworkers Local 53G, whose grandfather worked at the plant and who met her husband there, said the shutdown “will cripple more than 300 families and help destroy the pride of the Mon Valley.”
Byrne said he called several people to “help us save ourselves,” but got no response. “Dave McCormick was the first person to offer to come to Charleroi.”
McCormick recalled the struggles his friends' parents faced when the carpet factory closed in Bloomsburg, Pennsylvania, where he attended high school: “I know what happens when the base of a community shrinks or goes away.”
“I don't want this plant to leave Charleroi, and I don't want these workers to lose their jobs. I will continue to fight for them until victory is in my hands,” he declared.
The glass factory was the second stop on McCormick’s Price of Poor Leadership Tour, which gave the former hedge-fund executive a chance to highlight the concerns of Pennsylvania’s working class and take aim at Casey, who spent nearly 18 years in the Senate.
The strategy seems to be working – Three new polls show Casey's old lead is shrinkingIn one survey he is leading by just one point.
McCormick arrived on a huge campaign bus and shook hands with activists who gave him Pyrex products, including the ubiquitous glass measuring cup.
Dozens of activists had erected a wall behind them that read, “Continue making Pyrex in Charleroi,” and yellow signs from the McCormick campaign also appeared: “Bob will stay, PA will pay.”
“I don’t know how I’m going to raise my child in a town without industry,” Erin Guzik, whose boyfriend is a plant supervisor, told The Post.
The vet nurse is undecided about who she will vote for in the White House and Senate. She voted for the Green Party in 2016 and for President Biden in 2020.
But he added, “Now that Dave McCormick has come to us and is supporting us, they are more inclined toward him.”
Guzik said he called multiple Democratic offices, including Casey, Senator John Fetterman and Governor Josh Shapiro, but received no response.
“They're very supportive of the Mon Valley and keeping the industry in the valley, so I'm surprised they weren't here,” he said.
Though she welcomes Casey's support, she said, “I can't name a single thing he did that helped me.”
Casey sent it Letter Last week, Polygon reached out to Anchor Hocking CEO Mark Eichhorn to ask why the company decided to “transform the lives of Pennsylvania workers” and how it received regulatory approval to take control of the factory. Its private equity parent company’s request for approval was denied last year.
Casey's letter echoed the concerns of local union leader Byrne, who accused Anchor Hockings of “price fixing and manipulating the market” and called for an investigation by the Federal Trade Commission “to see if this was a fraudulent deal.”
Anchor Hocking did not respond to a request for comment.
McCormick told The Post that he supports an FTC investigation into Anchor Hocking's decision to close its shop here: “I want to know the reason for it, and the people here whose lives have been affected by this decision have a right to understand the reason for it, too.”
The workers certainly agreed.
“The FTC should have stopped that sale,” a machinist named Don Lutes shouted from the crowd. “Question the FTC!”
In his statement, McCormick repeatedly criticized Casey regarding the plant closings and problems plaguing the Keystone State.
“Rising inflation is putting pressure on every business,” he said. “We have too much regulation, and Bob Casey hasn't done anything about it.”
“Bob Casey has let you down every step of the way,” McCormick said. “He talks a lot about jobs in the manufacturing sector, but he has done nothing to make your jobs easier and keep the great opportunities in Charleroi.”
Casey campaign spokeswoman Kate Smart responded by calling McCormick “the poster boy for Wall Street greed” that put jobs like Anchor Hocking at risk.
Obama-Trump supporter Don Lutes shook McCormick’s hand and told the Post he appreciated her being “supportive” of the candidate.
“Anyone can write a letter,” he said, but “being present in person makes a huge difference.”
