Koppers Workers Confident Jobs Safe Under New Owner
By Chris Buckley, The Valley Independent, Monessen, Pa.
Aug. 5–MONESSEN — For most of the veteran workforce at the coke plant, Monday’s informal meeting with company officials was something they had seen before.
The current employer was announcing that the 67-year-old coke plant was being sold.
The difference this time was the workers left the plant at day’s end confident they will be punching timecards for years to come.
On Monday, Koppers Holdings Inc., of Pittsburgh, announced it was selling the coke plant to ArcelorMittal SA, of Luxembourg, for $160 million.
The sale price would be a marked increase over the $5 million Koppers paid Sharon Steel for the coke plant in 1995. Koppers has since spent $13 million on repairs and upgrades to the plant.
Koppers conducted an informal discussion with employees to tell them about the pending sale “so they would not read it in the newspaper first,” said Jack LaForte, president of United Steel Workers Local 3403.
The sale is expected to be completed in the next two to three months, said LaForte.
“We’ve heard a lot of good things about these people,” LaForte said of ArcelorMittal SA. “We’re at their discretion. If they sell us, that’s out of our hands. As long as they honor our contract.”
LaForte said the USW International has a good relationship with ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steel producer.
“We have to look out for the young guys,” LaForte said. “We have to make sure there’s a place for them to work, and I’m sure there will be. I’m sure these people will be good to work for.”
Workers were told the new company will honor the three-year labor agreement signed earlier this year. The 171 union employees also learned they would keep their jobs. One worker described the rank and file as “curious, excited.”
Ted Carlson, of Donora, who has worked at the coke plant for 12 years, said the workers felt some sense of relief upon learning details of the proposed sale.
“We’re at the same place we are now,” Carlson said. “Everybody’s pretty happy. We feel we have a future here.”
State Rep. R. Ted Harhai said he heard rumors a few months ago that the major steelmaker might be interested in the coke plant. He had not received any official notice of the sale.
“Hopefully they will enhance it,” the Monessen Democrat said. “The main thing is to secure the (existing) jobs.”
Monessen Mayor Anthony Petaccia, agreed, saying, “As long as we can maintain our jobs or even increase the number of jobs, and maintain our tax base, I think it’s good for the city.”
State Rep. Peter J. Daley, D-California, who chairs the House Commerce Committee, said he plans to discuss with Harhai whether grant money can be provided to help the company expand the Monessen facility.
“I hear the company is a strong company, is moving in the right direction,” Daley said. “I don’t think we have any time bombs to worry about, like the loss of that facility.”
ArcelorMittal annually buys all of the Monessen plant’s 320,000 metric tons of coke. The final product is produced by burning impurities from coal and is used in blast furnaces to make steel. The coke plant has two batteries housing 56 coke ovens.
The purchase is an important step towards increasing ArcelorMittal’s self-sufficiency in metallurgical coke production during a time when global demand remains strong, said Sudhir Maheshwari, a member of ArcelorMittal’s management board.
Koppers, on the other hand, is selling what it considers to be “a noncore business,” and the change of ownership will benefit all parties, including employees of the Monessen plant, Chief Executive Officer Walter W. Turner said in a statement.
Koppers does not own any other coke plants, and the by-products it gets from the production of metallurgical coke are very small, Snyder said. The Monessen plant generated $70 million in revenue in 2007, he said.
By selling the coke plant, Koppers can focus on growth in the aluminum and railroad markets, Turner said. The sale gives the company financial flexibility to pursue acquisition opportunities, refinancing, dividends and share repurchases, he added.
Dwight Henry, of Monessen, has worked at the coke plant since 1971. He said ArcelorMittal would be his fourth employer at the facility. In addition to Koppers, he has worked there for Wheeling-Pittsburgh Steel and Sharon Steel.
“It doesn’t make any difference who owns it, as long as I keep working, as long as I keep getting a paycheck,” Henry said.
Tribune-Review staff writer Joe Napsha contributed to this report.
Chris Buckley can be reached at cbuckley@tribweb.com or 724-684-2642.
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