By CHRISTINE HAINES
[email protected]
ArcelorMittal has submitted its official WARN Act notification to the state regarding layoffs at the coke plant in Monessen.
According to the notice submitted to the state, 92 employees will be laid off effective July 5. While the layoff is listed as temporary, the notice indicates that it could be for more than six months.
The Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act is a federal law which was passed in 1988. It requires most employers with 100 or more employees to give those employees a 60-day notice of mass layoffs or shutdowns. The Donner Avenue plant employs 179 people. The workers were told last week that the plant would be placed on hot idle. Additional layoffs are possible once the plant has been idled.
“We have made the difficult decision to hot idle our coke batteries at ArcelorMittal Monessen. At this time, we do not know the anticipated duration of the hot idle. We will maintain the plant during the hot idle period so that a restart is possible but we do not have a target date at this time,” William Steers, ArcelorMittal’s General Manager for Communications and Corporate Responsibility, said last week.
The coke produced at the plant is used to make steel and with the current reduction of automotive sales and production, as well as a slow down in the manufacture of other durable goods, there is a reduced need for the coke, Steers said.
“ArcelorMittal’s Monessen’s steel producing customers and their customers have been impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak and the collective national response required to contain it. Therefore, we also must adapt our production and cost structures to match our customers demand in these challenging market conditions,”Steers said.
The layoffs will affect both salaried and hourly employees at the Monessen plant.
According to the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry, ArcelorMittal on April 26 laid off four employees at its Steelton facility and 13 at its Conshohocken plate facility. In both cases the company did so under the WARN Act and reported to the state that the layoffs were temporary, due to COVID-19. No recall date was given.