CHARLEROI, Pa. – A century-old glass factory is closing, putting 300 people out of a job, and Dave McCormick, the Republican challenging Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey, wants to save it.
“I’m here today to stand in solidarity with these workers in the fight to keep these jobs here,” McCormick told a crowd of workers, retirees and their families Friday.
Anchor Hocking announced this month plans to shutter its Corelle Brand factory that makes iconic Pyrex glassware — and has supported the local economy since 1892.
The plant survived the steel-mill and coal-mine shutdowns that hollowed out Mon Valley’s industrial communities in the 1980s.
Now its corporate owner is dismantling equipment and moving to Ohio — but the workers are aiming to stop it, enlisting whatever help they can.
United Steelworkers Local 53G Vice President Daniele Byrne, whose grandfather worked in the factory and who met her husband there, said the shutdown “would cripple over 300 families and help destroy the pride of the Mon Valley.”
Byrne said she called many people to “help save us” but didn’t hear back. “Dave McCormick was the first person to offer to come to Charleroi.”
McCormick recalled the struggle of his friends’ parents after the carpet factory shut down in Bloomsburg, Pa., where he went to high school: “I know what happens when the anchor for a community shrinks or goes away.”
“I don’t want to see this plant leave Charleroi, and I don’t want to see these employees lose their jobs. I will keep fighting for them until a victory is at hand,” he declared.
The glass factory was the second stop on McCormick’s Price of Poor Leadership Tour, which has allowed the former hedge-fund executive to spotlight the concerns of working-class Pennsylvanians and take shots at Casey, who’s spent nearly 18 years in the Senate.
The strategy seems to be working — three new polls find Casey’s longtime lead narrowing, with one showing him ahead by just 1 point.
McCormick arrived in a massive campaign bus and shook hands with workers, who gave him Pyrex products, including the ubiquitous glass measuring cup.
Dozens of workers formed a wall of signs behind him that read, “KEEP MAKING PYREX IN CHARLEROI,” with yellow signs from the McCormick campaign peeking through: “BOB STAYS, PA PAYS.”
Erin Guzik, whose boyfriend is a plant supervisor, told The Post, “I don’t know how I’m going to raise my child in a town without industry.”
The veterinary nurse is undecided about who she’ll vote into the White House and Senate. She went for the Green Party in 2016 and President Biden in 2020.
But she’s “leaning more towards Dave McCormick now that he showed up and is supporting us,” she said.
Guzik said she called numerous Democratic offices, including those of Casey, Sen. John Fetterman and Gov. Josh Shapiro, and never heard back.
“They’re supporters of the Mon Valley and industry being kept in the valley, so I’m surprised they weren’t here,” she said.
Though she’d welcome Casey’s support, she said, “I can’t name one thing that he’s done that’s helped me.”
Casey sent a letter last week to Anchor Hocking CEO Mark Eichhorn and asked why the company has chosen to “upend the lives of Pennsylvania workers” and how it got the regulatory approval to take control of the factory. Its private-equity parent company’s request was denied last year.
Casey’s letter echoed the concerns of Byrne, the local union leader, who accused Anchor Hockings of “price fixing and manipulating the market” and demanded an investigation from the Federal Trade Commission to “see if that was a crooked deal.”
Anchor Hocking did not respond to a comment request.
McCormick the The Post he supports an FTC investigation into Anchor Hocking’s decision to close up shop here: “I’d like to see the reasoning of it, and the people here whose lives are affected by that decision have every right to understand the reasoning as well.”
Workers certainly agreed.
“The FTC should have stopped that sale,” Don Lutes, a machinist, yelled out from the crowd. “Go question the FTC!”
In his remarks, McCormick repeatedly ripped Casey on the plant closure — and on problems across the Keystone State.
“Sky-high inflation is putting pressure on every business,” he said. “We’ve had too much onerous regulation, and Bob Casey hasn’t done anything about it.”
“Bob Casey has failed you every step of the way,” McCormick added. “He talks a lot about manufacturing jobs, but he hasn’t done a thing to make your jobs easier and keep great opportunities here in Charleroi.”
Casey campaign spokeswoman Kate Smart responded by calling McCormick “the poster boy for the Wall Street greed that put jobs like those at Anchor Hocking at risk.”
Don Lutes, an Obama-Trump voter, shook McCormick’s hand and told The Post he appreciated the candidate being “supportive.”
“Anybody can write a letter,” he said. But “making personal appearances makes a world of difference.”
